
My “emotional support Nate”. He’s been cruising to and from RI with me in the car every weekend. It’s a 2 hour and 6-minute drive. Usually, he wakes up when we’re south of Boston. I try to tell him what my mom used to say to me when we used to drive to NH to go skiing every weekend: “now put your head back down and go to sleep.” I always had trouble sleeping in the car – so does Nate.
He’s named after the author Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have a thing about naming cats after authors I love. Three of my favorite Hawthorne quotes are:
- “Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
- “Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”
- “Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.”
Nate is an important emotional support / rescue cat.