Lessons from an orphaned kitty

Oh my goodness – what a week !! Caring for a rescued orphan kitty my neighbor brought over late at night and all the added stress that entailed!! Who knew!!!  I’ve rescued animals all my life – never a kitten this young or this malnourished, but this has been an exhausting exercise in not only the care of this malnourished, dehydrated little creature, but becoming aware of THIS spiritually malnourished, dehydrated BIG Creature – ME…!  More on that later…

              Recently I came across an illustrated book, “Guardians of Being” by Eckhart Tolle and “Mutts” cartoonist, Patrick McDonnell  – what a treasure!  This little compilation of Patrick McDonnell ’s art and Eckhart Tolle’s wisdom is such a delightfully succinct reminder that our “pets” are a blessing beyond the obvious and clearly Guardians of our need to just  BE. Helping us to remember we are human Beings not just human Doings and “stopping to smell the roses” is more than a cliché’.

              So, back to this Orphaned kitty, who has taken a great deal of time away from my usual routine, which includes having Buddy, our loving little 8 yr. old rescue Chihuahua by my side. He clearly misses me.  He also sees this kitty as a wonderful new squeaking chew toy but Buddy is just too rough to be around him without close supervision at this time.  Kitty’s too young to teach Buddy manners (claws-to-nose kinda lessons).

 With this little emaciated being crying for food, I have missed my morning time of reading and “maintaining conscious contact” .  My usual morning routine of first things first has been totally rearranged – rather than spending quiet time as soon as I got up, reading in my room and the creatures quietly waiting for me, it is now off to the races immediately upon awakening to the sound of kitty cries – hitting the floor running to take care of him, trying to do the regular morning routine: letting Buddy out, feeding & visiting with the cat from across the street, (yes, I’m a sucker for a friendly animal), sweeping leaves and blossoms from sidewalk (don’t judge: I have to sweep them away or they get tracked in the house), fresh water in birdbath and water bowl out front for dog and cats. Then on to food for Buddy in the kitchen,

then back outside with peanuts for the Blue Jays (who yell at me if I’m too late), seeds for the other assorted birds, food for TommyBahMama and her 4 kittens (now 4 years old!) and of course, feeding the Goldfish & millions of guppies in our tiny pond. (Anyone need some guppies?).  Then water for the water bowls, the plants around the gazebo area and added to pond…  

All in all, it’s a delightful, but busy morning routine.  Somewhere in there, the coffee is put on, the cats put back out after they eat, while Buddy cleans up stray kibble. Finally preparing my breakfast to take back outside.

Fitting all that in without letting this little rambunctious OrphieKitty get out of his enclosure, or into trouble, and preventing Buddy from treating him like a chew-toy, took its toll on my ‘quiet time routine’ – which was to have happened before all that!  So much for MY plans. But isn’t it a comfort to know that God isn’t remotely frazzled by my upended ‘routine’?!

              So, as he has been growing and improving rapidly from a squeaking 2 wk old skin-bag of bones into an adorable, curious kitten who thinks I’m his mama – I’m constantly rearranging things to prevent this kitty, now named PITA, from being injured or getting into dangerous places as he progresses in health and agility, AND keeping Buddy out of my study where Pita is secured.  I’ve been rearranging my whole routine because of the inconvenience of a large piece of cumbersome plywood that I finally had to put across the archway to my study. It’s easier to just stay in here rather than go back and forth, having to move that plywooddddddddddddddddd……

Now, my “quiet time” is in the study and it’s fine, but just not the same.  In the quiet of early morning, in my room, before all that activity, I could really absorb what I read, meditate on what I’ve read and pray in the quietness of my heart .  Now, in the study, I’m sitting at the desk, already a bit exhausted from my morning chores, and very distracted by all that needs to be done either in the garden or in the study or by Pita doing cute kitty stuff… 

But I persevere, read what I can, pray in a perfunctory manner, and “do” my morning meditations, rather than ‘meditate’.                                                                Hmmmm… TALAT*(*Take A Look At That)                    

             Back to that Book I mentioned… After days of coming up with new strategies to deal with Pita, my efficiency improved and while he was eating, (by himself, without being bottle-fed) I was able to take my Kindle reader and a cup of coffee into another room to sit with Buddy.  

I know he misses me and he loves for me to sit there to read. He was So excited, he hurried to get his favorite chewed-on rope, waited for me to prop my feet up and bounded up to plop himself in his usual spot (half on me and half on the arm of the sofa) while I read for awhile, meditated and prayed – and as I relaxed into that moment, it hit me – Buddy was my Guardian of Being.

           I was Being.  Being with God, who had already told us to “…be still and KNOW..”. Being with Buddy, Being ok with kitty out there eating his breakfast without me, just – Being!!!  I continued to read some, pray some, meditate, and became overwhelmingly grateful – for Buddy and for Eckhart Tolle & Patrick McDonnell and their delightful book, “Guardians of Being”.

Oh, BTW, there is a reason I named him PITA…  Now that he’s older, and more mellow, I preface his name with D.A. for Darling Adorable… P.I.T.A.   You can guess the rest.