My wife has been thinking about fostering kittens. I tell her we already have a cat and a dog, but for some reasons she can’t get kittens off her mind. There apparently is a kitten shortage during this pandemic crisis, so kittens (and puppies) must be on the minds of other people too. I’m glad there is a kitten & puppy shortage instead of a kitten & puppy surplus.
I love our dog and cat and the cuddly moments we spend together. I feel cuddly moments have become even more important during this period of social distancing. The good thing about dogs is that they’ll usually cuddle whenever you want to cuddle, especially if they have some Labrador Retriever in them. You never have to worry about a Lab not being in a cuddly mood. If anything, you might have to worry about a Lab wanting to cuddle too much.
The good thing about having young kids is that they’re usually as cuddly as most Labs. I used to love watching TV with our kids on my lap. It’s didn’t matter what we were watching. It was the togetherness that made things feel special. Of course when it comes to togetherness, more isn’t always better. We all have different preferences for togetherness just as we have difference preferences for temperature. That’s what makes relationships between humans trickier than relationships between humans and dogs.
It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need to have a partner to feel cuddly inside. You can experience a cuddly moment with a sunset, memory, feeling, or even a duck. I recently experienced a number of cuddly moments with a duck that had built a nest in our neighborhood. I would visit it everyday and admire its maternal dedication. Then one day I went to the nest and she was gone—just her eggs remained.
I felt so heartbroken, maybe the most heartbroken I have felt throughout this pandemic crisis. How could this be? How could I hear about so many deaths and so many struggles and yet an abandoned duck nest is what gets to me? I have always been touched by goodbyes. I kid my older son that I am still working through his breakup with his high school girlfriend. Not all of our sadness makes sense, and yet we don’t necessarily need to make sense of it. Sometimes we just need to let it visit us until it decides to pack up its bags and head on its way.
