This week I was reminded of the story or was it the myth, of a couple who loved each other so much that at one point, to please the other they both made a sacrifice that was nice in the thought, but sad in results.

I think the story goes that he sold his watch to buy her combs for her long hair, and she sold her hair to buy him a chain for his watch.

Ken and I have been doing a version of this for a while now and like the story — our intent is nice, our reality was not working.

I told you about dear sweet Peet who has not adapted to the move so well. He is old and basically everything he knows is changed. Well, the laps he sits on haven’t changed. Our laps are still gooey, and soft and he gets petted and his ears scratched whenever he finds out laps. Which is quite often.

Anyway – Peet has been yowling a lot in the morning. At first, I ran to him at every yell wondering what to do. Then we gave him fancy Feast a.k.a. kitty crack, to soothe him. This only made him crazy. So, he’s off the juice now and while he still yells, it’s better. We let him outside more and more often, we keep his box clean. Basically, we cater to all of his needs all the time.

I talked to a vet. After a few questions, we agreed he probably isn’t in pain. She said he is probably just anxious about all the changes. She gave us some pheromones to wipe on his bed, that should calm him. He is plenty calm most of the time, but with all this early morning yelling, I do think the vet is right — there are just too many changes for the old puddy tat.

Anyway – to get back to the story of the loving couple trying their best to do for the other. Ken and I both have been tense and losing sleep, and as we both try to soothe Peet when he hollers.

We are both really concerned that Peet is bugging the other. I’m concerned for Peet, but more so, want Ken to be able to sleep, so I get up and “deal” with the kitty and Ken is doing the same for me, for the same reason.

Yup – I’m doing my best to keep Peet quiet so as to let Ken sleep and Ken is losing sleep worrying on Peet to let me get some rest. We both are doing our best to make sure the other human in the house is comfortable and not disturbed by our sweet old kitty.

The result, Peet sleeps when he wants to, and Ken and I are tired and stressed out.

We finally figured it out.
See Peet’s yelling doesn’t really bug me and it doesn’t really bug Ken. We know he is old, but he’s doing okay. What bugs us is thinking the other one is bugged by the yowls.

So, we agreed to let Peet yell.

We found out that Peet only yells for a while and then goes back to sleep. We were keeping Peet up (and yelling) by seeing what we could do to constantly soothe him, and it only made him just yell more.

This s a loving house. We love Peet and we love each other. We just forgot the #1 rule it takes to live with here.

Rule #1 in the Parker house:
Do what you want to.