My Sweet "Oreo", or better known as "Kitty"

The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. We just got back from Chicago last night... or should I say this morning. I love coming home from a long trip. I love a nice clean house and being greeted by my kitty who really does think I am his mother. I love putting the kids to bed in their beds knowing they need a good nights sleep, and then climbing in my own bed with clean sheets on it. It is such a great feeling... but something was really bothering me last night and I don't know why. After 14 hours of straight driving pulling in at 2:45 in the morning, I couldn't get to sleep.

Our kitty was really wanting to go out, and he is and indoor/outdoor cat, so against my first instinct to keep him in until morning, I let him out. I didn't know if he had been out much that day, and he kept meowing, so I let him out. Something woke me up about 5am sounding like a child falling down the stairs but it was out on the front porch. I listened for a second and I didn't hear anything else and went back to sleep. We then were awoken by a doorbell at 5:30am. A little frightened, I woke Ken up and whoever was at the door was then banging on the door. I then recognized the voice... it was our neighbor. So we opened the door and she said a dog had attacked our cat, and it had woken her up by all the noise on the front porch.

We ran over to check on him. He was way back in some bushes and only responded when he heard my voice. He kept reaching his head up to look at me as if asking for help. We got a towel and gently picked him up. He was pretty beat up, but we didn't see a lot of blood, so we brought him inside and laid him down and I watched him for a few hours. At that time he couldn't really walk yet, so he would try to crawl wherever I was and would just lay there while I petted his head. At 8am I called the vet, and at 10am I decided to go get a pretty big cut on his stomach looked at. I wasn't prepared for what he had to say.

When I laid him down on the table, the Vet did not even look at his stomach, he pointed to a place in his side where it was a little sunken in and said, "See that there? He has some broken ribs and a punctured diaphram and probably a punctured lung." He then said this cat is really messed up, and it will probably cost about 2-3 thousand dollars to fix him up and even then you're not guaranteed he will live. If it were me, I would put him to sleep." I had only been in the office 10 minutes. I was not ready to put the most loving, fun, smart cat who loved my kids and our whole family to sleep... The was the first pet that was a little more like a family member. He would wake us up in the middle of the night if something was wrong with the kids, or sleep with the kids as if protecting them. He was an amazing cat.

I took a while to call around to a couple of Vet specialty hospitals and ask their opinions, talked to my husband, got some X-rays just to make sure there was not hope, and made the decision to put him to sleep, all while he lay there looking at me like he knew I was his primary care taker and he knew I would take care of him... I always had in the past. That was a very gut wrenching nauseating decision. I just got back into town 7 hours ago, and with only two hours of sleep I couldn't believe this was happening.

I am still in a little shock over this, but I know God is in control. In the past when I have had a hard time letting go of something to move on, God has gently helped me let go. I was thankful I didn't just find him dead somewhere. I was thankful this didn't happen while we were gone. I am thankful that I had such an awesome pet and I got to be there petting him as they put him to sleep. He really was in alot of pain. I really do believe, though, that God took him away because He is about to do some big things in moving us towards France, and it would be challenging to move a cat around with us, and He knows how hard it would be for me to just leave him behind.

So, thank you Lord that You know all things, and that you care about the things we care about, and that You are so gentle in loving in all Your ways. Thank You that You lead us and guide us and purify us and prepare us and provide for us as we walk in Your ways and follow you. I pray You will give us a deeper passion for the lost, and help us to be renewed in the areas that keep us from fulfilling Your will.