Bumba

This October Bumba will have been with us for 15 years. That is a long time no matter how we look at it, but for a cat it means that Bumba now is of ‘advanced age’. Living his ‘Golden Years’.

For the longest time he has been the King of the neighborhood, but lately he hardly ever picks a fight anymore; almost like he is waiting for one of the new arrivals to come of age and take over his leadership role. In the meantime he observes the world from his ‘special place’.

A couple of years ago, a lot of changes were going on in our neighborhood. Suddenly one neighbor after another decided to move away. Even Bumba’s best friend moved. It created a lot of stress in Bumba’s life.
Where we may be happy for our friends and neighbors that they have found another great place to live, for a cat there is just the stress of the upset. An unbalance ~ at least for a while ~ until the new neighbors have settled in and found their way.

It is clear that stress is a major cause of ailments; there has been sufficient research been done to prove that stress may well cost us years of our lives. And while that makes sense; living our lives we may not feel particularly stressful ~ or perhaps we are just used to s certain level of stress ~ and therefore we don’t really see the effects stress may have on our health.

With Bumba the increased stress level has created very apparent changes in his (well)being.

At first he just seemed a little lost. But the strong cat he has always been was certain to find his own way and handle whatever life was throwing his way. Like he had always done in the past.
But pretty soon he started to loose weight. Being hyper vigilant and extremely aware of what was going on in the neighborhood, he was still looking good and healthy, but he was starting to feel thin.
According to the vet, it all has to do with a thyroid issue… An unbalance that started just as soon as the stress in his environment was raised to a level that he had a hard time comprehending.

In a sense the very same thing may happen to us.

As soon as we get ourselves in a situation ~ especially when it is a prolonged situation ~ with a higher stress level than we are used to or can handle, chances are it will affect our health adversely. How exactly it will affect our health is a very individual thing. But it will take away a part of our well-being. A part of our joy of living.

Like Bumba, we would do well to take time to reduce the levels of stress in our lives, and take time to become truly whole again.
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