When God gives you a kitten

I haven't been myself lately. Call it depression. Call it a funk. Whatever the hell it's been, I don't like it very much. It sucks. The world kind of sucks. Random crying. Not being able to sleep. Not being able to write. Not being able to eat (and yet that hasn't sped up the removal of body squish). I've spent way too much time thinking about situations I can't control. I've had too many discussions with God lately that have involved cuss words. Have I mentioned it has sucked?

Then the other night, my husband and I heard a tiny little cry from inside the boat next to our house, and we found this tiny kitten.

First, we're not cat people. I prefer dogs, which explains our fur-baby Assie the awesome pibble. It was clear that this little kitty had been abandoned by his mom. He (we haven't decided the kitty's gender for sure, but I'm now thinking we have a boy) is likely only about 4 weeks. He still needs lots of milk and walks on little wobbly legs.

But something inside my head kind of clicked. We couldn't leave him out there all alone. We went out there to check on him. He was so scared that it took a while to get him to come out to us. One look at the tons of free kittens on our town's pet page, told us how unlikely it would be to find him a nice, safe home.

We named him Riot.

He knows how to re-purpose t-shirt scraps. He likes to use them as blankets.

He likes to play with t-shirt scraps too.

He likes to watch me write.

He likes to help me write.

He falls asleep watching South Park.

He likes to cuddle.

He's really playful.

I still don't like cats all that much, but this one is kind of cute. There is something about seeing another living creature be so helpless that can snap you out of any strange head space. Putting energy into something I can't control is useless, but I can control helping a little kitten. I can do something in that situation. Adopting one little kitten isn't going to change how much the world might suck.

But Riot doesn't think the world sucks.

That makes me feel better.