Toward the end of this past summer, my wife and our one-year-old son and daughter and our cat, Lucy, took a much needed week of vacation at my father-in-law’s beach house in Ocean City, NJ—“America’s greatest family resort”.
I loved spending an entire week with my wife and children, but I think the “person” who really got the most out of our vacation was Lucy.
There was a large porch that she could lounge on all day long. Every time I went out there, I’d find Lucy sunning herself on the chaise, enjoying the ocean breeze, or playfully batting one of the many toys the kids left lying around.
And something amazing happened. As the week went on Lucy’s powers of relaxation began to work their magic on me. Just looking at her lying around and enjoying life helped me slow down, take a breath and really appreciate everything I had—time with my family, beautiful weather, the sun and sand.
But all vacations come to an end, even for cats, and I think Lucy was especially sad to come back home, or at least that’s the conclusion I came to when she refused to use her litter box.
Fortunately, that only lasted a couple days, and I’m happy to report Lucy has been back to her same loving self ever since.
—Justin Marks
