Getting to know you

I have a new friend. I adopted her a few weeks' ago. Her face jumped out when I looked, for the first time, at the charity's 'rehoming' pages over the Bank Holiday weekend.

It was, I think, love at first sight. For me, at least.

I had travelled the 30 mile journey with more than a little ambivalence. Was now the right time for me to be assuming another commitment?

Sometimes, things happen. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

Thing is, relationships don't just turn up when you're looking for them. Sometimes, cats come into your life when you least expect them to. She is not what I had in mind, but then some of the most rewarding connections I've made to date have been with individuals I couldn't have foreseen having much in common with.

I vacillated over the decision, weighing it up and canvassing opinion from trusted friends (most of whom were, as they would freely confess, unduly biased).

A week later, I travelled down to the shelter (for the third time), pet carrier at hand. She was coming home with me to her new 'forever home'.

I needn't have worried. Miss Z is more than a little independent. But this certainly is a significant relationship and, as such, deserving of mention.

We have been getting to know one another...

We felt our way through the first few days. We were, I think, both a little tentative as she arrived. We negotiated the space. She quickly found her feet, and I soon found mine.

First impressions are important in any relationship, and this was no exception. I have been on my best behaviour. We have been learning each other's habits and preferences.

I so wanted to get it right... I wanted her to feel 'at home'. I made a few feline friendly adjustments around the environment, which seem to have gone down well. Relationships involve compromise, after all.

Communication remains something of a challenge. She did not take long to find her voice. I am still deciphering the particular dialect, whilst seeking improve my pronunciation. We are developing something of a language and continue to learn from one another's non verbal cues. I am interpreting the headbutt as friendly.

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

Comments

Table. Apple. Penny.

Whilst there were several places I might have been that morning, I wouldn't have been anywhere else. The practitioner from the Memory Service arrived promptly. I liked her instantly. Mum was nervous. I think I was a little, too. It's been a difficult year. "It's Friday, it's the fourteenth of December and I'm at home..." No problems there. CAMCOG, or the Cambridge Cognitive Examination is a thorough assessment tool used to assess the extent of extent of dementia, and to assess the level of cognitive impairment. The standardised measure assesses orientation, language, memory, praxis, attention, abstract thinking, perception and calculation. "Table. Apple. Penny." Three everyday items that were introduced at one point, and then referred to again later on. Again, Mum was able to recall each. I am reminded that the...

Glass half full? Glass half empty? Or perhaps the glass is broken

I am, constitutionally, a glass half empty gal. I will always first acknowledge what I don't have, what I have lost, and what it is that I am seeking. I tend to overlook my strengths, concentrating only on those bits of me that are underdeveloped or weak. I refer to myself as a realist, but in doing so compliment myself and insult those who genuinely are simply realistic. My modus operandi is to identify what's not working and acknowledge this before seeing more clearly what functions perfectly well. This has its place: I edit others' written work pretty well. My fastidious attention to detail serves me, and the author. Accuracy counts, for me and I have an excellent memory. I can remember a great many of my sessions with clients verbatim. Even this asset is something I can, and do, diminish the true value of, by concentrating on 'I should have said...' or 'why didn't.... occur to me during the session?' Earlier this we...

Joan Miro: Emotional Art

"Painting and poetry are like love; an exchange of blood, a passionate embrace, without restraint, without defence. The picture is born of an overflow of emotions and feelings." Miro, The Farm 'La Masia' (1921-22) I learnt a great deal about Miro on a recent visit to the Tate. I learnt a great deal about a lot more too. Miro wanted to discover the sources of human feeling. He described his method of creating poetry by way of painting, using a vocabulary of signs and symbols, metaphors and dream images to express definite themes he believed to be fundamental to human existence. The exhibition displays his sense of humor and lively wit. His chief concern was a social one; he wanted to get close to the great masses of humanity, and he was convinced that art can only truly appeal when it resonates with roots of lived experience. "Wherever you are, you find the sun, a blade of grass, the spirals of the dragonfly. Courage cons...

The Reward is the Journey

Search This Blog