Cats are Angels too!
I moved around a lot as
a child but even though my sisters and I were uprooted every two years we seem
to manage to adopt a pet off the streets or from some pet store. The sad thing is when we moved we had to give
up the animals. Our mother would tell us
they would be going to good homes, as I got older I stopped asking because I
didn’t want to know where these “good homes” were.
I’m sure I’m not alone in the
tragedies of loving a domesticated animal only to lose them to other families
or for some to be truly lost or killed due to living in city traffic. I was mostly a lover of cats and every pet I
have owned is still a part of me, but it wasn’t until my illness did I realize
how important animals are to our everyday life.
When my father had a stroke years
before he died I had moved away for a short while and left my parents with my
much loved Calico cat. After a couple of
years I moved back and got an apartment in the next town. I wanted to have my cat with me. I was too stupid to recognize the bond that
my father, who was mostly bedridden, and the Calico had formed in my absence.
My mother explained to me that the
cat would sleep on my father’s chest tucked in his beard and that the cat would
sit on the table next to him as he painted.
The Calico watched patiently as my father applied every brush stroke to
canvas with a hand that was trembling.
On the first night I was in my new
apartment the cat ran away not to return for days disheveled and scared. In my heart I knew she was looking for my
father and I wish I was smarter back then to realize she was no longer my cat
but my fathers.
When I had my cancer surgery in
October of 2010 two of my sisters were in town and stayed with my husband as they
took shifts with me at the hospital.
Little did I know but my beloved cat Mookie was going through her own
pain of not having me home. She would
look at my sisters and though they had dark hair and our voices sounded similar
she knew it wasn’t me.
After about a week she was so
distraught my husband told me she attacked him as though he was responsible for
me being gone. When I was able to leave
the hospital and come home she didn’t leave my side and though in the past she
would sleep or walk on my belly somehow she knew not to do so.
Once my family left and my husband
had to return to work she babysat me, literally. My husband gave the cat instructions to keep
me in bed, well its hard keeping me down so when I mustered up the energy I got
out of bed and wanted to go down stairs.
Mookie sat at the door of the bedroom all fluffed up and yellow eyes piercing
into mine. Her eyes let me know she took
my husband’s instructions to heart and did not budge from the door way. I had to laugh as she wouldn’t let me through
and walked back into bed as she joined me and stayed there till he got home.
She is my little angel and a life
saver during those dark hours when I was home alone until my husband’s
return. She allowed me to cry and many
times reached out with her paw to touch my arm.
My husband has also told me how she has come to his rescue during those
first days after my cancer nightmare.
Sometimes we might look at our pets
and see them as animals that we must take care of but its moments like these
that I realized they actually take care of us.
Go out there …adopt an animal or hug the one you’ve got because you
never know how long you have them before they have to find a “new home.” I’m happy to say my angel has been with us
for over 11 years.
Mookie saying her daily prayers
Here she stands her ground
She lets us know she doesn't want us to go away
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