Fate Brought Me this Kitten to Save My Life
When we give, we always get more in return
Mikel and I laid on blankets in a back room of his mom’s house in the Alabama heat with our cat, Nala.
He was desperately looking for work so that we could qualify for an apartment or house. You could hear the stress, exhaustion and cramped quarters in our voices despite whispering to each other.
With a new sense of determination, we stood up and got in the car. We drove around trying to find a gas station to wash the car when the stress bubbled up inside me. Pre-menstrual, I quickly and irrationally erupted into tears.
The flood gates were open, and my heart spilled out.
Mikel tried to console me, but to no avail. We decided to continue our journey to find a car wash. We drove along in silence feeling defeated and very much worn out.
“There’s a kitten!” Mikel shouted as he pulled a quick turn into the parking lot.
He told me to get out, and I stood there thinking, “what is he talking about?!”
I walked closer to the street and immediately a tiny black and white face poked its head out of the drain. I got on one knee on the side of the street and blinked slowly.
The little kitten walked straight towards me and meowed. A car came and both the kitten and I dodged out of the road.
Mikel had parked the car by this point and headed straight for the drain. When the car passed, I meowed back, and the kitten popped his head out again. Mikel scooped him up and we walked straight to the car.
In Over Our Heads
I wrapped him in a re-inc blanket while Mikel went inside the store to find some food. The kitten was tiny and although clearly in disarray, he was curious and wanted to explore the new environment.
We took him directly to the vet. There was confusion over age and gender, but the vet decided the kitten was only about 5 weeks old and a girl. The latter proved false with time, but it didn’t matter since I took one look at his face and named him “Rory.”
In all the excitement, we had completely forgotten our worries. We returned to Mikel’s mom’s house when we got a call from the vet. We didn’t really have the ideal situation to take on a little kitten.
The vet explained to us the 10 different medications that he needed to take each day, the way he was too small to go on flea medication so we had to give baths with Dawn soap, and how his leg needed to be amputated in what would be a $1,400 surgery.
None of it seemed feasible, but when we went to pick the little nugget up, we knew that we just had to make it work. The nearest no-kill shelter was hours away, and who was going to take a little guy who was so emaciated and legless?
No, our hearts had already grown too big to give him up.
We took him home and fed him. We prayed to God that everything would be alright.
We saved up money for his surgery but when the time came for amputation, the vet stood there shocked at how this shattered leg had magically healed. Call it Divine Intervention, call it fate, or maybe even call it a magic purr, but he healed himself and also healed me.
Somewhere to Put the Love.
I sat down on the carpet as Rory came and kneaded his paws into my shirt. Tears began streaming down my cheeks, as I gazed into the little furball’s eyes.
There was just so much love inside of me and it finally had a place to go. I had been grieving for my mom for 2.5 years and while there were many reasons for my grief, a part was not knowing where to put all the love inside of me that I used to show to her.
The weight of unused loved has been crushing my soul. Now it had a place to go.
My days were spent taking care of him and all the frustrations of our situation were melting away. As the love spread, the problems shrunk.
Rory came into my life just when I needed him.
But like most things that have a touch of divinity, there were equal struggles as there were joys.
It took two months to introduce him to Nala which meant partitioning off our new home. All the money we had saved for his surgery got used for new toys, cat houses, and water fountains to make our two furry children comfortable.
He gained weight and discovered his newfound athletic ability which included needing hours of play a day. He had separation anxiety from me that we had to work through as well.
There was nothing easy about this blessing, but there is also nothing I would change.
He is a constant reminder to me that no matter how much you have, you always have room to give.
I can’t deny the feeling of fate that surrounds his arrival. There are certain things that only a higher power could have orchestrated. What at some points seemed like a curse or hardship, was also a beautiful blessing.
Original post was published at: https://pieceofpeacemeditation.com/resources/fate
If you enjoyed this article, take a look at my series, “Adults are Children Too” on Amazon.
