Love Thy Neigh-Purr

This is from Hanna (click the image to go to her site for the large, readable one):

I love this story, and cats' tendency to develop attachments to creatures of other kinds. I have a few more of these, and they will make a nice post all together, one day. But not today.

What I especially like about this story is this:

Tigger is a nasty old cat, who will bite and hiss and scratch, but he just melts around Annie . . .

This week's Carnival of Cats; Carnival of Dogs; Friday Ark.

I spent most of my professional life teaching assertiveness to women, and working in, developing, or managing, offender treatment programs. All focused on personal responsibility, accountability -- changing language from I can't to I won't or I choose not to or just No; from it happened to I did it. 

Now I must learn how different it feels to say (mostly to myself) I choose not to because I will find the consequent pain and fatigue too much to bear, no matter the pleasure or satisfaction I might gain from doing this thing than I choose not to because I don't want to incur the anger of X, or I don't want to, or . . . 

Or, sometimes, I can't.  I cannot do it.  I am unable to do it.

So.  Not today.