My Cat Is More Than My ESA
My wife dubbed my cat my Emotional Support Animal (ESA) because she is usually glued to me when I’m having flare-ups and when I’m in pain. Over the past few years, she has developed her ability to detect when I’m going to have a flare-up. It has taken me longer to adapt to her ability than it has for her to perfect it.
When I’m gearing up for a fibromyalgia flare-up, a few days prior, she will be glued to me, I mean, follow me everywhere she can and the day that the flare-up starts, she will avoid me entirely and not hang around me. We discovered that she can feel my pain and it actually hurts her, but she can only seem to feel my fibro pain and not my costochondritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis pain.
When I’m getting ready to have an RA flare-up, she will start to avoid me a few days prior (we haven’t figured this part out yet) and then when I’m actually in the flare, she will either be right next to me or no more than a few feet away from me the whole time.
I’m still trying to learn all this behavior myself, so I can better plan for my flare-ups and change my medication routine to support it as well.
We think that since she can feel my pain, she avoids me so she doesn’t get hurt. She doesn’t fully understand that I’m not doing it to her and that I have no control over it. I have also learned that if I put a thick blanket or double a normal one, and put it on my lap, she will lay there, but doesn’t want me to pet her. It is really strange behavior, and she is trying to tell me something. I just needed to be more open to what she was saying to me.
And for the record, he is my friend, my buddy, my loving cat, well before she is my ESA
Thank you Dottie for helping me.
