A Matter of Trust

As promised, this post revolves primarily around my kitten Amelia.

She’s a bit of a daredevil and I’ve not figured out yet if it’s because she doesn’t know any better, lacks a sense of self-preservation or if she just truly trusts that I won’t let anything bad happen to her.

While vaccuuming yesterday, Rebecca, the adult cat, made herself scarce as she always does. Amelia, however, thinks the vacuum and the process of cleaning is a game and she loves to play. A couple of times I came very close to running her over or hitting her with the hose. When I immediately stopped and checked to see if she was okay she simply blinked at me with those big eyes of hers like she wondered why I’d paused.

Working out brings up the same trust issues. I do Pilates and lift free weights most mornings. Very often I come very close to rolling over or kicking or hitting Amelia because she likes to lay right next to me while I work out. Or, as was the case this morning, she thinks the 8-pound dumbbells are toys for her amusement and she tries to catch it in the middle of my rep.

As I said, I don’t know if her trust in me is just so absolute that she knows I’d never allow anything to happen to her or if she really doesn’t realize the danger she places herself in during these mundane activities. Either way, it’s given me a reason to be more in control while working out and aware while performing other duties. Even if she does lack basic danger-avoidance skills, it’s my job to keep her safe. She can trust me on that.

Miss Me?

It’s been an awful long time since I shared anything from the World According to Joy and it’s high-time I got back into the habit, eh?

To catch you up on a couple of things of pertinence, I adopted a kitten back in October. I named her Amelia — though I often refer to her simply as "The Beast" — and, after a suitable adjustment period, she and Rebecca get along just fine. I warn you about the kitten because, frankly, a lot of posts will end up being about her because I’m a little bit obsessed. Some say it’s because I’ll make a good parent some day. I think it’s because she’s so gosh darn CUTE!

Which actually brings me to the topic of this WATJ post.

Everyone who has met Amelia has become immediately enchanted by her. This pleases me, of course, because who wants to be the owner of a pet no one likes? But it does raise an interesting question.

Is Amelia really that engaging in her own right or is everyone enthralled simply because she is a kitten?

As kittens go, I won’t lie, she is adorable. She is affectionate and has so far made it a point to cuddle with every human she’s come in contact with. She is entertaining and will bat at and play with almost anything — but not so much so that she’s annoyingly (or painfully) swatting at fingers and bare toes.

I guess we’ll just watch and see as she grows older if Amelia will have the same ability to enthrall everyone she meets as she does now.