Hi! My name is Little Melon and I am very special. I have girl + boy parts, eyelid agenesis, and a partially formed kidney. I love to play with feathers!
Today I am sharing lessons from my hermaphrodite kitten.
Little Melon (kitten’s name) is cute, no?
Little Melon has peed 4x this week outside her (I let her ovary be the organ of gender determination for pronoun usage) litter box.
My husband, Greg, and I brought Little Melon home with us in August 2013.
We went to the pet store to buy our other cat, Ember, some grass.
The little kitten was abandoned at only 10 weeks old, completely emaciated, had mites, with something clearly wrong with her eyes.
We brought her home to foster and are keeping her.
Little Melon was part of my 2013 inquiry in kindness (more on that in another blog).
Little Melon has been spayed (right ovary removed with no uterus) and neutered (left testicle removed).
This week Little Melon dropped a right testicle. She/he is very special indeed.
Little Melon is teaching me new lessons in love.
Little Melon is the only extravert in the house.
I do well with change for the most part, but not so much with change that encroaches in my day-to-day living space.
AND I love and crave quiet.
Living with Little Melon has added ~50% more stress in the house for me.
She doesn’t sleep through the night and she cries a lot (our other cat has damaged vocal cords and doesn’t vocalize much).
I have to organize client Skype and phone calls around her.
Little Melon adds financial strain due to her special needs.
I’m Ember. I used to be an only child.
Because Ember has special needs too, their feedings and bed routine have to be supervised.
Little Melon has always peed in the bed so she is not allowed to sleep with us.
But this week, she started peeing outside the litter box <sigh>.
I think about ‘what to do’ with Melon every day since we brought her home.
I love her and allow her to show me my edges that need softening.
Yesterday, our vet made a house visit. I was not at home but Greg reported that Little Melon was terrified of the vet and her assistant.
Poor Little Melon is traumatized from her early experiences.
Experiencing and witnessing that she loves and trusts us is a lesson in compassion.
As we sort through how to best help Melon and give her a good life, I constantly am challenged to open up my heart a little bit more.
This is what mindfulness is all about.
To live in a space that everything is temporary…
To operate from a place of consistent caring instead of neglect or frustration…
To make the best choices with the information that is right in front of me instead of catastrophizing what may happen…
Little Melon – you are very special indeed.
Stop Looking Outside and Look Within,
Angela
