Of Cats and Tides
Right now I am helping raise two kittens (nearly proper cats at this point). That's right, in March, Aloy got a sister - Ysabeau. She is indeed The Little General and though she is so tiny compared to the absolute unit Aloy has grown into, she runs the place and set the entire pace of her integration with Aloy and the house as a whole.
Aloy has so so much energy and expresses every emotion - good, bad, inquisitive - by turning into a murder pinball. It has been very good for him to have another cat around to not only interact with but teach him that every expression doesn't need to come with teeth and claw. He's not aggressive or violent, he's incredibly excitable while also being very very pointy. But as he gets older, and with Ysabeau's help, he is getting better at regulating himself. He still goes a little Lenny-from-Of-Mice-and-Men sometimes but "COME HERE AND LET ME LOVE YOU TINY SISTER" is better than "I HAVE SO MUCH ENERGY I'M GOING TO CHEW ON YOUR HANDS OR THIS EXTENSION CORD UNTIL YOU GIVE ME MORE EXCITING STIMULI".
Of course, because of the above mentioned cord-chewing we are still not quite ready to let them have the run of the house while we sleep. But they are also both getting too big and nocturnal to be cool with being cooped up in our bedroom all night.
There's "cat-proofing" and then "Aloy-proofing" which is really like the difference between RV camping and those mountain climbers who sleep hanging from ropes dangling off sheer cliff-sides. But it's a good excuse to give the whole house a refresh and reimagining.
This tweaking and redesigning how we use some of the spaces in our house, coupled with work on the yard, long put off, has meant there are many Projects piling up that I am making an earnest desire to chip away at.
But it also means I am yearning to settle into actually living the life we are working so hard to build and tend to. It's felt like since getting Aloy last fall so much has been in motion, large waves of change crashing rhythmically on my rocks. The waves are frightening but generally leave behind wonderful new treasures - like kittens and bookshelves - strewn across the beach.
But the bookshelves need assembling and oh God what are the cats into now, and so I am ready for the tide to go out for a while, and for the winds to calm so I can just sit on the shore with my notebook and stare at the ships on horizon.