Cat's Stress is My Distress

I didn't make a post yesterday because I was tired and just rather have listened to music, talked to my best friend and read over posting something. So today I might post twice to make up for it.

Right now I'll post on something semi-gross, but something which people may, or may not, know. I own a black cat. Cliche for a witch, but I got my cat before I started calling myself a witch. We wanted a calico, but they didn't have any and my cat was perfect when I saw her. She was pushing her brother's head down into the littler box playing with him and then he jumped on her. They were having fun together. (We should have gotten two cats because now she's mean and fat.)

But lately we've been remodeling the house and because of that it's been rather messy. Neither my mom, nor myself have had much inclination to clean normally(I mean it's not nasty, just stuff everywhere like in a normal remodeling) and once this one room is done everything will pretty much go back to normal because we'll finally have room to move around.

In it all my cat has found new hiding places,stuff to smell, things to play with that she shouldn't and she's already claimed a new chair as her own. Typical cat stuff.

But in it my cat has been throwing up nearly everyday it seems. It's not everyday, just every few days, and it's never a lot, just a bit, plus the normal hair balls. I woke up this morning to her puking. I finally had enough and wondered if it was time to take her to the vet and read that she's probably just stressed.

Now I figured the other day that's probably what it was. She's not had to live in this sort of chaos ever. She normally throws up hairballs every few months, and when she has to go on car trips because she get motion sickness. She went to the vet a few months ago, was pronounced healthy and is an indoor only cat(unless we take her outside for a few minutes because even indoor cats need fresh air.) so it's not some disease.

My cat is stressed. I look at her and I know that's what it is. Her eyes tell me so. She sleeps a lot, doesn't play a bunch(not like she ever did in her adult life) and she generally looks depressed.

My poor cat is depressed because we're trying to make the house look better, and she likes the results, different smells, different things to climb, different places to hide.

So hopefully we'll be done this week with that room and hopefully she'll stop throwing up so much. I mean there's no place we can put her, or have her stay, so she's stuck in the mess.

So what does this have to do with paganism? Since that's the goal of this blog. Well my kitty joins me in ritual all the time. I can close the door, but she insists on coming in and then sitting! on my altar during it. She's become my physical familiar and she's also my best animal friend. I love her to death. I've learned to read her the same as she reads me. She knows when I'm down and out. She knows when I don't feel good and she'll come and sit with me and purr. You cannot be upset when a cat purrs and looks at you with those eyes. Her job in the house is known as the "feel better kitty." She earns her keep by making you feel better, playing with you, keeping the mouse under the stove(we're not infested, but we have field mice who try to come in because of the winter. Having a gas stove leaves space for them to come in to try and warm themselves. They leave in the spring or when it warms up in the winter.) and she eats the flies that come in. She's a good cat. She's a good companion.

Therefore her being stressed is my distress. I want to do all of this quickly and well. I want to stop her throwing up. She makes me feel better and it's time I made her feel better. Cleaning up is what I'll have to do.

PS. When she went up with us last year for Christmas my mom brought her in to look at my cousin who doesn't like cats and doesn't like her too much. She said my cat looks like a witch's cat. I laughed to myself because she is a witch's cat. Mine.