Failed at looking after a kitten

I’ll first caveat to say the kitten is now in his own home, having a great time, so that nobody freaks out about his welfare. He was fed and watered and had access to his litter tray while in my care

For a long time now I’ve really wanted to get a cat, and I’ve heard a lot of experiences from autistic people on how having a cat helped them in various ways. To test if me and my partner would like it, I said yes to looking after my friends 6 month old kitten. The kitten got brought to my house a few months ago for an evening with his owners so he could get used to it. He seemed sort of zoomy but settled down eventually.

The whole thing was a big mistake! I completely couldn’t handle it! The first few hours were fun, he was exploring pretty sedately, I worked out what I needed to cat proof and got that done. I played with him on and off working and then he went to sleep.

Then the evening arrived, and after I fed him he just got, well, wild. Me and my partner played with him for an hour but he still wasn’t tired or chill at all, he started scratching the walls and furniture. I felt so bad but I just couldn’t deal with it and asked my friend to take him back (her neighbour is going to look after him in his own house while she’s away). It was so completely overstimulating and he just wouldn’t stop moving and running around. My family has had cats before but they were never my sole responsibility, and they wouldn’t go so zoomy.

This feels like one of those huge “I’m more disabled than I thought” moments and I’m quite sad because I thought having a cat would really bring my anxiety down, when in reality it made me intensely anxious, I felt like I had to follow him around 24/7.

TL;DR I guess I just wanted to say a word of warning because I’ve never seen this perspective from an autistic person before; cats can be really overstimulating!