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This photo was taken by our daughter, Sarah Timmons, or my wife, depending on who you ask. We were in Rehoboth Beach, DE on Easter Sunday, 2011.


Several years ago, on the way home from a family vacation, I picked up a notebook and quickly recorded an incident that had occurred involving our son. Eventually, I used that story to illustrate something about my spiritual walk as a believer in Christ. Thus began a deliberate attempt to document the significance of everyday events. Almost any ordinary circumstance in daily life can become fodder for another story. This, almost by definition, lends itself to a blog.

Of course, many of the entries here are just ordinary diary style stuff... the stuff of ordinary blogs. Good grief, I don't want to be ordinary.


Sunday, May 10, 2015

Lessons from a Kitten about Mothers.

I don't even like cats, for reasons too numerous to mention, starting with the fact my allergic reaction to them ruined my entire childhood.

But this one turned up in the form of a newborn kitten.  Apparently it's mother (likely a stray that the neighbor feeds) was in the midst of moving it from one place to another, and got as far as the middle of our driveway.  I found it as I was headed out to work on a Monday morning.

I went back in the house and told Tina, annoyed that this shouldn't be our problem, and squeamish because the chances of it's survival were minimal.  We hoped that the mother would soon return and finish the transport... perhaps I caught the incident in progress.  So I left for work, and Tina was going to move it if the mother didn't show up soon.

Tina called a friend who works with a veterinarian, and asked about whether moving the kitten would hinder the mother from picking it back up.  Apparently not, so she moved it off into some ground cover beside the drive.

And there the kitten rested.  All day long.  The mother cat did not return, and possibly never would.  It so happened that a cat was hit by a car down the street as the day unfolded.  We didn't know for sure, but it may have been the mother cat.

To make matters worse, our young tender hearted 12 year old Asher found the kitten and reported it to his mother, who directed him to me.  "Daddy, there's a kitten in the yard, what should we do?"  I told him we were hoping the mother would pick it up, but we didn't think it was going to live.  We should let it be for now.

At this point, the whole kitten incident was defeating me.  I couldn't imagine nursing it, and begin to consider the best way to euthanize the poor thing.  Nature had a way of dealing with this kind of event.  Surely by Tuesday morning she would have dealt with it so I didn't have to.

Tuesday morning came, and I went out early to see how Nature had done over night, before the boys went out to school.  The kitten was lying there where we had left it.  It should have been dead by that point.  Then it let out a pitiful meow.  Nature had failed. Ugh.

I went back in and reported Nature's failure to Tina.  "How about I call your dad?, she asked.  Excellent idea.  He had the time and stomach to deal with this.

Before Tina called him, she called our vet friend back, who offered to look at the cat.  Dad volunteered to take the kitten.

Later in the day,  I got the news.  A home had been found for the kitten.  My dad couldn't bear to leave it with the vet.  He brought it home, and my mother would bottle feed it.  They had enjoyed the company of cats in the past. A cat for them was a good fit.

I didn't know the details at the moment.  I assumed there was a conversation between him and my mom as he considered what to do, with my mom suggesting he bring it back home.  I pictured him doing this because it is his character to treat my mother in this kind of loving way.  As it turned out, it may have been as much my dad's desire as hers.  I suspect they both reached the decision simultaneously.

Mom brought the kitten to Asher's baseball game that evening, settled in a blanket in a sack.  She treated it like a newborn baby, with the same care and love.  It was drinking every couple of hours, and looked content, like a kitten should.  This was a good thing.

Wednesday morning mom texted that the little kitten wasn't doing well.  It had stopped drinking.  Mom had talked to my sister-in-law about it, and she knew of a family with a cat who had a 2 week old litter of kittens.  Perhaps the mother cat would take to our kitten.  After a 35 minute ride, the kitten was united with the its surrogate mother, who accepted it immediately as it's own.

And then Thursday morning I got another text from mom.  The kitten had died over night. Mom was deeply saddened by the loss of the kitten.  "At least it was loved," I told her.   "Yes, that is some comfort," she said, "But I can't believe how emotional I am about this."

I CAN mom. Because that's who you are.  You are a mother at heart, in all situations. It is what defines you as a great mother, and a great person.  And it is why we are privileged to have you as our mother.