I couldn’t wait till dinner-time to post this–Patty’s video of our own two furry babies, back in happier times. Robbie’s the one with the white bib. She’s given up toting Patty’s slippers around the living room. And Peep is up in heaven now.
Oh, our little girls! Have to stop now, eyes filling up…
Our cat Peep seems a bit under the weather today, and she’s been having trouble getting up the stairs to the bedroom. She and Robbie are getting elderly.
Peep is Patty’s little shadow, and I don’t mind carrying her up the stairs if that’s where she wants to be. Not everybody understands this, but some of you do: our cats are our loved ones. Not much left of our family, and those who still live, all live far away. I can’t manage a four-hour drive on the highway anymore.
So please mention Peep in your prayers. We need the love our cats give us. Pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
I wouldn’t dare offer this advice if I hadn’t once taken it myself, and was blessed for doing so.
When our cats Buster and Missie died, years ago, Patty and I were just about crushed with grief. Those two cats loved us like crazy, and we loved them.
A few days afterward, we met a friend who had just lost her dog some weeks ago. She and that dog were very close, I knew.
She let her daughter talk her into going to the animal shelter and bringing home a rescue dog. “That’s the thing for you to do–go to the shelter and rescue a cat,” she said. “In fact, the sooner you do it, the happier you’ll be.”
So we went to the shelter, and I learned something there–something that I’ll never forget.
Here it is: There is always a cat out there that needs you. (This applies the same to dog-lovers.) I felt like I wanted to bring all those cats at the shelter home with me. We wound up with two kittens, Robbie and Peep.
So if there’s a cat-shaped hole in your life–fill it! There is a cat that needs you, in a shelter somewhere: a cat that will love you, and be loved by you.
It doesn’t have to be a kitten. There are mature and even elderly cats who need homes, and who already know how to behave themselves indoors. Cats whose owners have died, or been hospitalized. Nice, calm cats who will not climb up on top of your refrigerator and knock things down.
See, this is one of those extra blessings that God thought of including in His creation–one of those things that we never would have thought of.
There is always a cat or dog out there who needs you.
Let’s take a break from discouraging news and observe some of the unusual ways cats have found of taking forty winks.
Our cat Peep has a habit of sleeping face-down. She and Robbie both have a penchant for trying to squeeze themselves into cardboard boxes that are much too small for them. Some of the postures affected by sleeping cats would lead you to believe they have no skeletons.
So enjoy the sleeping cats. There’s a lesson to be learned from them–and I wish I knew what it is.
This is Robbie, my little girl who needs an inhaler mask. Patty took her picture and the Old Farmer’s Almanac published it in 2006.
Her sister, Peep, has not had her picture published anywhere. Not yet.