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| Old photo of Maxee and Champ |
I am blessed to have been given a chance to be the human
companion of two lovely felines – Maxee and Champ. Even if pet companionship
can be a challenge sometimes, it never fails to give me nuggets of joy and
lessons every day.
Maxee and Champ have two very distinct cat-racteristics. I will
mention one on this entry and explain what I got from it.
Cats express themselves and their needs in a million ways.
Body language plays a vital role in this communication. You have to understand
the movements of their ears, tails and fur. You also have to distinguish the
different sounds they produce – there’s the purr, the sweet meow, the hungry meow,
the in-heat meow, the distressed meow, the responding-to-another cat meow and, of
course, the hiss. How they move their tails speak of so many things too. It
will take time for the human companion to be up to speed. One cat’s behavior
may differ from another so having two cats will double your daily discoveries.
Champ is the best example of a cat that uses all the
signals mentioned above especially when hungry. It would do anything and
everything in its cat power to let me know. As a first attempt, it will rub
itself against me like a sweet pet does and stay on my lap for 10 seconds. If
that doesn’t work, it will produce the I-am-a-male-feline-and-I-am-hungry
sound. Next attempt would be to distract my attention by blocking my view with
the hey-look-who’s-here-and-look-who’s-hungry
sounds, or biting my leg or hand, or jumping on my back almost hugging my neck
(imagine the pain it gives if I wasn’t able to trim the nails prior) or by
pulling my hair. Yes! Sometimes it can drive you up the wall!
Maxee, on the other hand, is extremely opposite. It comes
up to me, gives a sweet I-am-a-hungry-give-me-food-please
meow, rubs itself against me until I pay attention, goes to the feeding area
and patiently stare. It will give me the I-will-wait-for-you-here-please-hurry-up-but-I-will-be-patient
look.
Two cats, two different ways of expressing their needs, one
goal and one faith.
We can use the same metaphors in the way we express our
needs to God. We can be Maxee and tell our Father our prayers and then be still
and know the He will work on it. We can rest in the idea that He is capable of
everything and that His will is higher than ours.
Be still and know that I am God... – Psalm 46:10
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer…let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7…OR be like Champ and pray incessantly with an understanding that NO ONE else can help us.
Pray unceasingly. 1Thessalonians 5:17
Give us this day our daily bread. – Matthew 6:11
The last verse tells us that faith and prayer happen every
day and that a day without it is like declaring we don’t need Him.
Whatever type of faith you have, whether it's a Maxee or Champ, it all boils down to ONE
thing – dependency on God. No one can ever survive anything without the grace
of God and that apart from Him, we are NOTHING. (John 15:5b)
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