Yesterday I wrote of my deep like (alright, love) of my cats. On my Facebook page I posed the question, "Are you a cat person or a dog person?"
The cats had better run for their lives!
The responses were not too surprising. I recall reading several studies that indicated that folks overwhelmingly found dogs to be the better pet - more loyal and loving while providing comforting companionship.
Cats are different. They often act as if they could care less about the people around them. They are sometimes happy to receive your love but don't seem to reciprocate. Some cats seem to live by the motto, "Keep the food bowl full and leave me alone!"
Two years ago about this time we lost our cat, Hope. She adopted us. Although we didn't want another cat (we already had our youngest daughter's weird cat), Hope would not leave us alone. When she came down with some kind of virus, we took her into the garage so that she might recover. It wasn't long before she had the run of the house.
We grew to love that cat deeply. We got stories from the neighbors that she would hide in their bushes and then jump out at them. Put a scare into a couple of them. But they tolerated her.
There was the time when she was expecting her first litter of kittens. I woke up in the middle of the night, poked my dear, sweet wife and said, "I think Hope is having her babies in our bed." Sherri replied, "Don't be silly!" She got up, turned on the bedroom light and voila! Hope was giving birth to her babies on our bed. That's something that doesn't happen every day!
Hope was our baby for 14 years. She was very loving. She liked to lay on my lap and have the back of her neck scratched. She'd purr away until she'd fall asleep.
I have suffered from migraine headaches for over 20 years. When I was lying in bed, moaning and groaning and in severe pain, Hope would join me. She couldn't do a thing to relieve my pain. But her companionship meant everything to me.
Rather than try and settle a debate over who makes the best pet, perhaps the best thing to do is to give thanks to God for the blessing of our pets. Our cats and dogs and other pets are part of the Lord's creative work and they do give us great joy and happiness. And that is something to be thankful for.
