I have two beautiful kittens that teach me brilliant lessons every day. They are 8 months old so they are the size of adult cats but still very much kittens. One of them loves to eat things-- particularly jersey knit and lace things. We have already been to the vet once because he ate the top inch of a sock-- all the way around. If you look up cats eating things online you will find all kinds of hyper freaky warnings- take your cat to the vet immediately! They will become obstructed! Their intestines might even get diced up! And if you call the vet they will tell you to "come in immediately! Your cat may need surgery!" And if you tell them that your cat ate a sock they will say "did you say you have a dog"?
So I took Sunny to the vet-- scary because I am barely making it paycheck to paycheck and vet visits add up quick. Also scary because I love this little guy so much. It was on a Sunday night-- can you say $$$$? I made a couple of calls to level headed people. My cat threw up twice--which made me decide that we need to go. Well, luckily after a few calls I found a reasonable vet that wasn't too far away that was recommended by my own vet who couldn't see us because "they didn't have time for surgery". I did a lot of breathing and praying and we listened to some music on my phone while we waited. The good news is that both my kittens love to go to the vet so this was not stressful for him. The vet that our little string of miracles took us to was totally like-- "I don't feel anything in his gut. We can do some x-rays to double-check." Thanks to some $ help from my mom and dad we did some x-rays. Nothing there. The vet told me the worst possible thing that could happen-- just so that we were clear. But basically it was "take him home and keep an eye on him". Well, he was fine.
Until the day after Christmas. When I got home from 3-day visit with my parents my kittens were elated. Sunny so much that he decided to eat a 3 inch hole in my sheets. That's alot of fabric. Then as we were sitting on the couch I turned around to discover that he had stealthily and quickly eaten a one inch chunk of my jersey knit shirt. Panic time! Or is it? I talked with a couple of friends. And then I decided to wait it out and see what happened. My gut said-- this is not a problem. Cats eat all kinds of things. My friend's dog chugged down some broken pyrex once. Maybe we don't have to get into a tizzy. But then the fear-based question arises "But what if I am wrong?" Well, sometimes we are and sometimes we're not. I decided to trust my gut. And guess what? He was fine!
Kitties eat stuff and most of the time that's okay. This applies to so much of life. I can't prevent everything. Not everything that looks like a problem or crisis is one. And most of the time things really don't need me to work themselves out. In fact, sometimes my interventions can make things worse. And times I waste my precious resources on things that I didn't need to because I bought into the fear rather than the knowing.
So there you have it! And here's a pic of Toast-- she was a great help the day that the A/C was leaking from the ceiling:)
