A Lesson in Every Failure

This article is going to be really difficult to write. No one likes to admit their mistakes or failures. I take pride in the excellent care that I am able to provide for my cats. My inability to bend from my beliefs not only caused unnecessary stress for my cats, but also caused one of my babies to become extremely sick and almost die. My main goal for this blog site is to provide cat parents with useful information to keep their cats happy and healthy. I have talked about all of the positives and successes that I have had with my cats. This article will be about the negative and quite possibly, my biggest failure in regard to my cats. This failure has been very difficult for me. However, there is a lesson in every failure.

A Living Nightmare

The past few months have been difficult at our house. We have been dealing with a severe flea issue. One that I have been trying so hard to treat naturally. I really did not want to go the chemical route. I truly believed that if I was diligent with my natural approach that I would be able to get rid of the fleas. Well, this past week has proven to me that I was not even making a dent in the flea issue. I was constantly keeping my cats in stress mode by treating and combing them almost daily, along with daily encounters with their enemy, the vacuum cleaner.

And then, Zazzles, one of the Kracken Kitties, got sick and we had to rush him to the Emergency Vet. He had developed severe anemia from the FLEAS!!! My inability to bend from my natural approach had caused one of my cats to become sick. His anemia levels were so low they thought he might need a blood transfusion. He was dehydrated and would not eat on his own. I felt like a failure and had to remind myself that there is a lesson in every failure. So, what lesson lies in this failure?

My Unwillingness

I try to provide my cats with a safe and healthy environment. They eat a species appropriate raw diet, take daily supplements and have lots of different options for mental stimulation. When we first realized that we had fleas, I made the decision to treat them with safe and natural remedies. Over the past few months, we have spent an obscene amount of money on different kinds of natural flea treatments. Any time my husband mentioned using traditional flea prevention, I shot him down. Telling him that I absolutely refused to put something on them that could potentially make them sick, or even worse, kill them.

For months, every weekend consisted of deep cleaning the entire house and treating with natural remedies. Our cats were treated, and flea combed more times than I can count, or they liked. We vacuumed the floors and furniture daily. Bedding and blankets were washed 2-3 times a week. Unfortunately, we were not successfully getting rid of the fleas. And the problem was even worse in the Kracken Kitty room because they have carpet. My natural treatments were not even lessoning the issue down there. I had not realized just how bad it was until Zazzles couldn’t walk. Unfortunately, it took Zazzles getting sick and almost dying before I was ready to bend on my approach.

Sometimes You Have To Bend

Zazzles has been in and out of the vet’s this past week. Blood work has shown slight improvement in his anemia levels, but he is still way below the low end of normal range. He has started to eat a little on his own, but I still have to syringe feed him to ensure that he is getting enough to eat. He has to take medication, which he is absolutely not a fan of, along with different supplements to help his body recover. The vet bills are increasing, and we still don’t know if he will need a blood transfusion. I will always do what I need to do care for my cats, no matter the cost. Especially when I am the reason they are sick.

We treated all of the cats with flea prevention from our vet last Monday. Within a day we noticed their stress levels decreased. They started sleeping peacefully in their favorite areas again. Scratching decreased and playing increased. The Kracken Kitties stopped making mad dashes from one high place to another like the carpet was lava. Seeing how effective the flea prevention was only increased my feelings of failure. I was filled with the thoughts that if only I had treated them earlier then Zazzles wouldn’t be sick and struggling.

A Place of Love

Dealing with the thoughts that I have failed my cats and caused them unnecessary stress, anxiety and sickness has been really difficult for me. A good friend reminded me that everything that I have done has come from a place of love. Harming my cats was never my intention and I truly believed that I was doing the best thing for them. I needed to be gentle with myself and stop thinking about the “couldas, shouldas, wouldas”. Those kinds of thoughts are never good. Instead, I need to focus on providing Zazzles with everything that he needs to overcome his sickness. I need to continue to provide my other babies with everything they need to be able to deal with Zazzles residing upstairs. Herb gardens from Naturally Cats to the rescue.

Through it all, I have learned that sometimes you need to be willing to bend. Sometimes you need to bring out the big guns in order to handle a problem. And, most of all, no matter how hard we try, we will make mistakes. We will have failures. It is what makes us human. How we deal with and react to those mistakes and failures are what is important. They provide us with opportunities to learn and grow and to do better the next time. Those are the most important lessons from our failures that we can learn.

“If we’re going to have animals around we all have to be concerned about them and take care of them.” – Bob Ross