In my last post I blogged about my struggle with openness vs. privacy and made some personal goals to be more open and share more. Then two months passed without a post. You're probably wondering what happened. Well, this happened: 
That's right, I adopted a kitten. His name is Harlequin, and he takes up a lot of my time. I didn't think a cat would be as time intensive as he's been. I mean, a dog, sure, but everyone knows cats are independent and require very little from their humans. Not true. At least at the kitten phase, they need a lot of attention, a lot of monitoring and a lot of discipline. Oy.
But it's been worth it. Harlequin makes my days more interesting, more fun, more exciting. Watching him explore and learn about the world has been eye-opening to me about things adults take for granted. Watching him adjust to schedules and routines and come, not only to understand them, but to expect them, has been fascinating. Just watching him, period, brings me joy in a way that's hard to explain.
In some ways my experiences with this kitten are a lot like what I would expect to experience as a new parent. In fact a lot of people have commented on my behavior with him as indicators of what I might be like as a parent. But at the same time, I know nothing can compare to parenthood, and I certainly wouldn't want to downplay the amount of work and stress and joy that a new child can bring. Still, the thought persists that there's a lot of similarities between raising a kitten and raising a human, and I'm treating this as a realistic preview of what the latter might be like.
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