As we are all very aware, we are currently living in a time which will end up in history books.  Corona time, as the video below explains, is a time to wash your hands, stay far away from others, and avoid touching your face, specifically your eyes and mouth.

Whether you are staying home or working on the front lines in a hospital or any other essential business, COVID-19 has likely taken over at least a bit of your brain space.  For many people, this has been a time of extreme anxiety whether over their job or concern over theirs or a loved ones health.

I have been uniquely calm during this time, I have seen and heard others with depression and anxiety say the same thing.  The general sentiment is that we have been practicing for this our whole life. I have hundreds of coping skills in my arsenal, some I use more than others, some I may not have used in a long time, but either way, they are there.  You can see my list of 100 coping skills here; if nothing else it may provide an idea for an activity. My list was written long before COVID-19 so please, for now, ignore any that require physical interaction with others outside your household.

There are some things that are interestingly not on most people’s minds now, these are the everyday worries that we all had prior to the coronavirus. I recently experienced one of those stresses with added complications due to the need for social distancing.  

We have two cats, Seamus and Sam, Seamus has had posts on here before regarding his health. Sam has always been the healthy one, which is why it was not only terrifying, but also surprising when we found him shaking and moaning after vomiting more than I would have thought possible for a little cat.  When we tried to touch him he meowed in a way that conveyed just how awful he felt.  

His primary vet couldn’t see him for several hours, so we took him to the Pet ER.  Due to the coronavirus precautions we couldn’t go in with him, but rather had to wait in the car.  This added to our anxiety because we wanted to be with him when he felt so sick and so scared; understanding why things had to be this way, even agreeing with it, didn’t make us worry less.  They took an X-ray with the original theory being he ate something he shouldn’t have; they didn’t see anything definite and so he was sent home with us with directions to keep a close eye on him and to follow up either there or at his primary care vet.

The next day he was still frequently moaning and didn’t want to be touched, so we took him to his primary care vet.  They did an X-ray, gave him a long acting antibiotic, an anti-nausea medication, and sent him home with some pain meds.  It took two excruciating days of continuing to watch him suffer before he finally felt better. We knew he was better when at 2am he ran into the bedroom jumped all over us, knocked things over, and generally caused a ruckus.

We are so relieved and happy that he’s feeling better and jumped right back into making trouble.  It’s also a good reminder that some parts of life stay the same regardless of a global pandemic. Animals are able to live in a blissful ignorance to the current events; watching them serves as a great reminder for us all to take time to relax when possible.