My goal is to be as happy as I can every moment of the rest of my life. Even if it weren't my distillation of how I see the teachings of Abraham-Hicks, it would be a worthy goal. There is a big difference between wanting to be happy and not wanting to be unhappy. I once saw a Simpson's Halloween episode where one of Maggie's dolls had a Good and Evil switch. The doll hadn't really wanted to kill Homer. Her switch was simply toggled to evil. That's what happiness turned out to be for me. A metaphorical switch in point of view that needed to be flipped.
Even knowing that, it can be difficult to maintain 24/7. I have had my heart broken a couple of times in my life. Mostly over the loss of pets. My goal with a pet is to build a relationship and when one of them passes, I have lost a friend. One who stood by during the troubling moments of the previous 20 years, give or take a few. It was with a wary eye at the advancing age of my pets that I whispered into the wind, "When I'm ready for a new pet, the right new friend will arrive." The idea is not to replace the aging pet, but to introduce new love into my life to dull the sting of loss a little.
Unbeknownst by me, across town a woman named Renee was admiring her downstairs neighbor's kitten. She noticed when he broke his leg in two places. She noticed when his owners removed his collar and removed themselves from a place of responsibility for him. She put herself out on a limb to rescue him and get him some help.
Meanwhile, in my world everyone was getting kittens. Not "a" kitten, people were suddenly getting them in pairs. I began to like the idea myself. They could entertain each other and possibly impact my older kitties less. Besides, from what I was seeing, two kittens are hilarious!!
I mentioned my plan to a friend, Judy, whose sister is a close friend of Renee's. By this time, "Mr. Sherbet" had had his leg amputated and would be available for adoption as soon as he had healed enough to do so. His life seemed to work in one month spans at that point. A month to rescue him. A month for him to heal. It didn't take another month for him to find a home. The first day he was available for adoption, I signed the papers and brought my newly named "Sherman" home.
Abraham-Hicks talks about "the next logical thing" and that was exactly how Sherman's adoption unfolded. I whispered what I wanted to the universe and trusted the right thing would happen. When it did happen, I just took the path it directed. In the car ride home, I had my first moment of uncertainty. Sherman tried to chew his way out of the cardboard crate the Human Society provides. I can remember sitting in the backseat of Judy's car and saying urgently, "Judy, we need to get there soon. I can see his entire head!"
It's so funny. My focus had been how to protect the poor three-legged cat from my full grown, big bruiser Peabody. Suddenly I realized more completely what Sherman had been through. In two months time, that cat had broken a leg in two places, had it amputated and was going to a new home. This was no shrinking violet cat. I realized I might have it a bit wrong about who would need protection.
Another month has passed and no one needs any protection from anyone else. Peabody has accepted Sherman. Most of the time they even seem to be friends. Sometimes they even seem like Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman or like Peabody is satisfied "schooling" the youngster. When I adopted Sherman, the papers said he was a year and six months old, but he looked and acted too much like a kitten for that to be accurate. I asked Renee, who knew him the best, and she said the vet told her he was about ten months.
Ten months and two of them were spent having a leg amputated and recovering from the same.
I never doubted the right cat would stroll into my life somehow. Just as I never doubted that, if I followed the signs and continued taking the next logical step, the best thing would happen. And it did.
My new friend Sherman limps a little at times, but other times you would barely notice his missing leg. He doesn't let it stop him from climbing the highest shelves in my house. He has lost none of his kitten-ish curiosity about his new world. If life is learning to be happy unconditionally, Sherman is a daily example of taking what life gave you and still finding it sweet. He definitely enjoys it to the fullest.
I would like to publicly thank Renee and her husband, my friend Judy, the Napa Humane Society and Dr. Randy Lung and California Pet Hospital. Thank you for saving Mr. Sherbet. Thank you for bringing me my Sherman and giving me this chance to save him a little too.
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