All Creatures great and small!
As we grow older, we come to appreciate the many things that God has given us to enjoy upon this earth. Although it states in the Christian Bible that we are to be mated with a single life’s companion, many of us have chosen a different route for our journey here.
We have been blessed throughout our life with several companions who have four legs, are furry, and who desired nothing more than to make us smile and to brighten our days. And, our television sets have, especially recently, been brightened by commercials that sell dog and cat food that have featured some of the most appealing combinations of owner/pet relationships that we can remember ever seeing. There is the young lady from Oregon who moves to New York City to an apartment and brings her cat Atti with her. She has a job which takes her away for great lengths of the days but Atti must learn to adapt to an indoor environment when he has been nothing but an outdoor cat up to this point. The brief sixty second adventure that they share reminds us that there is far more to the relationship between pet and owner than we might first realize. Then, there is the story of an unnamed black Labrador retriever who wants nothing more in this world than to go on walks with his owner, catch a thrown tennis ball, and bring it back so that the living thing that he adores more than anything else in this world will simply play and then smile. The commercial ends with the words: Play! Its good for you.
Then we have perhaps my favorite commercial of all. It involves a family playing board games on a Friday night with their two cats during a rainstorm that is raging outside when a stray cat comes up to their glass door in distress over its wet and abandoned condition. The family takes it in, gives it the food that is the subject of the commercial, and then states that after a couple of weeks, they know that Lucy is theirs and that they are so glad that this little cat had chosen them. This commercial rings especially true to this writer because we too have a Lucy. And, she has been with us for almost seventeen years now. When we became solely responsible for Lucy’s care and well being after the breakup of my second marriage, we bought a feline care book that was written by a couple of veterinarians. In the front of that book is the phrase that states that if you are not careful, a cat will reach out and steal your heart. Mine is safely tucked away with Lucy, and, after seventeen years, we don’t think that she will ever really give it back to us. We know that she is growing older and that one day our time together will have to end. However, we thank God each and every day for the time that we get with this little eight pound calico gift of joy and all of the pleasures that she brings to our otherwise solitary life. We tell Lucy each and every day that she makes each day better simply by being there. We also tell her regularly that she is loved, wanted, and needed!
My second wife found Lucy living in the remains of an old fireplace at a neighbors house up the street from us. Her mother was attempting to push her away in preparation for her next litter of kittens but Lucy was reluctant to go. My wife approached me about taking her in and we agreed with the caveat that she would remain an outdoor cat that we would feed and allow to live in the shadow of our house. That lasted for all of one night before she was brought inside to live among us and become an integral part of our lives. We lived in a large house on three levels and we remember one of our enduring memories looking at Lucy one early sunny morning and thinking: such a big house and such a small cat! But, Lucy became the master of that house and came to endear herself to our family as she became, in effect, another member of our tribe.
We would not really come to realize just what Lucy meant to us until after our marriage ended and Lucy was assigned to watch out for me for the rest of her life by my ex-wife who still loved me but realized that we simply could not go on together. Lucy adapted to the townhouse that we moved into and became the lady of the house. When the doorbell would ring, Lucy would be there by my side to greet and welcome whom even might be on the other side of that door. When we celebrated the first birthday of our life that we had ever had to spend alone in the first year after our divorce, Lucy came to us on a cold march early morning and hopped on our bed and gave us hundreds of licks on our face as if to tell us that we were not really alone. These are among the things that build a relationship and a love that will last long after Lucy and I have to part. Lucy still gives me licks, but now they are laid upon a fully bearded face that makes no more difference to her at all. All Lucy cares about in life is the fact that she and I are together and that she gives and receives love as often as is possible. We have developed a theory that if an animal is truly loved, that they will stay around to receive that love for far longer than might be humanly thought possible. How anyone could mistreat an animal, particularly a cat, is simply beyond my comprehension. Lucy has been loved and she and I have seldom ever had a cross word. And, she has helped us to break down barriers in places like the grocery store where when we see someone buying cat food or litter it is usually easy to start a conversation about something that anyone who owns a cat can find commonality in. Just the other day we found out about a nineteen year old tabby who will only eat soft cat food now due to her advancing years. And the checkout cashier chimed in with news about a cat that her family has named simply “sourpuss’! However, she can be the nicest cat in the world when she wants to be!
Cats are independent and self resourceful but they do so need to be loved by the proper person. It extends both their life and the lives of those whom they allow to love and care for them. We remember being so tense after a very close sporting contest on cable one evening that left us unable to go to sleep. Lucy came and gave us beard licks and all the tension was gone after the end of that experience. We will never truly know just how much this little cat has meant to our physical and mental health. And we know that if we are out for an hour or several days, that when we return, she will be there to greet us and to let us know that we are missed and loved. And we also know this, when she does finally go on to the next stage of her journey, she will leave a hole right in the middle of our heart about eight pounds large. Someone once made a movie called “all dogs go to heaven!” We have no doubt that not only is there a heaven but that when we get there, someone very special will be waiting for us! Lucy has taught us so many wonderful things and perhaps the most wonderful thing of all is the simple respect for and the sanctity of all life, no matter how great or small that it might appear to be. When we start the road of life, we would be amazed, we think, if we knew just what would end up making a difference in that life. Old friends, new acquaintances, and a very beautiful, enduring calico cat!
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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