I wasn’t a cat person. When my husband first adopted Meadow, I threatened that if he adopted her it would be the end of our relationship. He called my bluff and I’m so grateful he did. Now that we have two furballs running around, it only seems fitting to think about all of the things they’ve taught me.
First, they’ve taught me patience. Have you ever tried to get a cat to do what you want? Yep. Patience. All joking aside, they have actually taught me about patience. Helping them get to know me and trust me took time and patience. As they are now getting to know each other, it’s taking patience. And yes, when I want them to do something new, it always takes patience. I think its because my cats are naturally cautious that it takes so much patience. Every new thing feels like a potential bad idea to them, so they avoid it. (Maybe they’re not so much naturally curious as they are conspiracy theorists?)
But, rescuing my cats has taught me a lot about life and who I want to be. Both of my kitties have hard luck stories. Meadow came to be the queen of this house via spending a couple of years outdoors as a stray and sleeping in our woodshed. She immediately knew the sound of a food box shaking when Darryl first tried to feed her. It was obvious she had been someone’s pet and then suddenly abandoned. However, while she may have been left on her own to survive, she was a plucky little thing and did survive. In fact, it wasn’t only until she had kittens that she finally let Darryl take care of her. When her last kitty died, he remembers watching her lay in the rain with the raindrops pelting the top of her head. In a little while, she eventually came in and spent three days either sleeping or eating, she was so exhausted.
Twister has an eerily similar story. We first noticed him last fall and tried to feed him over the winter but he was too wary of us. This summer, he finally broke down and accepted some food. We kept gradually getting closer and closer, getting him to trust us. The goal was to adopt him officially about now. We wanted to move gradually and get him in the house before winter but not move so fast that we failed to fully integrate him. Then, after he went missing for a couple of days, he showed up with one eye swollen nearly shut, a chest rattle and even skinnier than ever after only a few days. That fast-tracked adoption and bought him a round-trip ticket to the vet and a new home in my office. It would take weeks to nurse him back to health and finally get some weight on him. Today, he’s a healthy, happy and very bouncy little guy.
The real thing they have in common: both cats would have been dead within weeks if we hadn’t rescued them when we did. And that’s the lesson.
I believe in generosity. I believe in giving just a little more than your fair share. I believe that part of our mission on earth is to help any living body less fortunate than us. If you get that chance to help someone or some thing, I believe it’s a gift.
Rescuing Meadow and Twister – or M&T for short – has been work. Integrating the two of them has literally been a couple of extra hours of cat care a day. It’s meant rearranging our schedules to be home with the pets, spending money on vet bills, new feeders and toys and other supplies. It’s meant losing a bit of every evening to give each cat a little one-on-one time.
But rescuing M&T has given us so much more than it has cost us in time or treasure. Meadow has this sweet thing she does where she lays next to me on the couch, waits for me to put my arm around her and then hugs my arm into her body while I rub her chest. She falls asleep gently purring. Twister greets me at the door with the street cat’s version of a meow. He has no idea how to really vocalize yet so it comes out more as a grunt than a traditional meow. But, as soon as he comes into contact with me, he aggressively rubs up against me and purrs as loud as a squeaky fan bet.
Both cats trust me to be kind to them, to take care of their needs and to play with them and love on them. The trust they show me melts my heart.
And on bad days and good days, M&T know how to make those days even better. It may be my goofy boy tossing a cat toy into the air and then jumping after it, putting on a show that you can’t help but chuckle at. Or it could be my sweet girl head butting me on her way to the door to let me know she’s ready to go out.
Whatever they do and however bad my day gets, these two little furballs have taught me that in extending just a little generosity to them, I’d get so much more back in return. They remind me to be better than I want to be sometimes… to be more thoughtful, more insightful and, for goodness sake, more patient.
I’m not sure I could ever be a crazy cat lady. Two cats seem to be my limit. But, I know I’ll never say no to another stray who shows up starving at my door. If I can help, I will. It doesn’t take that much from me, particularly when I see how much it means to them.
The Yuppie Homesteader 