Our new kitty, Cooper, has been a God-send to Terri and I. I’m not trying to be mean to our other cats at home it’s just that Cooper has a youthful exuberance we haven’t had in our household for quite some time.

 

Our senior cats have lost their zest for adventure, lost their curiosity and lost their energy. They just lay around and eat. That’s it. No playing with cat toys, no chasing each other and no enthusiasm.

 

Cooper, who doctors say is around a year old, has lots of energy, yet is not hyper or too busy for comfort. Cooper plays with the thousands (slightly overstated) cat toys the other cats ignore and he spends hours searching the rooms in the house in curious discovery. Yet there are also times he yearns for human contact and will paw at our legs or curl up in our laps.

 

Because we rescued him from the outdoors, Cooper likes to spend time in front of a window — I’m sure reminiscing over his exploits in the woods outside our home. Though he admires the world through the paned glass, we are sure he is happy to be in a safe, warm loving home.

 

Our integration of Cooper to our more seasoned cats has been a challenge for sure, but each day, each week that passes it gets a little better. I don’t know if it’s because the other cats have grown tired of fighting with him or because Cooper’s inquisitive nature has waned. Either way, our home is getting closer to bliss every day that goes by.

 

Cooper craves for a friend in one of our other cats. Because of his youthful fervor, the other cats see Cooper as being too aggressive and quickly try to ditch the scene before the young feline starts chasing. Cooper can’t understand why the other cats don’t want to have anything to do with him (at this time), but he needs to learn to take things slowly — instead of swarming all over them. He has love, he just hasn’t figured out a way to share it in a gentle way.

 

Cooper’s situation is akin to our own lives. When we are young, we have a boundless eagerness for life and crave to find someone to love us, to share it with. Sometimes we think we can “make” others love us and sometimes we even chase that love — only to come out of it with rejection — and some scratches and bites. In our youth, our eyes are wide open to receive the wonders of the world. We eat it all up. As we age, we are more learned of the world, content with the simple things and sometimes close-minded.

 

Ask Abby, Baxter or Daisy and if they could talk they would say, “Cooper, you can stay,  but stay in your own little world.” 

 

Ask Cooper and he might say, “I’ll stay, just be my friend.”

 

It’s life’s epitaph.