Life Choices – What My Cat 'Come On' Taught Me About Life
There are many life choices that we will make in a lifetime, some of them will be good choices, some will be bad choices. There is always so much to learn. If we could predict life, it sure would make things a lot easier. But we can’t. Things happen in a sudden moment that can change your perspective and actions. You can find yourself in some amazingly stressful situations you’d never dream about or believe if someone had told you though! There will be many life choices!
About a year ago, a small cat wandered into our yard. He stayed at a distance but knew he was welcome here. I’m sure he felt quite at home when he saw the other kitties in my yard. Someone had abandoned him and he found us. I started calling him Come On as I was always looking for him. I had been leaving food out for him on the far end of the deck where I knew he’d feel safe getting it. We kept this up for some time however, each week I’d move the bowl a little closer to our house. It worked too. In a few months, he was retrieving his food from right outside the porch door.
During the cold winter months last year, I brought Come On into our house a few times. He was terrified of being indoors but tolerated it when I brought him in. You could tell he’d never been inside a house by the way he just froze. He sat in cower by the door waiting for me to let him out where he felt free.
Since he had made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want to be inside, my son Lars and I built him a house out of a large cardboard box and placed it on our back porch. I stuffed the box with newspaper and towels and a pillow. We covered box with warm blankets and other stuff to keep him warm. I started placing his food bowl inside his house so he’d go in and stay warm. It worked. He had his own cat house and a place to sleep on cold nights. Early on, one night it got terribly cold outside. I called for him and he came to get some dinner. I tricked him inside the house so he could be warm. I picked him up and placed him on my lap in the living room. He just kept shaking and was very scared. I kept calming him down in a soothing voice and kept petting him to lessen his worries. Then I smelled something fowl. He had pooped on me. Instead of getting mad though, I simply picked him up and took him to the door. I opened it and he scooted out fast. I guess he thought I would yell at him or get mad. Instead I just cleaned myself up and went about my evening. Funny how innocence can erase anger. I knew there was no reason to get angry about it. I had done it to myself by having expectations for him that were simply not achievable. In order to make myself feel better I had put him in an uncomfortable environment that he simply didn’t like. He got so scared that he pooped! How could I get mad? More life choices! Come On got sick about a week ago and disappeared. I finally found him last week near death. He ran from me at first but I found him later that evening in our backyard. He had come home to die. I brought him into the very house he had been terrified of before but this time he didn’t resist me. I made a bed for him in the back room and lay down beside him. I tried to get some food and water into him but he was too far gone. I just kept petting him and he responded by purring very loudly. Every now and then he would raise up his head and cry to me. I just kept petting him and loving him and he just kept purring. I fell asleep for a brief while. When I woke up, he was gone. I buried Come On the next day under one of his favorite trees in our yard, near the trampoline where he liked to be. Now he can play and run forever but I will sorely miss him and my heart is broken. Here are the things Come On taught me about life choices. 1) Forgiveness - Bad things will happen to you in your life. You will get crapped on! When they happen, what you do about them is up to you. You can forgive and forget, or choose to get revenge. If you truly want your heart to be free though, you must choose to forgive others when they do you wrong. Vengefulness only provokes more bad karma, which will come back to you and bite you in the ass. Make better life choices to forgive others. 2) Innocence – There is a lot of innocence in the world around us. Finding it is easier than you think. Listen to the birds singing in your yard or listen to what children have to say. You will find innocence. 3) Concern – When you worry or think about others’, you take the focus off of you. If you have problems at home or in your family, it can be helpful to do something nice for another person. It makes you feel good about being you and your life choices. Everyone has bad days and everyone could use some cheering up! 4) Share – The whole time I was feeding Come On, I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough food for my own cats. As a single mom on a tight budget, it’s hard to always make ends meet. I always seemed to have enough food for my kitties though, and although it worried me, we got by. When you open up your life and share with others, you will get more positive life choices. 5) Mystery – I will never know what took my cats life. He was fine one day and gone the next. It will always be a mystery to me. We all have things that happen that will perplex us and that we won’t understand. Accept them. Move past them. Life is not always explainable as stuff happens all the time that we cannot explain. If you understood everything, you’d be really sad I think! 6) Treasure – If I had known that Come On was going to die, I’d have made better life choices in the last few weeks. Everyday I took for granted that he would be standing by my back door waiting for me. Now that he is gone, I know I had been the one dependent on him. Treasure the things and people around you that depend on you and that you depend on. They make you feel wanted and loved when they can count on you. 7) Regret - A while back I had bought Come On some canned food just for him. I was saving it for him but I will never get to give it to him now. I regret not doing that. Regrets are hard to live with. Try to life your life without them. 8) Change – Life is all about change. People and things will come and go in your life and that will always change it. Not everyone you meet will have an impact on you but a few will leave their imprint. Learn the lesson. They will teach you if you listen for the story. Its not always possible to make the right life choices, but you can expand your choices when you leave yourself open to others and learn to think outside the box. People need help getting through life. Its tough sometimes but the life choices you make today, can and will shape your tomorrow! Some People Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Back to Top of Page
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