There are days when I really want to trade places with my cat. She is sleeping on her perch next to my computer desk and every so often she opens one eye to check out what I am doing. There’s a nice sunbeam coming in the window, and she doesn’t have a care in the world. What a life.

Her meals are always provided as opposed to my being the household cook. She never has to clean her toilet whereas I not only have the toilets, I also have the entire house. She is responsible only for herself and, when she wants alone time, she has multiple locations in the house where she can hide out for an hour or two. I am so jealous.

But, she also doesn’t have the shared experiences of daily triumphs over the challenges PD puts in front of us. She doesn’t have my sense of accomplishment at the end of each day knowing that I have done a good job of caring for my husband and myself. She may not carry the same load that I do but she also doesn’t have the reward and the love that comes from being his PD CarePartner and the caregiver of our lives. So maybe I won’t trade, at least not yet.