Unconditional Feline Love: Part 2

Let’s continue this “unconditional feline love” theme I started last week, shall we?

I’m not actually asking you.

It’s my damn blog, I’ll post what I want.

Originally written on my not well loved anymore blogger blog on, of all things, Valentine’s Day in 2016.

I must have been disappointed by my then girlfriend, which, hindsight has been telling me, was quite often and further back in time than I originally thought.

Why did I put up with that?

Anyway, on to the post. Enjoy!

I want to talk about what’s on my minds today.

Love.

What does love mean? What is love? Now that awful song is in my head…..

Will we ever really know what love is? What love means? Is it being there for each other? Is it a feeling the person you spend the rest of your life gives you? Is it sex? They do call it making love after all. Is it a connection? Is it accepting someone unconditionally for life?

Who knows. We all define love differently, don’t we?

When did you know you were in love for the first time?

Was it at first sight? Was it when you met your significant other?

Not for me.

No, it wasn’t my first girlfriend. I thought it was, I was convinced it was, but hindsight is a beautiful thing.

When did I first experience love?

That’s easy. When I adopted Tyler.

Yup, a cat showed me the true meaning of love for the first time in my life.

I knew it on the very first day I brought him home from the shelter. Seeing my new cat, happy as a clam, curled up on a comfortable chair, sleeping, purring as loud as can be.

I knew love for the first time. I felt love.

I knew love for the first time when he touched my arm with his paw, when he gave me his first of a lifetime of head-butts. When he would curl up with me at night, when he would keep me company at the highest of my highs and the lowest of my lows. I knew love.

True love.

I have said this before, but there truly is no love in this world like the love that exists with a cat. My fellow cat lovers know what I mean. I had that with Tyler. No being on this planet loved me like he did, and no being on this planet GOT ME like he did. For the rest of my days, the greatest connection I will ever have had with any other living thing on this earth was the connection I had with Tyler.

Simply put, Tyler taught me how to love. How to accept someone, faults and all. How to let someone into my heart, into my soul. Tyler taught me that sometimes, saying “I love you” isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to show it, even in the smallest possible gesture. Tyler taught me what love means. That love means something mere words cannot explain.

Tyler taught me that love just IS.

I never stopped telling Tyler that I loved him for simply making my life worth living, and he never stopped showing me that he loved me. As much as I gave Tyler a loving home for his entire life, as much as I gave him nothing but love, he gave me so much more.

He gave me love.

What’s the point behind my rambling? Find your cat, find your dog, find whatever pet you have in your home right now. Tell them you love them. Kiss them on the head, scratch their ears, and make sure they know how much you love them and appreciate them.

Every day for me now begins with a hug from Sophie, Tyler’s successor in every possible way. She’s a big hugger. Standing on her hind legs, she reaches up and hugs to start the day. She will know nothing but love for the rest of her life.

So, tell your pet you love them.

Trust me, they’ll know what you mean.