What My Cat Taught Me About Being Wild

Mischievous as he is, my BFF (best feline friend), Noel, taught me more about his wild world in the past six months than I could have ever learned from books or the internet. Ever since I found him on my grandma's front porch on a cold, lonely Christmas night, this creature spirit has shown me a world that often seems more akin to our own true wild nature. He gave affection when affection was missing. Even with his quirky, contradictory behaviors, this otherwise free-roaming tiger teaches me something new everyday. He keeps me up some nights by jumping on and off my bed, but in the mornings will always come to up to my face and cuddle. He runs around chasing toys like a thunder bolt, and minutes later crawls up into my lap and sleeps like a peaceful little baby. He willfully jumps onto the kitchen counter, but when I come home he rolls around on the ground to show me how much he missed me. However, having never owned a cat before, little did I realize these behaviors were small human lessons in disguise.  In fact, humans have a lot to learn from their own loving pets.

Here is what my cat taught me about being wild and getting back to our natural, wild selves:

• You will always have love and affection as long as you give some back!
• Every creature has his moments of sadness, restlessness, joy, ecstasy, frustration. Just be in the moment, because this moment shall pass too.
• Play time is important- stimulation of the mind and body makes for a healthy spirit.
• There is nothing wrong with napping! In fact, do it more often, and see how much better you feel...
• Stretch! Linger in your own body, be present, feel every inch, every muscle.
• Pick a window seat once in a while, and just watch the world go by...
• Sometimes it is good to crawl into a box or a hidden space, you can see the world from a whole different perspective that way. 
• When you can't scratch in certain hard-to-reach spots, get somebody else to scratch you!
• Eat cheese, it promotes stronger bones :)