Walking the Cat

I've think I've officially crossed over into a whole new level of cat parent. Mind you, I have 6 cats and I foster cats and kittens almost constantly. So, I earned the title of Cat Lady long ago, but I still had my limits. I'd been toying with the idea of leash training one of my cats for some time, but CFS/ME made me bite the bullet.

About a month ago, I started doing Physical Therapy in an effort to address fatigue and muscle weakness. I've done PT many times before, but this is a whole new ballgame. Typically, rehabilitative therapies focus on reducing pain and increasing strength and mobility. Most people go through PT after a surgery or injury, or if you have a chronic illness that impacts your joints, tendons, and ligaments like me, you make periodic appearances at PT every time a new body part decides to flare. But PT for CFS/ME is a little different. Because my tolerance is so low, my PT sessions are only about 20-30 minutes long and we aren't adding new exercises or increasing reps at every appointment. I have 4 exercises I am supposed to do daily. 4 exercises I've done many times before. But now, a month in, I'm still struggling to get through one round of each exercise,. Before CFS/ME I would have started with 3 rounds each.

Everything about treating and managing CFS/ME is about pacing yourself. This is not a strong suit of mine. I spent most of my 20s over extending myself into bouts of debilitating depression. I have exactly 2 modes. Either I'm giving 120% or nothing at all. I'm the type of person that, if I'm not going above and beyond, I have exactly zero motivation to put in any effort. Fortunately, I've learned to listen to my body over the years and Psoriatic Arthritis forced me to listen even more. I've gotten better at letting go of the need for perfection. But when it comes to exercise, my brain is still stuck in the no pain, no gain mentality. If I'm not pushing myself, what's the point? And the fact that none of my exercises are strenuous enough to cause any strain is really killing my motivation. So, when my physical therapist told me I needed to start walking 5-10 minutes a day, I immediately started running through all the things I had to do just to get outside (get dressed, put on deodorant, fix my hair, get down the stairs) and I was exhausted just thinking about it. That's a lot of work for a 5-10 minutes activity! Too much pain, not enough gain. And that mentality became a roadblock to walking, but I knew how important it was to develop the habit.

The solution? Time to start walking the cat. I recently adopted Delilah, a gorgeous, young calico cat that I had been fostering along with her 3 babies. Until she became a mama she had spent her whole life outside as a stray. Since Delilah had just recently become an indoor cat, she was the obvious candidate. So, I ordered a harness and leash. I spent a few days getting her used the harness and then we ventured into the backyard. We haven't actually made it to walking yet, but I've gotten downstairs and outside at least every other day this week and that's progress!