Three years ago at the Hershey Campground, Morgan saw a leopard Gecko and liked it enough to put it on his Christmas list. I pretty much like all creatures – except spiders, so I checked it off his list. George arrived at our home as “Liz”. After reading up on the leos, Liz was in fact a 6 year old boy – what a surprise, more testosterone! Leos only eat their food alive, and I believe that helped Morgan quickly determine that he didn’t care for George after all. A good mom would have made him work through that, but I took it as an opportunity to love on something that needed it. I loved George. I cared for him, talked to him, held him, pet him, stared into his big beady eyes, took pictures of him. I fed him through a dropper when he wouldn’t eat, and I massaged him tummy while he bathed in warm water to help him “move” things along, and I dug out his eye cavity when he had a bed shed. He tolerated all of that medical care without ever getting aggressive towards me. He must have known how I loved him – that he was my littlest buddy. I’ll never know if his midsection that gave him lots of trouble just finally got the best of him or if in fact he was just at the end of his life, but on the day he was dying it seemed pretty clear that I needed to pray for him. So I asked God to be merciful towards him, and not let him suffer. God heard my prayer, and George jumped up and flipped his body over as if he’d just suffered a stroke or heart attack. It was really sad to see that! I took him out of his cage, held him close to warm him, and prayed for him again. I talked to him and told him he could go, and how much he meant to me these past few years. I comforted him a little longer, and then I placed him on his heat pad back in his cage. He was gone within 30 minutes. The Lord is good.
About a week later, a tortoise-colored cat is sitting on my deck. The kids are enamored with her, and she with them. They are playing and following each other, so I give her a bit of milk. She is not your typical stray – she eats and drinks, and then she stays. She sleeps in a bed I gave to her. She waits outside our glass door for morning and evening. She calls to me and showers me with affection. It’s pretty clear to me that she has adopted us, even if we didn’t know it yet! So we all pray that Daddy will have a change of heart. The Lord is good and true to His Word – believe with all your heart that you have received, and it will be given unto you (Mark 11:24). So far, she is all that I ever wanted in cat, and even more or a blessing is that she is a girl! Praise the Lord for His love and goodness to me.
