Friday, March 23, 2007 . 3/23/2007

I've started reading Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, and it has got to be one of the best books I have ever read. It's filled with stories about love, hope, charm, mystery, and even loss, but they are all very touching. To state a few of these stories:

One kitten, Ricky, was an amazing kitten. He played a mini toy piano and even fed the dogs at the vet treats by jumping on the counter, opening the dog treat jar, lining up the treats, and shoving them off the counter to the dogs below. Ricky became a well-known cat, demostrating his piano-playing skills to audiences. At one of these demonstrations, a boy with Down Syndrome passed by, took one look at Ricky, and genuinely laughed his heart out, afterwards petting the kitten and letting it sit in his lap, whispering in Ricky's ear untold secrets. His mother was amazed, saying that Billy's (the boy) father had passed away two weeks ago and he hadn't reacted to anything since. This kitten changed all that, and before the two left, Billy gently said to the kitten, "I love you".

Unfortunately, the next time Steve, the owner, took Ricky to the vet, they discovered he had a heart murmur. He was later diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, but it progressed slowly. During this time, Ricky remained his normal happy-go-lucky self until one day he fell over after eating and then looking at Steve. Since then, the Ricky Fund has been established to help find a cure for feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

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The second story starts out with a thirty-seven-year-old or so woman, Mary, in the year of 1991 when war was raging. Valentine's day was coming up, and the fact that she was alone and that her mother had passed away didn't make things better. Eventually she decided to forget about men, and get a cat. No black cats, she said, since they are too mysterious and sly. Not a male cat either; they are too independant. She settled on the idea of a female calico. But what to name her? She then went back to remembering her mother and how she always disliked cats until one Christmas evening in northern Michigan a huge, fluffy black and brownish cat came waltzing through the door as if he had been there before. She remembered that this cat stole her mother's heart, and named him Muggs after a wanted poster that she saw that resembled the cat in a way. After Christmas vacation was over, the family and Muggs would go their seperate ways. Next Christmas rolled around, and when the family arrived at their cabin the cat returned, and disapeared when Christmas was over.

Finally, Mary made the call to the adoption center for a female calico kitten, and sure enough, they had one available. Instead of going over right away, she decided to clean up the house to get ready for the new arrival. After about an hour of cleaning, she drove over to the adoption center only to find out that the calico was adopted an hour ago. Disapointed, she looked through the other cages of cats and kittens until she heard a jingling noise. It was coming from a kitten's cage; a black male kitten. She was asked if she'd like to hold him, and she did, the kitten purring loudly in her arms. She then read the sign at the side of his cage, and noticed that his name was Muggins. This was definately her cat.

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The third that I'm going to mention is about a mysanthropic cat named Disney who developed a special bond with his owner, Toni, and guide dogs in training, but not other people, whom his spit and hissed at, despite his owner's best efforts to socialize him as a kitten. Disney would constantly crave the attention of Toni, even flinging himself into her arms when she arrived home from work. One day, when she came home with her husband and his guide dogs, Disney would greet the animals but not her husband. He finally got the idea that Toni's husband was permanent and stopped hissing at him, but he would play little tricks on him such as stealing the food from her husband's plate, and being blind, this was a bit of a problem.

Eventually, after noticing Disney's health starting to deteriorate at the age of twelve, she took him to the vet where he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. He would have to be hospitalized for a week following his surgery. Making daily calls to the vet to check up on Disney, the workers told her that his health was doing fine but his attitude wasn't. He was proving very difficult, even impossible to handle without sedating him. Finally, the time came to bring Disney home. Toni went to his cage, where he hissed and spat at the workers but jumped into her arms, purring loudly and licking her face. The veterinary staff was amazed at this transformation.

In the following days the bond between Disney and Toni got ever greater, Disney rarely leaving her side. On the horrible day that he passed away, friends comforted her, saying that he was now resting happily and purring in God's lap. At this, Toni laughed and said that, divine or otherwise, Disney would hiss at every person besides her.

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With these few stories in mind, faith and fate seem to play a special role. While not a believer anymore in the supernatural or divine myself, I think it is good that some people have faith that there is a heaven and a god. It is comforting, and while delusional, I think that it's healthy as long as this faith doesn't go so far as to forcing it down everyone's throats or consuming the person's entire life. As far as I know, we have only one life to live, and if someone wants the comforting notion of a god to help them through tough times, then so be it. I myself wish that I could go back to knowing nothing, and believing everything (which is not to say that believers don't know anything). 0 Comments - Post/view comments