When we are confronted with that which is amazing and wonderous and profound, too often our first response is to reduce that experience with mundane explanations, even if in doing so, we are compelled to distort and forget that which we knew, if even for a brief moment, to be true.

These are the wonderous stories of the Heart Family.


Sunday, December 28, 2008

Beginnings

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My understanding of my relationship to the four-leggeds has been turned completely on its head, but that transition didn’t happen overnight. Instead my world turned upside-down slowly enough that I didn’t see what was happening for quite a long time.

At first, my relationship to the cats was that of home provider and caretaker. I was responsible for their safety and security and health and basic needs. My reward then was the good feelings one gets tending to animals. Little did I understand in those early years that the reverse was actually true. They had, of their own free will, come to take care of me, to encourage me to grow, to open my eyes to all that really is, to nurture me back to physical and spiritual health and even to provide the safety and security for our family.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Light Heart was the first to arrive, endearing himself to me with furious head bumps to my hand as soon as I opened the cage door at the shelter. At that time I still held to shallow preferences of choosing a companion cat in part by their color, and thought my preference was to have a gray cat. Perhaps he knew this and understood his uphill battle to get my attention. His outpouring of affection brought me back to his cage again for a second consideration. As there was still another two-legged living in my home, approval was needed before the final choice was made, so I headed home without him, but he stayed on my mind.

I understand now that our companion animals choose us as much or more than we choose them. Some of my family had to work tremendously hard to get their home. For Light Heart, his work was probably the easiest – just pour on the charm and he had me. Within a week he had come home.

The day of his arrival, we released him to the living room. He tentatively left the carrier, lowered his body close to the ground and proceeded for the next twenty minutes to carefully sniff and inspect the entire perimeter of the room. He must have been pleased with the results of his inspection because when he was done, he moved to the center of the room, confidently made himself big, laid down and with resounding body language announced that he had arrived.

Light Heart was big for his age, and my naivety about cats let me to believe when I met him that he was already full grown. It was only after the decision was made and the paperwork was done that I heard a shelter worker comment on how large his paws were and how big he may grow to me. Apparently I didn’t just adopt a cat, but potentially a small lion. Today I would say he has the spirit of Lion in him, or perhaps better yet, Lion Heart, because of his tremendous devotion to my partner (JH). (JH was the last to arrive, making our family complete, but again I get ahead of the story.)

The next step in family building was to find a companion for Light Heart.

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