I guess so. It only took a month after our Dude passed, and I could no longer stand being sad and needing a new place for all that pet love in my heart.
What I meant by being selfish is that I know there are so, so, SO many cats out there needing a home. But it’s also been increasingly harder to find someone to take care of our house (and cat) when we are gone for two months, so… that, combined with the desire of climbing out of yet another debt hole by renting it out on weekends and next summer, it’s just not in the cards right now.
I’m sort of OK with that. I want to be able to fully appreciate our new household member, and not be comparing him to my beloved monkeyboy.
Go easy on yourself. It’s hard to catch minute shifts, even when you think you’re looking for them. You’re not in denial (trust me, I’ve seen denial: when you look it up in the dictionary, there’s a picture of my mother), you’re just too close to notice slight changes. Now you have more of a 30,000 foot view and can be more objective.
Please don’t. People will often compensate for their own cognitive difficulties without realizing it themselves. And they’ll do so until things are beyond their ability to cover for themselves. I have been told this by doctors under a few different, unfortunate circumstances. Rest assured, there is no blame for you to take.
