The title of the post is from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It resonates with me these days, mostly because of the COVID pandemic and my choice to limit my contact with the outside world.
Combine that with the dark early morning hours when I am alone because of my DSPD, along with the upheaval in this house as my daughter and grandson focus on training their new dog while trying to accommodate the existing prissy cat, who wants none of it. She doesn’t like me, this cat. Never has, and nothing I try to do changes her mind.
I miss the touch of a living creature. My own old cat died about 8 years ago. It wasn’t a great life for her here; she was confined to my two rooms because she attacked the two other cats that lived in this house at the time, and she refused to develop even a tolerance of them. And they were here first.
I live in a house, but it’s not my house. There is a cat who lives in this house, but she is not my cat. There is a new dog who lives in this house, but he’s not my dog.
I am grateful that my daughter and family welcomed me to live with them as I advance in age. It was my best alternative.
But I miss the soft purring on my shoulder, the silky fur brushing my forehead, the rough tongue licking my cheek.
I miss not being alone.
Maybe time to get a new critter. I know that’s easy to say, but a year without Nutmeg, during the Pandemic, forced us to reconsider “never again”! You don’t have to be alone alone….
I do like being alone, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult.