Different Mothers Produce Brothers

When Jackson first came to us, he was semi-feral. Actually, he’s probably still semi-feral, because laps and being picked up are definitely not on his list of things he likes to do, but he’s so much more relaxed.

Jackson when he first came home to us.

He trusts us. He’ll do a drive by on a lap on his way to someplace else, instead of going far out of his way to get from point A to point B. 

We’re big on reincarnation in this house, so Jackson is the third incarnation with us (that we know of), who started as Yin, then was Tolstoy, and now is Jackson. It’s been interesting to watch his development through the lifetimes. What is he working on now? But that’s a subject for another blog.

This blog is about brothers. In his first incarnation, he came with a physical brother, who name of course was Yang. Yin passed fairly early, at 13 (he doesn’t want to get any older than that, ever. Until he changes his mind about it), and Yang was with us for a number of years after that, and then came back as a cat named Lynkx.

Lynkx - the king of his castle.

Lynkx and Tolstoy (second incarnation) took to one another right away, and then when Tolstoy passed (again at 13), Lynkx was brotherless for about six months, until Jackson came to live with us. 

They glommed on to one another like bees on honey. Lots of cuddling. If there was any doubt in our mind that Lynkx and Jackson knew one another, it died aborning. 

Jackson felt safe enough on top of Lynkx to allow a human nearby.

Then Lynkx passed, and Jackson, semi-feral-dependent-on-his-brother-for-comfort, had no one. 

Jackson really struggled. He didn’t trust us humans enough to come to us for cuddles. His two cat sisters, Torbie and Ellie, were all hisses and claws about him getting close. That left his other brother, the host of Reflections from Harmony’s Heart - Ry. 

Ry is a cuddler, but his preferred cuddle buddies are human. The last thing he wanted was some heavy cat laying on him, being all needy. 

Please get him away from me.

There were a lot of discussions about how close, when, if, and a lot of “just leave me alone!” I think mostly Ry didn’t like being laid on. Jackson is all muscle, and even though he’s a little smaller than Ry, he’s a heavy dude. Maybe it’s a good thing he’s not into human laps. My legs would probably go to sleep.

It’s been a couple of years now, and this is what I took a picture of today:

Okay, okay, he’s lovable.

There is contentment on both faces. And notice - Jackson has learned that he can be close, but not on top of. Ry has adopted Jackson as his brother (and maybe on a spiritual level, they’re helping one another out).

Even old cats can learn new tricks. I guess if Ry can do it, this old lady can do it too.