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Finding Our Place And Becomeing A Feline Natrualist
Introduction
Hello Everyone, If your reading this you are probably wondering how I came to be a naturalistic pet parent living in a tiny home. You are most likely also looking at the photo above and wondering if I am camping with my cat. Well stop your wondering, and asking yourself five million questions you can’t answer about me and my cat because I am about to tell you about us.
I am 24 (at least well I am writing this anyway) and a pet parent like I am sure most of you are. I have three beautiful cats, Cynder (shown above), Trouble and Minx. They are my children for all intensive purposes. I live in a beautiful 400sq foot home, with my cats and my partner. I don’t want for much nor do I own a whole lot. After several years of moving, learning about myself, and suffering from anxiety and depression I have finally
found my home.
How did I Come To Live In My Tiny House?
I spent 3 years old my life moving around from place to place with my cat Cynder. I lived in small apartments, unfinished basements, trailers and hotels when I was engaged. I never had stable home in those years, nor did I work.
Throughout that time I suffered with depression, and anxiety on a regular basis. However Cynder was there by my side every step of the way. She helped to keep me calm, and helped me keep moving forward when I thought about giving up. After three years of suffering the engagement was broken off.
Unable to pay for my own apartment, or rent a hotel room I moved to the best place I could think of. My parents hobby farm. The farm was not operational at the time and the old farm house was not livable. However I had a tent just big enough for a queen size air mattress and a litter box. Lucky for me it was summer time and I had Cynder.
You are most likely wondering how I could keep my cat and how I could live in a tent with no WiFi, no phone, and no running water. Yes I was homeless for a time in the eyes of the world but for me. What I had was far from being homeless. It might not have been a home like most would think of one, but to me it was. I had shelter, food, and companionship. I had Cynder.
Its during that time when I lost the rest of my self but also when I found myself. I thought less about the things I owned (It was all in storage anyway), and focused more on what I had in front of me, and the world around me. I don’t mean what was happening on the other side of the world, or even what was happening back in town.
What I mean when I say “the world around me” was the trees and plants that surrounded me. The birds that would grace me with their sweet song, my darling Cynder who has been through so much with me, and my loving family.
We were not on the farm alone for long though. Soon my parents, sister, and new nephew all moved back to the farm. It was great having my family around again. I was happy and enjoyed being with them. I found a job for the first time since college. My life was starting to look up. I got a little closer to my family with each day. slowly I started to care more about spending time with family then being alone. My desire to acquire possessions of any form slipped away.
However I was missing something. I was missing having a connection, sleeping beside someone, and feeling safe. My family never hurt me, they cherished me and looked after me. No one ever truly hurt me physically but still all the same I never did quite feel safe. I was always aware of possible danger and because of that every noise at night woke me up. I would always sleep curled up with Cynder under my arm ready to protect her if need be.
I don’t know if my mom caught onto the fact I was lonely or not. It didn’t take long though for her to push me to start dating again. Sometimes it almost felt like my mom was trying to get rid of me but I knew she loved me. She was right though, I was starting to think about it. Well my engagement didn’t end well I never cried after I had decided to leave, so that was a sign to me that it was probably over long before I had actually left.
Being my mother’s little girl, and wanting to please her I took her up on her suggestion to date again. It wasn’t long till I joined the online dating world to meet someone. I had no interest in dating any of the locals. I made sure though to be as honest and open as possible on line in my profile.
I wanted to ensure whoever was interested in me knew what they were getting. I don’t like to beat around the bush when I can avoid it. I also had two very important stipulations that scared a lot of people. Number one: You had to meet my parents. It didn’t bother me if my parents approved of who I was with or not. It was the fact I don’t drive and lived on their property so meeting them was sort of unavoidable.
My second, and most important stipulation was that Cynder liked them. My past relationships effected both me and Cynder. She got put in a lot of bad and unhealthy situations. She is extremely important to me, and I didn’t want to see her hurt again. Her needs come before my own, and they always will. I talked to many people. How ever I friend zoned just about all of them. I meet one person and after our date that was it. I didn’t like him as much as I thought, and I had a feeling Cynder wouldn’t like him either.
I was planning on giving up for a while when someone caught my attention. I didn’t know what it was but something about him caught and held my attention. I just felt like I had to talk to him and get to know him. It didn’t take much for me to fall head over heels for him. He bravely came out to meet me and my protective family. Instead of coming just for a date he spent a weekend with me. At this time I was in a much bigger tent, thankfully.
He was totally okay with staying in the tent with me. As much as I liked him I was still skeptical, and untrusting. How ever seeing him interact with Cynder and how gentle he was stole my heart completely. Cynder liked him to it seemed. It didn’t take long before my family welcomed him with open arms, and I was visiting him for a month.
I fell in love with the place he called home. His family and friends were so welcoming. When my mom came to get me at the end of the month she made how she felt very clear. By insisting I move in with him well I was saying good bye to him. He must have liked the idea, because by the time winter hit his home was my home. We lived in a trailer for a little while. It was at that time we brought Trouble into the house. She fit right in. She started of being a mommy's girl but as she grew she became a daddy’s girl. That trailer wasn’t our home for long. It was falling apart and cold in the winter. So we moved into a 400sq foot building on the property, and this summer we adding Minx to our family.
The building is now our house. It’s still got a lot of work before its finished but to us, to all of us it’s a home. Its small, and we don’t own much, but it’s ours. Finally after years I have a place to call home. A place where I feel safe at last, where I can relax and heal. A place where I can just be me.
What Made Me Choose To Be A Naturalist?
The decision to be a naturalist was an easy one for me. I grew up training and working with horses naturally. So I already knew that doing things as naturally as possible was very beneficial and often had better results than doing things the “synthetic” way (at least that is what I call it). So it was less of a jump and more of just a change in direction to becoming a naturalist with my kitties.
Horses are not the only reason I prefer to do things naturally. It’s the world today that makes me think hard and question everything bought at pet stores before giving it to my cat. The world today is less about quality of products and more about quantity and profit. For this reasons pets are being over vaccinated, given medications to treat symptoms not their problems and we are drown to the packaging of pet products that are not healthy for our pets.
There are more harmful things out there for our pets then there are good things. New products are coming out every year claiming to better. However it’s not always easy to tell the good from the bad, and pet store employees are not often equipped with the right knowledge needed to help pet parents make an informed choice. So I have been doing my own research, talking to specialists so I can be more informed choice.
So I have been doing my own research, talking to specialists so I can be more informed. As a result my love for cats has grown. Well I cannot provide my cats with a 100% natural life style I do my best to keep their life style as natural as possible.
