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, January 4, 2009

Family Building 103

Strong Heart

Over the next few weeks an amazing interaction unfolded. Each time when I entered the shelter, before I was in his line of sight but as soon as this little guy heard my voice, he would start to cry and cry and cry and would not stop until I pulled him out of his cage and sat down with him on my lap. He passed up on the opportunity for floor time to just stay on my lap, continuing his unique practice of pushing his nose up mine, causing me to giggle every time. Admittedly I started to look forward to my visits with him, and held my breath through each open house, hoping no one else noticed his charm and that he would still be at the shelter the next day.

A cat with an obvious medical condition, as this little guys cataract clearly displayed, isn’t always at the top of the potential adoption list but there are actually many more good souls that I would have thought that do come into shelters and look for the “less than perfect” cat. These are likely the folks that have learned what I was in the process of learning – that our relationship with our companion animals is profound and not limited by such things.

Soon it became clear to me that we had a bond and that I wanted this guy to come home with me. One of the other volunteers on the cleaning crew was also an adoption counselor and was more than happy to expedite the paper work. Before I knew it, I now was a three cat home, wondering what I had done, as growing my family was never in my plans. (Little did I know!)

Strong Heart had worked hard to find his way home. I pieced together what the shelter knew of his history. He was abandoned at an apartment complex and was one of a number of cats left there to forage on their own for food. A kind family noticed his eye, thought he should have medical attention, caught him up and brought him to the shelter. By the time I met him, he already has his own ophthalmologist (yes, there are veterinary ophthalmologists!).

I believe now that our animals find their way to us, having the intention before they are born of knowing where they need to go. Strong Heart had to choose to be born with congenital eye problems, be abandoned, and then travel many miles to be at the right shelter at the right time for me to find him. What I once thought was nothing more than happenstance, I now see as intentional universal design.

My little buddy found his long way home.

Strong Heart

2 comments:

Anne said...

I love this journal. The communication part of the animals makes perfect sense to me. Strong spirits, aren't they? Your pictures are wonderful and I especially love the last one. Anne

Waking Heart (WH) said...

Hi Anne,

Welcome and thanks! Yes, they are tremendous spirits. I should have started writing their stories years ago. Maybe in a few (dozen) more lifetimes I can catch up to where they are now.

WH