Aug
15

The Cat Saga Continues . . .

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God seems to be using pets to teach me lessons these days. Specifically, cats.
 
I wrote in this blog post about what happened when we had to put our wonderful big black cat, Joey, down after 16 years of joy.
 
Then we did get Buddy. But things didn’t work out as we’d hoped.
 
Now there’s a new chapter in the cat saga.
 
In that last blog post, I talked about how I had surrendered the whole matter to God. I even wrote, “I am quite sure that when I’m ready for another cat, one will somehow come into my life.”
 
Well, literally no sooner had I hit the “publish” button than I got a notification from our Nextdoor neighborhood chat group that someone had a cat that had hung around their house all day, and now that it was night she was concerned about it being outside.
 
I saw the neighbor lived in my town, so I asked where. She lives two blocks away! I said I’d take the cat, at least overnight.
 
And that’s how Cleo has come into our lives. (I’m not sure what her name was, but that’s the name that comes to my heart.)
 
Cleo is not the cuddly cat I would have chosen. Frankly, I’m not sure she has “chosen” us yet. But she is the cat that has come to us, seconds after I had surrendered and wrote that at the right time, the right cat would come to us. I think she had been abandoned, but that at one time she did have a good home. She does not have a chip or collar.
 
I am giving Cleo time to adjust, just as I’m giving myself time to grieve over Joey. Perhaps Cleo too is grieving. Miraculously, she gets along fine with my son’s dog Chester, who is often with us. My vet says she seems well cared for. So maybe someone out there is grieving the loss of Cleo. I’m doing Healing Codes for her and me, for grief. (Yes, The Healing Codes work well for pets, too. I just did one for Chester, who was acting fearful because of the thunderstorm. Right after I released the Code to him, he stops trembling, jumped down from the chair, and seems fine.)
 
Cleo’s lessons are about surrendering: giving up my ideas about what I think I want, to receive whatever good is waiting for me.
Perhaps the owner will come forth, and I will have to give her up, and I’ll be petless again.
 
(I think it’s amusing that God seems to think I’m not meant to be petless for long. Since Joey left this life, we were petless for only 9 days!)
 
Whatever happens, I’m ready to receive it, because I know it will be God’s best, tailored to me, packaged with the lessons I need to learn now.
 

Update, August 28: Cleo continues to slowly warm up to us. She’s not unfriendly; she even comes when called. She just isn’t a lap cat, and may never be.

I’ve had to learn a few new things–like, how to keep her from destroying our furniture. She seems to love her scratching pad–to lie on! However, she has begun to scratch it, too.

I found a recipe for a cat deterrent spray made up of rosemary essential oil, water, and a bit of soap. It does seem to help some. We’re also trying to show her “no, not the couch” but “yes, here’s your scratch pad.”

Of course, she shows no interest in the fancy scratching post we got her, even though I scattered catnip around the base. (Joey went wild over catnip. Cleo likes it, but is not crazy about it.)

So the lessons in patience, in finding new ways to do things, in enjoying what is rather than what I wish it would be, continue. We like watching her. She will probably warm up to us more in time. At least she’s not a hider….

Update, September 6: Cleo has not warmed up to us.

This morning I realized: I don’t really like this cat. I don’t want this cat.

It was hard to admit. I have met very few cats I didn’t like, if any. But the truth was I didn’t want this cat. Perhaps I still wasn’t really “over” losing Joey. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time for another cat; my life had gotten very complicated.

What to do? I didn’t want to have to put her in a shelter. I didn’t want the hassle of trying to find another home for her.

I didn’t even have to pray about it. By the afternoon, my husband told me, “I saw Cleo running down the driveway.”

And we haven’t seen her since. Problem solved.

Grace. . . .

Good-bye, Cleo

 
 
 
 
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