This is a story about broken dreams…
Here on the former site of Mount Cardboard are some of the various kitten-wrangling devices which I’ve purchased this week. I had been planning on collecting my gorgeous little bengal kitten tomorrow… perhaps at lunchtime. I’ve been wanting to get another cat for years and years. I’ve missed having a house and a cat. I’ve missed normal domestic life.
The only thing I’m missing is kitten food.
I need to go to the supermarket to buy kitten food.
In the small hours of this morning I decided I was going to buy rope instead.
Here’s where I was going to tie the rope. I checked the height – there’s enough.
Whether I bought kitten food or rope hinged on whether my life was “ruined” or not.
I’ve been through some ridiculously rough patches of my life. I’ve solved some ludicrously hard problems. I’ve overcome some incredible obstacles. How on earth could my life be “ruined” when there are so many good things which have been happening lately? How can my life be “ruined” when I’ve been talking so positively and with such excitement about the future? How can my life be “ruined” when I’ve gone to such extreme lengths to get myself into a secure position, financially, in the esteem of my work colleagues and in terms of settling in a great house in a great city?
I was so excited about getting a little bengal kitten and I knew that they love to play with water, so I bought this ridiculously expensive water fountain thing. I enjoyed assembling it. I took great pleasure from having such a nice thing for my kitten, hopefully making her life a little better. I want my cat’s life to be as happy as it can possibly be.
I cannot have a kitten and kill myself. If I get a kitten, I’m staying alive to look after the cat; I’ll be staying alive for my pet.
In the small hours of the morning, I decided I wasn’t going to get the kitten anymore. I was going to buy rope, not kitten food.
How can this be? How can I be so unstable, when I seem to settled and secure?
To get to this point, where I was in an exclusive relationship with a girl who I’m absolutely crazy about, in a beautiful house, doing a job which I’m really good at, working on a flagship project for a massive organisation, with plenty of money flowing in… to get here was really f**king hard.
I cannot over-emphasise how hard it was to get to this point. I cannot stress enough just how difficult it has been to put all the pieces of a brand new life together. I cannot be excessively hyperbolic when I say that the journey to this point has exhausted every ounce of cunning, patience, perseverance and various other things, that I possess. I’m spent.
When I should have been thinking about buying kitten food, I switched to thinking about buying rope.
My life could collapse like falling dominoes. The plan to go and collect my kitten with the girl of my dreams, and bring the kitten home to the house of my dreams, all paid for with the job of my dreams… it would collapse so easily. The relationship has been damaged by events outside of my control, which threatens to ruin what had been an absolutely amazing thing up until last night. Losing the relationship means I can no longer keep myself safe, so I would have to hospitalise myself, which in turn jeopardises my job, which in turn jeopardises my house… and everything crumbles to dust.
I’m not being melodramatic. “The world’s longest suicide note” exists because my life has been in danger for so long. I thought I was getting to a safe, secure, stable, sustainable place, but I suddenly realised that I had used up all my emotional reserves and I had no capacity to absorb a catastrophic event, such as losing this girl I’m crazy about. Yes, I’m scarily over-invested. Yes, it’s dumb to make myself so vulnerable to events beyond my control, but I had allowed myself to believe I was going to get everything I want.
Then, suddenly, I was going to lose everything.
Of course, to you, the outside observer, you can’t imagine losing everything but I really can because I’ve had to rebuild my life from scratch. Like, I’ve had to start from zero, zilch, zip, nada. I literally don’t have any salt in my house, for example – I haven’t run out… it’s just one of a million items that I haven’t yet replaced, because I had to start my life all over again, from nothing.
I know how it goes. I know how one thing leads to another. I know how a health problem – for example – can snowball into a catastrophe that destroys an entire life.
That’s why I was going to buy rope, not kitten food.
I’m not prepared to lose everything again, and unfortunately I didn’t feel like I had the reserves to be able to deal with a major setback. I really f**king like this girl, and it’s unfair that the relationship got messed up by some outside actors. It was completely ridiculously crazily awful that this s**t got rained down on my head, just as my life was starting to come together.
It might seem crazy to throw away so much because of losing one “small” part – something which could be replaced – but I think you’re failing to understand how vulnerable it’s made me, working so hard for so long, in order to restore myself to health, wealth, love and prosperity. I’ve had enough of endlessly battling and struggling and striving. Time for the rope.
I’m not going to buy the rope. I’m never going to buy the rope. I know that it’ll be incredibly hard if the relationship which was totally amazing is irreparably damaged, and I’m lonely and single, and my beautiful bengal kitten is almost a reminder of what might have been but I know that if I collect the kitten tomorrow, I’m going to look after her for the rest of her life. Yes, it’ll f**king suck that a couple of dicks maliciously f**ked up my relationship, but I’ll have to take things philosophically: if my relationship was so fragile that it couldn’t withstand those malicious dicks, then how long could it have lasted anyway? Yes, I genuinely believe I’ll never find another girl who’s as perfect as this one, but then that’s a lot of unhelpful pressure, isn’t it? Better to try to get my feelings back under control and stop getting carried away.
You can forgive me getting carried away, can’t you?
Literally the last thing I had to buy to make my life complete was some kitten food (oh, and maybe some salt) and then my life was ready to welcome a little kitten into it. All the pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place. My life was seriously awesome, and getting more and more awesome all the time.
Then how on earth could I have seriously contemplated hanging myself in my hallway then?
I might look tough, I might have survived against incredible odds and I might have achieved unbelievable things, but it all takes its toll. I didn’t even realise how close to the wind I’ve been sailing until I burst into tears in the office car park, despite the fact that I was planning on buying rope, not kitten food after work.
I know what I’m like. I know how calmly I would have just gone about the business of hanging myself. I know that I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second.
I’m sick and tired of working so hard, and having my life ruined by things which are beyond my control. I’m sick and tired of getting so close, only to have some major shit which didn’t need to happen – shouldn’t have happened – spoil everything.
Perhaps it’s ludicrously frightening to think that I would have gone and bought rope – instead of kitten food – and hanged myself, seemingly over something relatively inconsequential and solvable, versus almost every other major problem I’ve overcome in my life.
Does this mean I’m dangerously unstable; at risk of suicide all the time? No.
I’m under incredible pressure at work. Dating has been exhausting. Moving house and furnishing the place has been excessively demanding. There’s been a perfect storm in my life, and yet I came so close to having everything work out, that it was an intolerable cruelty to have a malicious vindictive act perpetrated against me, causing so much damage. But, hey, s**t happens.
I need to go buy kitten food and other things now. You probably shouldn’t worry about me. I’d be dead by now and I’d never have warned anybody if I was going to do it. You definitely won’t get any warning if I’m going to kill myself, but you should be reassured that the plan is to get the kitten at lunchtime tomorrow, and then I’m damn well staying alive for that cat’s whole life.
Tags: #suicide
Comments
68 responses to “Kitten Food or Rope?”
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Thank you for making the choice you did!
My Mom would always say, “This too shall pass” even though it was annoying, the older I got, the more I understood it.
That little kitten is going to love their new, loving home.💜🐱
#Youarevaluable
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I am so glad that kitten food won the day. She will give you hours of pleasure for very little expectation on her part. I saw a bengal cat walking with its pet man in shrewsbury town centre today. Thought of you immediately xx
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I do understand…I lost everything. But I worked my ass off and got back what was important to me. Life is the best it’s been now quite some time. NO ROPE!
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That kitten needs you. And I’m sure many others do too. One minute at a time.
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My heart hurts for you Nick *hugs* Look after your kitten and yourself!
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Dear Nick, I send you lots of love❤
I really unterstand….you lost so much in your life.
Looking forward to all your 🐱pics. Hugs to you, my friend❤
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Oh Nick – I’m so glad you changed your mind. Please remember how many people care about you.
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I look forward to all the tweets of that lovable little furball who will be apart of your life!
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Me ten days ago
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My little dog has kept me here when nothing else would have. I hope your little kitten does the same for you.
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Get the cat….Bengal will drive you around the bend – in all the right ways. As @sherylwillwrite says…one minute at a time.
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Actually, BTDT. Hugs, friend!
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I know exactly what you mean when you say it’s the little things when you’re at your lowest point. But I’m so glad you’re still here. And I want a cute kitten pic when you get the time.
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I swear to god. He is one precious individual.
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Make sure you get that kitten and love it to bits!! 🐱
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Oh Nick… you sound a male version of my daughter!
Don’t buy rope…. but that little ball of love you so sorely need. As an owner of two Bengals… they will test you to exasperation but loving them is so easy! They remind me of myself and will be a mirror of you!
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Finally, Nick one step at a time… You, Home, job… then cat! As for the humanoid version…. that’s your call but get your home life right first! The rest will flow as it should!
Go easy on yourself and don’t OVERTHINK it! 😻
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Save the kitten.
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I want you and the cat to have a long life together
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Get that cat. Introduce your kitten to Dyna and C4 through the whiskers. Post picture of said kitten!
You’re right about a cat completing a home. When I first moved to where I am I had to give up my cat Hot Dog. Was a long couple of years with no cat I tell you. Cats complete us
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KITTEN FOOD
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Buy the rope and give it to me please.
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Nick my dear don’t:- haven’t finished your story coz of tears.Though am very far,but i need you;-you’ve been a great inspiration.Pls go for the kitten food.The kitten will be of great help for your mental health.Have got mine:-MikyNyash.It has been so remedial to my mental health
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I’m alive bc of my cat. Next month will mark 10 years that she has been in my life. There were plenty of times that i had given up and planned my suicide, but my cat is ultimately what keeps me here. Last Sept i got another kitten and i decided i can’t kill myself for 20yrs now.
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Keep your head and spirit up brother Grant. You got this.
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