Mia - My Gift

Tonight I asked Mia, my 6-month-old kitten, “Why are you here?” 

She’s in the place she’s chosen to be “her space” since coming to us back in June.  I kid you not…she lays with her hind end on my left arm and her body stretched across my chest…her heart beating next to my heart.  If I lay down in my bed, and she finds me there, that’s where she will lie.  If I try to move my arm out from under her, she waits till I put my arm back in place…and immediately moves to lie on top of me.  It is "her spot", and she is there as often as she can be.

She does this to no one else in the family.  She may lay on top of their stomach for a few minutes and let them pet her…but it won’t be for long.  She’s a “momma’s girl” of a cat.  But what she really makes me aware of is my missing breasts.  Is it my imagination, or is she really trying to make up for what’s missing?  Is she comforting me?  How could she even know…she wasn’t here when they were taken six years ago?  Why does she only lie on my left side… where the tumors were?

These are some of the “strange” questions that slide through my mind.  And I thank God for gifting me with a precious, beautiful, soft cat that seems to “know” somehow that six years later I still struggle with the fact that I stared death in the face…that it was growing only a few inches from my heart…that a doctor, with the wisdom of God, was able to remove three tumors…that medicine that kills cells was able to do battle inside my body and restore only the healthy, strong cells so I could continue to live.  And after a day of thanksgiving for all I’ve my blessings, I hurt for the mother that was taken from me by the very same disease.  And I remember her beautiful cat, Callie, who lay on her hospital bed in her living room…lay at her feet…growled at me when I’d try to move her to change the bedding. 

Cats!  I know there are some people that detest them.  I also know some people that go a little overboard and love as many of them as possible (I remember reading of a woman in California who moved out of her house so it could house more cats…and she has hundreds of cats on her property that she’s caring for). 

I have been blessed to love many cats in my lifetime.  I can remember my first cat.  I was eight…living in Canada…when we got “Angel”.  I remember the box with her litter of six kittens…black and gold and cream-colored babies that were the tiniest, cutest things I’d ever seen.  I remember Hai-Ki…my dad’s 40^th birthday present…a Siamese that played hide-and-seek and walked with us whenever we walked our dog.  I remember the brother and sister cats I had from the same litter when I lived in an apartment during my college days…one solid black and the other solid white…named Ebony and Ivory!!!  Ebony once rode in a luggage carrier on top of a car from Ruston to New Orleans, Louisiana for the Thanksgiving holiday.  You can imagine my surprise when my next-door neighbor called from N.O. to let me know she’d be taking care of Ebony for the week.  I remember a tiny deaf kitten we brought home to care for…removed by a landlord that had a “no pets” policy (ouch).

I’ve loved kitties for over 50 years!!!  Not sure why I felt compelled to share this tonight except that Mia (short for MacadaMIA…because she’s a “nut”) once again plopped down on my chest…purring…invading my space…healing my heart…just being herself.  There’s a lot to learn from this kitten who is being just what she was created to be…who is doing just what she was created to do…and brings purr joy (pun intended) to my heart.  May your life be blessed by a furry “critter” who may just be an angel in disguise (personal opinion…there are no Scriptures to back up the idea that angels ever visit us in fur – weak smile).

Thank You, Lord, for furry friendships that somehow still draw attention to You and the comfort You offer.  And thank you, Mia…just for being you!