Chloe Karma

It’s been a pretty shi*ty forty-eight hours. Literally! Those of you who know my younger cat Chloe will recall us having ongoing issues caused by her extremely long thick fur.. even the vet is amazed at the luxuriant quality and quantity of Chloe’s fur. Unfortunately, having that much fur is not always an advantage, especially if you have a tummy upset, which happens periodically. Chloe has a penchant for nibbling various plants in the garden, and occasionally she will inadvertently choose one that upsets her. When this happens, we have a pooey emergency – Chloe’s very furry back end and fluffy pants get encrusted with pooh, and she has to be cleaned up manually. Now, this is no easy task, as she is very feisty and doesn’t like being interfered with. On the odd occasion I have tried to sort it out at home, she’s thrown a raging tantrum, which is upsetting for both of us. The job requires at least two people to manage it with any degree of success. Cats hate being pooey, and Chloe is no exception. Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t make her cooperative about being cleaned up when this happens.

In the last couple of days we’ve had another nightmare pooey episode with Chloe’s back end! Not nice. I won’t give many details – too much information! Result – emergency appointment at the vet yesterday afternoon to get it sorted out before the the house suffered too much and Chloe got too miserable..So we have me and the vet’s assistant at one end, holding Chloe still – me wearing their very large extremely thick leather gloves, because I know she’ll start losing it and go for me about 5 minutes in. And the vet’s at the business end with the rotten task of clipping away lots of pooh-laden fur. Yuck. Thankfully they’re used to Chloe at the local surgery so it’s no big deal. We get it sorted inside 15 minutes without any injuries being sustained, and Chloe’s dignity is restored. Job done, I assumed, and normal odours returned to both Chloe and house.. phew!

However, this morning I can tell from Chloe’s body language that all is not well – the situation seems to be ongoing. I feel surreptitiously around the back end, ignoring her complaints, and find that she’s still crusty. Oh dear - back to square one. There’s nothing else for it – she needs to go in the sink in a few inches of warm water, and have the back end washed. You can imagine how well that’s going to be received! With a sinking heart, I prepare the kitchen and myself carefully for this tricky operation – putting away anything fragile, and donning extra clothing. Some padding is a good idea to avoid the inevitable scratching. Sink prepared, I collect Chloe from the garden, and dump her unceremoniously in the water and quickly seize my chance. She escapes once by climbing up me, and I have to re-collect her and put her in a second time. This time I am reasonably successful and even manage a quick towelling before she bolts upstairs to spend the rest of the day under the spare room bed, sleeping it off! She left me with a few scratches, but at least she’s now clean and happy.

You may wonder where karma comes into this. It feels as though I am working through some pretty yucky karma when I have these shitty episodes with Chloe. I am a firm believer in “what goes around comes around”, and that we have to make retribution for the hurt or distress caused to others by our bad behaviour. I have paid a lot of karma in this lifetime, and it clearly continues. I don’t feel I’ve been that wicked in this life, but I must have been incredibly evil in other lifetimes considering what life has thrown at me in this one as payment for those misdeeds. It all comes out in the wash (excuse the pun), and Chloe, bless her, is playing her part, for which I am grateful. She’s a special and unique cat, and we have a strong bond. Hence I view the journey we are on together from a higher perspective and see it all as life unfolding in its own unique way, for the Highest good of all. If we look at something like this from just the physical perspective, it could be quite depressing. But viewed differently, it’s clear there is a higher purpose at work in something as mundane as Chloe having another shi*ty episode. There are lessons in everything that happens in life. We may not always understand, but that’s where trust comes in. Life is the greatest and wisest teacher. All we have to do is watch, listen, and be open to life and its process.