Leo the Chinese Hero

Pet owners live longer. Pet owners have lower blood pressure. Pet’s know when you’re upset. Pet’s will lay with an owner in times of crisis.

You’ve heard those stories right? A person’s kitty never sleeps with her and then someone in her family gets sick, then the kitty sleeps with her until the crisis passes? A kitty knows when their person is hurting and will comfort them.

You’ve maybe read Chicken soup for the pet/cat/dog lovers soul? Ever have anything like that happen to you? I haven’t.

When I’m upset, Star either gets bitey or more usually, just takes off so she doesn’t have to deal with my mood, whatever it’s cause. Leo hasn’t been here long enough to go through a crisis, but when things get loud, he takes off and you won’t see him until everyone has calmed themselves.

Except for today.

The first thing you should know is that I’m a flip outer. Someone gets hurt? I flip out. Something happens to someone I love? I flip out. Yes, I can deal with your injuries, but I’ll be flipping out while I’m doing it. Or, if I can keep it together long enough, then I’ll flip out when I’m done, and a little bit before I start dealing with it.

So today, my darling husband comes home after stopping at a drug store for something to treat his injury. He calls and tells me he got scalded. He doesn’t sound upset, just surprised that he got a blister. And, oh, it ruptured. Ok, get home and I’ll bandage it, if it needs it.

Then he gets home. Scalded? With what? A blow torch?? Blister? No, blisterS! His whole wrist, about five by 10 inches is swollen, bright red and covered with huge bulging blisters, one of which has popped.

So I’m flipping out. Things like "You goober!" "That’s not a scald, that’s second degree burns!" "This happened at work, you should have gotten it looked at!" "You should have had this treated right away!" "Continuing to work in a greasy shop with popped blisters can give you blood poisoning!" and so on while he remained unnervingly and annoyingly calm.

While I’m sitting on the couch looking at the damage, and he’s standing there showing me the damage while I continue to flip out, sorta loudly and ok, maybe even a little shrilly.. Leo, my scardy cat, my hide under the bed until any loud noises stop baby, Leo jumps up on the couch and climbs on me. With Greg standing RIGHT there. He climbs up until he’s nose to nose with me and he starts purring right in my face.

What in the world can you do to that? He kind of interrupted my flipping out hysteria. Greg laughed and said there’s your buddy. I leaned back and he settled down on my chest, staying almost nose to nose with me AND he let Greg pet him while he was standing there!

Do you know how hard it is to stay all flipped out with a large furry snuggly cat purring LOUDLY in your face? Do you know that you cannot help petting and cuddling said cat until you’re calmed down? Do you know that those kinds of stories are true??

Once I was calmed down and Greg had carefully cleaned the area, I was able to calmly bandage it. Without further flipping out! Cat’s are miracle workers!

Bein' a hero is exhaustin'!

Star? She didn’t come around until about an hour after everything was over. She did want her daddy to pet her, but that’s nothing new, she adores him.

Greg will be fine, even if he still refuses to see a doctor about it.. Goober.