TGIF
Every morning and every night it’s the same routine.
I get the Wal Mart bag full of cat food and prepare to serve the cats their vittles.
Mis Kitty sits quietly waiting for her food and Chester howls as if his death by starvation is imminent if I don’t get that can opened immediately.
If I try to feed Miss Kitty first, he tries to take her food while I’m preparing his.
She swats him, I swat him, and he howls again in the death throes of famine.
Then I feed him…and it’s never enough.
You could turn him loose in the Friskies factory and it wouldn’t be enough.
He will eat until he makes himself sick, because he’s convinced that the next meal may not come.
Despite the fact that he hasn’t missed a meal (or a snack, or a brunch) since he’s been here, he persists in believing the worst.
Chester’s past controls his present, and darkens his future.
Things were bad once, so bad is his perception of reality.
He can’t enjoy the good blessings of today because his expectations are set to bad.
I feel sorry for him, but I also need him to change his outlook.
You see, it’s starting to affect Miss Kitty.
Fear is contagious.
Maybe…Chester knows something she doesn’t.
Maybe…after year after year of faithful provision, I’ll decide that I don’t want to feed her anymore.
Maybe…I’m not who she thinks I was.
Maybe… she should cry too.
If Chester is correct, she should.
He’s not.
I’ll keep feeding them both as long as I’m here.
I don’t plan on going anywhere.
I don’t feed them because it’s my duty.
I feed them because I love them and they are my fur kids.
I’ll even feed them when they think I won’t.
Their choice is to believe me and enjoy life with a good father… or believe the worst and think every meal is their last.
I can feed them, but I can’t believe for them.
Make your own application…
Well done, Michael. Just keep being the example of God to those two.
It takes a long time to overcome a bad past and start believing.
Owen,
This is one that I wrote for myself… 🙂
Ah…..I had a hunch, but didn’t want to assume…
Owen, that hunch is usually correct when applied to these pieces… 🙂
As a man who is owned by 9 cats, trust me, you will need to take Chester to the vet and get him fixed.
You know, neutered.
The testosterone will subside and he will mellow out greatly.
But his veracious appetite will remain.
There are clinics in some cities that will do it gratis just to keep the feral cat population down.
You might check around for one of them.
I live on a very big property and it is adequate for the amount of cats that have wondered on to it that I now am in servitude to.
I wouldn’t change a thing!
By the way all of my feline friends have been fixed and chipped.
It really does make a difference in them all getting along together when they are fixed.
Because I care about them and have committed to them for their entire life I willingly and joyfully meet their needs.
And of course they return the favor by lots of purring and leg rubbing and just plain hanging out with me.
In case any one is wondering I maintain 3 electric cat boxes that automatically scoop after each cat is finished with their toiletry.
http://www.petsafe.net/Scoopfree?swtb=2&gclid=CMutiLCS8s4CFc-CfgodfXAKRg
All of my babies are well fed and very well cared for.
And yes my vet loves us..
We just spent a lot on Solo Kitty today for some surgery.
He is home now and doing fine, but still a bit groggy, but he will now be much happier and healthier.
Really proud of you Micheal.
I never expected God to bring these wonderful creatures into my life, but He did one by one.
And yes we have lost a few of them.
One to the neighbors pit bull and one to poisoning by who knows who.
Cats just happen.
You don’t expect to have cats.
But one day they just appear and persist in making you part of their lives.
Looking back i just know it was God’s plan to provide for them all along.
They hit the kitty lottery or i am really blessed.
Still thinking on that…
Dang, Michael. Way to reach into my heart and stick it in my face.
Keep doing this. 🙂