Today, a very small and oh so fragile creature touched my life very briefly before moving on to whatever just reward awaits the innocent and pure. Financially I am poorer for this encounter, but I think I am rewarded on a spiritual level worth a thousand times more than the pittance of money I paid. I can't truthfully claim that what I did made a difference on some grand cosmic scale, but I like to think it made a difference to one small life.
I'd been hearing very kitten like squeaking noises coming from behind our house for days (My wife and I live on a sizable double lot and there are a fairly large number of feral and semi-feral cats that roam the wilds of our backyard and one of them recently had kittens. I believed the noises were coming from these kittens who are currently hold up on my back porch. However, today I discovered that the noises I had been hearing were being made by a tiny kitten that had been abandoned by its Mom in one of the side vents on the house.
The moment I pulled it out of the vent, I could tell it was in pretty bad shape. It was horribly dehydrated and obviously starving to death. It had sores all over its hind quarters from where it had been lying in its own waste. I seriously doubted there was anything I could do to save it and realized the sensible thing would be to just leave it where I found it and let nature take its course. Of course as anyone who knows me will tell you, I have never been a very sensible person.
I wrapped the tiny thing up in an old towel and brought it inside. I did my best to clean it up some, but the dirt and other stuff was so badly caked in some places that only a full bath would get it off and I was pretty sure the little kitten wasn't up to that so I just got it as clean as I could. I put it in a small cardboard box and tried to make it comfortable.
When my wife got home I discussed it with her. We both knew if we tried to save the kitten and succeeded, we'd probably be stuck with it since we have never had much luck "losing" cats we helped. With six cats already living in our home, adding another was a big move. Where I hesitated, my wife did not. She said she could not sit by and let any small animal die. So we drove to Petsmart and spent about $20.00 that we really didn't have to spare on baby formula and a feeding system. We joked about how there went my Scratch Card Lottery or two really good Lattes for the month, but we did it anyway.
For the next hour, I tried to get the kitten to eat and even tried dripping milk into its mouth, but the little thing was simply too weak. Eventually, no matter how hard I tried to make it live, he slowly stopped breathing. I wrapped him carefully in the small towel he had been laying on and buried him in the back yard.
Now many would argue that it was all wasted money and effort especially since I admit that I suspected the poor thing was too far gone when I found it. They would say that mine and my wife's actions accomplished nothing. After all the kitten suffered for days alone and frightened and in the end died despite my efforts and prayers.
Well to those people I can honestly say, "Thppppppppppptttttttttt." (Raspberry for those who don't speak cartoon) For a very brief time, the kitten was warm, clean(ish) and was surrounded by two people that cared for it. He gave us something incredibly precious in return. He touched our lives and gave us love. In the end, I am a better person who's life is richer for having known him.
As all of you who read my blogs know, I am a big Quote person. Let me leave you with this simple one that I think fits. "Our lives shouldn't be measured by the length of time that we spend on this Earth. Instead it should be judged on the quality of the life we lead while we are here."
| "Any fool that thinks that pets don't have souls and are destined for Heaven probably won't make it there themselves to find out." |
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