Om

To my delight, Zora has gotten to see me practice yoga pretty regularly lately. She's usually running around playing, arranging toys, looking at books, and sometimes crawling under me or on top of me in postures. The other day though, I stepped up to the front of my mat to do the opening prayer, and Zora asked "Can I chant with you?" Then she busted out with the prayer (in Sanskrit). I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising, as she's been hearing me chant it for awhile now, but it still took me awhile to learn it myself. She definitely has her father's brain when it comes to memorizing things! This morning I managed to catch her on tape. And yes, that's Zecky cleaning himself in the background ;-)

How living with cats prepared me for parenting a human... except for when it didn't

From birth, I have always lived with cats. The most I've ever had was seven (4 adults and 3 kittens), and the fewest was one. I moved out of my mom's house when I was 18, and a few months later adopted Harley. Next came Zecky (in my friend's hamper), and lastly Kaya (left in the night-drop box at the local shelter). Harley was hit by a car when he was just 5 year old :-( , but Zecky and Kaya have stuck with me through two relationships, ten moves (including five cities, three states, two countries, two cross-country trips in moving trucks and three plane trips), one hurricane evacuation and the arrival of one baby. They were there, next to me while I was going through my noisy labor (well, Zecky was sleeping) and they were there when Zora was born (Kaya took off for a day right after the birth, which had me fretting to no end). They are often there when we practice yoga--and Kaya loves to join us for shavasana (we call it chat-vasana--"chat" is "cat" in French). I love cats, but I L.O.V.E. my two kitties. While I was pregnant, they would curl up next to my tummy and purr, which would inevitably make the baby start kicking. Zora loved the kitties even before she was born :-)

Chat-vasana

Kaya was thrilled to find out we were having a baby

As usual, Zecky took a nap

Zecky looking for some attention during my labor

Kaya was the stillest thing in the room during my labor

But, like having a kid, life with the kitties has not always been easy. There are a few lessons I learned from my two furry friends that have come in handy once I was a mother to a human child. Well, to a certain extent...

1. Don't get too attached to material things (like your hair!): Children spill things and break things and get poop on things. I was already more than ready for this when Zora arrived. Most of these "ruining shit that I care about" lessons came from Zecky. He has spilled all kinds of food (he once dove into an over-easy egg I was eating, splattering yolk all over me and the couch--this was pre-vegan Nicole), knocked things down, and has tracked mud over every surface of the house. When Zecky was about two years old, he gave me an unsolicited haircut. This is not a joke. I used to have hair down to my waist, and I would braid it at night. Zecky would often try to chew on the hair-tie, so I would hide my braid under my pillow. One night, I guess I forgot to put my braid under the pillow, and I was sleeping more soundly than usual, and Zecky spent the entire night chewing on my hair. I'm still not joking. I awoke to a pile of hair on my pillow, which totally freaked me out. I looked in the mirror, and saw that Zecky had completely chewed through one third of my braid. He cut off about 12 inches of my hair. My hair is as straight as it comes, so there was no hiding this missing chunk. The only solution was to cut the rest of my hair to the same length. I was pissed. I have since forgiven him, but I still wouldn't trust him with a clump of my hair.

2. Don't get too attached to a full night's sleep: One of the apartments Alex and I rented was on a busy street, so the kitties became indoor cats for one year (we did let them out on the balcony, which led to lesson #3). As anyone who has cats knows, once they get a taste of the outdoors, they can't really go back. Zecky and Kaya both went completely stir crazy in this apartment. Most of this was at night. They would tear around the apartment, crying, all night long. We tried closing them out of our room, but they would just scratch at the door. We tried putting them in the other bedroom, but then we had the sounds of Zecky trying to beat down the door.  Between the cats and the family of twelve that lived downstairs and blasted the TV at all hours, I didn't get much sleep that year. This still didn't quite prepare me for the sleep-deprivation of parenthood.

3.You must fight for your kitties (even if they may be rabid): As mentioned in #2, Zecky and Kaya were indoor cats for one year--except for going on the balcony. We lived on the second story and we rigged it so they couldn't get down, but they could still go out to get some fresh air, to catch some rays... and to catch bats. Alex woke me up in the wee hours of the morning saying "Zecky caught a bat!" Half asleep, I asked where it was. "Flying around in the apartment". I was up. I should stop here, before I make this story too long. Here's the abbreviated version:
Zecky caught a bat. We called animal control to come save the bat dying on our balcony. Animal control lady came, bat was gone, so she asked for Zecky's rabies records. Zecky's shots were 2 weeks overdue. She took Zecky and said he would be put down. I called the guy in charge, cried and pleaded to get our cat back. He finally agreed to a 6-month home quarantine. We moved to New Orleans 3 months into this quarantine.
Ok, that was still kind of long. The cutest part was when Alex was plotting to break into the animal shelter and rescue Zecky. I think he would have done it.
 
4. Kitchen cupboards must be baby-proofed: Zecky can open anything. The doorknobs where we lived in France were latch style, so Zecky learned to jump up and hang from them to open doors. Watching this act would simultaneously dazzle Alex's great-aunt, and annoy his grandmother. When we moved back to the US, he would continue to try to open all doorknobs, even the round ones. Sometimes he would succeed. The kitties didn't have a kitty door in New Orleans, so when Zecky wanted in, he would just hang from the front doorknob until one of us would notice the knob jiggling (the first few times it was kind of scary...), and would let him in. His mad opening skills do not end there though. He also opens kitchen cabinets, and not just the ones at floor level. We actually needed more baby-proofing in the kitchen for our cat than for our human baby.

5. You might get some poop on you: This was a lesson from the dearly departed Harley. Harley was a fighter. One morning, I heard the telltale sounds of a cat fight--hissing, growling that grew louder and louder until it became howling. I ran out the door, just as the other cat was running off (Harley usually dominated!). I picked up Harley to make sure he was ok, and my heart skipped a beat. His tummy was completely covered in a warm, wet substance. I was sure it was blood, or worse, some part of his insides hanging out. I looked at my hand, expecting to see red, but instead saw brown. Yes, his entire tummy was covered in shit. I did a complete 180 degree turn in a microsecond. I went from loving, concerned mother to horrified and disgusted--I dropped Harley, and ran inside, closing the door behind me. I'll never know whose shit it was, but I suspect it belonged to the other cat. As I said, Harley dominated, and I think he literally scared the shit out of the other cat. As if this wasn't bad enough, Harley was back at the door, within 30 minutes, completely poo-free. He didn't get any kisses on his face for a long time...

6. Baby naps are done best together: This last lesson came Kaya. I adopted her when she was just a few weeks old, and I could feel that she still needed lots of physical contact. For the first several weeks, she would nap on my lap, or in the pocket of my hooded sweatshirt (my first experience with "babywearing"). She was able to settle down and sleep peacefully for longer periods. If I set her down to nap, she would just cry. Hmmm... sounds very familiar.

In all seriousness, I know that having a baby is not really like having a cat, but I do love my two kitties to pieces, and I feel so lucky that Zora is growing up with such an awesome pair of feline companions!

Kaya with napping newborn Zora

3-month-old Zora, with napping Zecky

Katrina Ate My Yoga Practice

At the time Katrina was nearing New Orleans, Alex was actually at a yoga workshop in Montreal with Darby. UNO had already started classes, so I was still in town. We didn't own a car, but a colleague of Alex's dropped his second car off at our house before he and his wife evacuated. I wasn't planning on evacuating, since I had done it before and found it to be hassle. To make a long story short, I ended up evacuating at the last minute, thanks to Kiran (she called me in the middle of the night insisting that I leave). This was a good plan, since we had about 7 feet of water in our neighborhood. I drove with our two cats, Zecky and Kaya, to my brother's place in Memphis. After several days of telling me that his flight back to New Orleans was delayed, Alex finally agreed that the flight was probably not going to happen, and he flew to Memphis. We call the next month of our life:

We stayed a little over a week at my brother's house, but needed to find somewhere more permanent to stay, since it looked like we wouldn't be able to go back home any time soon. We decided that we'd head up to Montreal and stay in Alex's grandmother's apartment (she was not there at the time) until we figured out what to do. We also needed to return the car to Alex's colleague, who was heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan, so, we drove north. Our next stop was my uncle's house in Illinois. We stayed there for a week, and while we were there, we received an email from the chair of the math department at UC Davis (where we both went to grad school), offering us (pity) positions for the year. We didn't know if our universities in New Orleans would be re-opening any time soon, so we decided to accept the positions. We still needed to return the car though, so we packed up and continued on to Ann Arbor. There we were lucky enough to be lodged by our good friend's mother (also a math nerd)!

Needless to say, all this traveling and stress made it difficult to focus on yoga. We were used to practicing at our shala in New Orleans, and it was hard to motivate ourselves for a home(less) practice. There was an Ashtanga shala in Ann Arbor, and we were very grateful to be able to practice in a group again--if only for a couple days.

From Ann Arbor, we left for California, where we stayed another week or so with my mom and step-dad in Sebastopol, before we could find an apartment in Davis. We were very aware of how fortunate we were--jobs, a home, each other, but it was also a really hard time. On the bright side, it was the easiest moving day we've ever experienced. We walked in the door of our new place with two suitcases and our two cat carriers, set them down and that was that! It had been a little over a month since I left New Orleans.

There was no Ashtanga shala in Davis, so thus began our home practice. We had a small linoleum area where the kitchen table would go (if we had one), and it was there that we would practice. For a good year after Katrina, I was pretty depressed, and this affected my practice greatly. On the other hand, my yoga practice helped with the depression.

After spending a year in Davis, it was time for us to find new jobs, and we did, in Seattle. We packed ourselves and the kitties up once again and made the move up north. There were a couple Ashtanga shalas in Seattle, but with my new job, and the need to commute by bus, I maintained my home practice. It had already been a year, and I had grown accustomed to practicing on my own (Alex often went to a yoga shala). I did try two of the shalas a couple times, but it was overwhelming and distracting with all the other bodies in the room. I also had some negative experiences with teachers, and I didn't feel in a place where I could put trust into someone new. Even though it is more difficult to motivate yourself for a home practice, I really did enjoy the quiet and the stillness.

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