Tomorrow marks a full week that Batman's been in our hearts & home. What a week! It's strange because looking back, he was what might be considered an unplanned adoption.
I'm not sure as to the exact moment I first heard about Batman. My boss told me her son got a Sugar Glider for a pet. I think it might have been a year ago, or it could have been 6 months. Time flies when you're over 21, work a steady schedule & don't have a 9-5 job. But I remember asking, "What's a Sugar Glider?" I've never heard of them before. So she told me the little that she new: they were cute, they were little & they ate bits of fruit. Being curious & hungry for knowledge, I looked them up on Google images to just get an idea. She was right. They were darned cute! And I remember thinking, "I want one." And then pushed the thought out of my mind. I'm not a pet-owning kind of girl. But God & the Universe must have heard me, because what I got was not any Sugar Glider. As you know, I got Batman.
Let me explain the "not a pet-owning kind of girl" comment. I love animals. I love them so much, I think it's kind of selfish to grab them out of their natural environment for my pleasure, to keep ME company. It would be one thing if animals could talk. Then I could ask, "Hey, you want a place to live, away from natural predators, pesticides, construction work & other modern man-made hazards that can kill you both quickly & painfully?" And if they said yes, that was what they absolutely wanted, well then, I would know they come to me out of a matter of choice & love. And if they wanted to leave me, they would have that option, too. I'm really big on freedom.
I'm also big on having my own freedom. Parents say it all the time, "Having a pet is a HUGE responsibility." At 37 years old, I've got plenty of responsibilities. Having more was not on my agenda. I've got bills to pay, family & friends to visit, & I like just being able to sit down & do whatever I want or nothing at all on the weekends. There is a wonderful joy about not having to do anything on your time off. But I'm just fooling myself. Freedom from responsibility may be one of the answers I shied away from having a pet, but it's certainly an answer of the mind & not the heart. My heart was broken many years ago.
I had a small dog when I was in my high school years that I loved dearly. He was the last pet I ever had. When he died, I couldn't go to work. I'd think of him, ball myself up and just cry. I never wanted to know that sort of pain again. Never. Never again.
Yet here I am, some 17-19 years later, part of me thinking I must have lost my mind...but all of me just overjoyed. I never knew what a hole I had in my heart until I adopted Batman. But God & the Universe knew that in order for me to heal that hole, the only way to tempt me, was to someone who needed me right in my path.
And Batman needed a forever home. He belonged to an acquaintance of mine who could no longer attend to him, if attend he ever did. He was in a too-small cage, on no particular diet, stalked by two cats, neglected by his owners, man-handled into baths, without a cage mate, & gone through 2 homes in a short amount of time. He's been traumatized. While I am not about taking animals out of their natural environment, he's already out of his natural environment so the best I can do is give him a loving home.
Not that I didn't fight the idea at first. At first, I thought he was a well-cared for pet. So, I fought for my constancy. Let him go to another. My husband has a bigger heart & he is less afraid to get his heart broken than I am. But as I love my husband, I wanted to make him happy & so we agreed to take Batman in. It wasn't until I saw him in his cage & witnessed his appearance, his poor diet that it dawned on me that this was fate. He was meant to come to us; we were meant to receive him.
In one week, he's had a bigger cage, been fed a better diet, given toys, talked to, sung to, petted in his cage, carried in the bonding pouch, has an appointment with the vet tomorrow, and a cage mate plans in the making.
He's still shy but then again, so am I. And it's only been a week. Friendships take time to cultivate. I have to earn his love & trust. I have to prove to him I'm not going anywhere. Except, perhaps, to the store. To get him more treats, more toys, more Glider Proofing of the apartment, or to work to make this all possible.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Batman's in our lives. We've all had rough & unhappy childhoods. When I saw that this Sugar Glider's life matched ours, I knew he belonged amongst us. This can only be Fate.
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