Siblings and guilt

From the moment I knew something was wrong, I have wanted to hold Mona in my arms every possible moment to comfort her and me, too. The trouble is that Mona has multiple siblings, most of whom also want their own share of laptime and attention. Juggling all that love is a bit overwhelming.

Today, we cleaned. Xander aka "The Shadow" has been in the attic with me 90% of the day. While typically clingy, he has reached some new heights of annoying me over the past few weeks -- I turn around and bam! he's right there. The rational part of me knows that I have worked a kajillion hours of OT since Thanksgiving and that Xander is well aware that something isn't right with his brother and sister. Amadeus, I may have mentioned, had arthroscopic shoulder surgery two weeks ago. All of this amounts of even more confusion, nerves and clinginess on his part as he tries to sort out what's going on. *He* needs us just as much as Mona or Deus.

I know that in my head, but my feet are frustrated when I keep tripping over him.

The same holds true for the cats. If either of us sits on the couch for more than 3 minutes, there's typically a 16lb black furry thing on your lap. Stay there for five minutes and Mona crawls up, too. Another moment of two, the black furry things siblings are there and Xander is laying under your feet. Then we endure countless rounds of one cat on, two cats off; one dog on, one cat off as the pets shift positions on what is in fact a rather small sofa.

Thankfully, Deus prefers his dog bed and only joins the fracas if he senses food is being exchanged (willingly or not).

Xander suffers there, too. Deus is on highly restricted activity because of his shoulder -- he can go out to pee and that's pretty much it. No walks, no roughhousing, no playing, nothing. He feels good, but we've got another four weeks of restrictions to enforce. So Xander is tossed into the backyard on his own. He'll be ecstatic to play only with me for a few moments, but soon starts looking around and eventually drops the ball. Essentially, he'd rather be inside with his brother even if it is kind of boring.

Mona always prefers to be where the people are so winter restrictions are nothing for her. She goes out a few times to sniff the yard and catch up on the news, but that's about it. However, she has been known to antagonize her brothers into playing chase so she also can't be left unattended with Deus.

You just do the best you can. I pet everyone throughout the day. I try not to feel guilty when I clear all critters from the sofa and actually have room to move. I provide lots of blankets and comforters.

And I kind of look forward to getting back to our usual routine. I think everyone is happier.