Kitten Lollapalooza

I didn't know that July would turn out to be "Month of the Kitten", but that seems to be its destiny. Mr. Theodorable is still with us and improving daily. He accompanied us to church yesterday so we could keep an eye on him, but it turned out to be a good thing anyway. He gave the three other kittens someone to play with.



Turns out that our friend has been kitten-sitting over the weekend for her neighbor. The babies are still on the bottle, so they came along to church, too. And is just so "happened" that the three kittens were a perfect match for our three families. My mom wants a small, all-black kitten, and of course one of them matched that description. I've been wanting a calico, and one of them (the tiniest) is a little calico baby. The other kitten was a live-wire tabby, the perfect companion for a certain twitchy nephew of mine. He just has to convince his father of the perfection.

Hey, when things line up this perfectly, you know God is behind it, and if Devon's dad wants to be like Jonah and run away from God's plan, well, there aren't many whales in Montana, but I'm sure God can come up with something! Resistance is futile, give into the kitten-side.

The kitten I want , Miss Elsie Belle.

As I was sharing in Sabbath school the story of Theodore's miraculous rescue, Beverly, a fellow Westbian, gave me some more information. It turns out that the whole event was even more of a God-thing than I could see from my end. See, I have been praying for several months about finding a kitten. I wanted one of my own and even though I am in a land of plenty as kittens go, somehow it never worked out for me to get one.

Once, I was about to buy one at the pet shop, but went to finish my shopping so it wouldn't have to wait in the car. By the time I came back, the little calico had been sold. Ever since then, the kittens haven't been ones that I wanted, or there weren't any available, or something. I was getting a bit disgruntled.

It may come as a shock to you, but my life currently has a lot of problems, er, I mean, opportunities for faith development. And it seemed to me that it wasn't too hard of a thing for God to give me a little kitten to cheer my dreary way. I was getting quite petulant about it. All the while, God had a better plan for me, a perfect match waiting in the wings (good thing I can't get husbands at the pet store or I probably would have seriously messed this thing up by now!).

Last Sunday, a very nice lady in Westby went out to feed the family of wild kittens that lives in her garage. The cute little tabby that always poked his head up to watch her was there, but that was the last time she saw him. She spent the rest of the week worried, praying for the kitten, thinking he was probably dead, but at least wanting to find a body, or someone who saw what happened, so she would know.

Wednesday, a wounded white tom cat (who doesn't have a collar choking him, just a neck wound) led me down the alley behind her house, and a little kitten's cry caught my ear. For the rest of the week, while his former mom wondered and worried about his safety, King Theodore rode around on a fluffy pillow and lived off the fat of the land.

"Mew..."

"Oh, did I hurt your leg? Here, let me put you in a more comfortable position!"

"Mew...mew..."

"Are you hungry? Let me get you some kitten chow! After all, you were hungry for soooo long!"

"Mew..."

"Do you want me to wake up and play with you? It's the least I can do after all you suffered!"

By the end of the week, Beverly had read about the new kitten on this blog and was able to let her friend know that her kitten had likely been found. Sabbath morning when Bev told me where her friend lived I was sure of it, since I found the kitten right behind the lady's house. How neat to find out that not only had I been praying that God would bring me a kitty of my own, but this lady had been praying that her lost baby would find a good home and be safe.

And all of this faith-affirming experience would have been skipped if I had MY way and gotten an "ordinary" kitten when I wanted to. God's ways are always best, even when they aren't according to my time-line. Hopefully, I can remember this lesson for a while, because chances are God knows I'm going to need to trust His timing on other issues pretty soon. That's usually the way things work. If God sends you a lesson, there's usually a test coming behind it!

Our robin is more likely to meow than chirp at this point! If you didn't notice it in the photo earlier, it is snuggled down right along side all the kittens in Devon's lap. This morning I brought Theodore to snuggle alongside Laura when I had to get up.






A short time later, I heard Laura awaken with a gasp.

"Where's my robin?!"

Turns out that, like many sleep-deprived new mothers, she had taken the robin back to bed with her after its morning feeding. I didn't see it in the dark, but not to worry, Theo and the robin had snuggled happily for a half hour before Laura awoke. Theo was giving it little licks, and I'm not completely comfortable that his motives were wholly disinterested, but it was sweet anyway.