Big Cat Energy

A Day of Rest, Reset & Pet Play

Dr. Udim Isang

Jun 06, 2025

Not all healing looks like stillness or running around like a chicken.

Sometimes it stretches, lounges in the sun, sips tea, and listens to what the body really wants.

Today, I engaged in pet play.

Not just the version you may know from kink spaces, but still very much within them.

What I did may not look like the videos, or your friend’s latex-and-collar experience, or even the dominant media depictions of kink. But it was kink. And it was mine.

There are gray areas.

There’s a spectrum.

And safety—emotional, physical, spiritual safety—is the real foundation.

For those exploring kink, I invite you to notice what feels true for you.

What softens your body?

What sharpens your awareness?

What resets your nervous system to make you feel more you?

I’ve had to explore that for myself, and am still mf exploring.

And today, it looked like this.

What is Pet Play in Kink Culture?

In BDSM and kink communities, pet play is a form of roleplay where a person takes on the characteristics of an animal—often a puppy, kitten, pony, or other pet. This can include specific behaviors, accessories (like collars or tails), and a power exchange dynamic where a “handler” or “owner” is involved. For many, it is a consensual way to explore submission, pleasure, embodiment, and altered states of being through animalistic expression.

And while some pet play involves performance or power exchange, it doesn’t always have to.

It can also be solo.

Soft.

Sacred.

It can be intuitive.

Messy.

Restorative.

Kink doesn’t have to be loud.

It doesn’t have to be seen.

It doesn’t have to be anything other than what brings you home to yourself.

My Pet Play Looked Like This

Today, I was the cat. A big cat—human cat—consciously and unconsciously claiming space to reset.

I spent time with my friend’s cats, watching their intuitive grace.

I mirrored their movements.

I mirrored their choices.

And in doing so, I mirrored myself.

We drank water only when we wanted to.

We ate only when it felt right.

We laid in the sun, soaking in our nutrients, not from striving—but from simply being.

We moved a bed today. My bed.

It took effort, maneuvering, and a bit of spatial calculus to get it through the tight corners of my life and home.

But we did it.

And that bed—my bed—might be the missing piece to my rest, my realignment, my return to self.

Sleep has been escaping me.

And sleep, as we know, is restoration for the brain, a balm for the nervous system, and the foundation for any kind of real healing.

I’ve been stretching, walking, going to the gym, and using all of my tools during this unexpected time of intentional and unintentional rest.

You see, I asked for the rest.

But I didn’t know what kind of Abasi would answer, or how loud and bossy they’d be.

So I listened.

I also remembered I wasn’t alone.

I spoke with a good friend.

We unpacked our identities—

My sapiosexuality (attraction to intelligence),
My demisexuality (requiring emotional connection),
My asexuality (the absence of sexual attraction).

We talked about intimacy.

Boundaries.

What it looks like when we hold them.

And how it feels in our bodies when we don’t.

This was mirror therapy too—witnessing myself through another’s truth.

Naming what I needed to hear.

Being seen.

Tools I Used to Reset Today (aka My Cat Kit)

Sun therapy – letting the sun hit my skin like a solar hug
Mirror therapy – observing movement, behavior, and body signals without judgment
Tea ceremony – choosing drinks that felt good in my body
Nourishment through joy – food I wanted, not food I “should” eat
Meaningful labor – Getting a bed that my body likes and claiming my rest
Deep conversation – naming identities, reflecting with safe others
Hourly alarms – using sound as a gentle body check-in
Snuggie naps – weighted warmth and intentional napping
Journaling – asking: Would I do today differently?
Sound shifts – music, silence, drumming, or a single breath
Doing nothing, with devotion – the art of mf stillness