...And So God Sent a Baby Kitten

I came home from work and began to cook dinner and as I did so I received a text message on my phone. It was one I had been expecting, but the news contained within was not. What I read was devastating and enough to make me angry. Angry enough to see my patience propelled out any available opening and my ability to be present get put on hold.

Although I was able to carry on with cooking dinner, the attention that needed to be given to the two little girls sitting at the table waiting for it was not... the best it could be. For half an hour I stewed, angry, worried, heartbroken. I remember praying. I remember screaming at God, that is how enraged I felt.

And then, there was a knock on the door.

It was our neighbor, who told me that she'd just watched a baby kitten crawl up into the engine of my car. Since this had happened to her brother, with not such a good outcome, she wanted to let me know before I drove off somewhere. Curious, I went outside to see for myself. Only to be greeted by the neighbor's teenage son.

Indeed, the kitten had crawled up in the engine. He told me that a man had walked into the street, looked around at the people standing there, and had asked if anyone wanted a kitten. When they all replied that they couldn't take the cat, the man dropped it in the street and ran. Terrified, the baby dodged for the nearest hiding spot, which just happened to be my car.

 

It took an hour for the teenage boy to coax him out, but finally we got him. The kitten was terrified, shaken, and dirty. But the thing that struck me the most was the fear. Just like any baby would have been, he was trembling violently.

I've been a mom for only six years, but it was long enough for me to know that what this kitten needed was comfort. Comfort that I couldn't give if I was still angry and heartbroken myself. I carried him inside to cuddle him and try to figure out what I was going to do with this baby tho barely looked old enough to be weened from his mom, and as I sat there all my feelings disappeared.

I could try to explain why I feel this way, but I would fail. All I know is that at the time I was raging at God, he sent a baby kitten. On that couch holding that trembling one-pound animal, I felt like I was being sent a message that everything was going to be okay.