I believe in Synchronicity. Maybe some of you do too. You know when something wonderful, exactly what you needed, drops right into your lap. Whoosh there it is! Whether the event was engineered by deceased Great Aunt Nettie serving as an angel, or the Holy Ghost ; it really does not matter because God is in the details of divine intervention.
Last May, God gave our family such a miracle. Some of you will most certainly roll your eyes when you read this post. Go right ahead. I am right there with you, why would God, with all He has to do in “bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man“, give a flying fig about such a trivial matter? But nevertheless my dear brothers and sisters, I testify to you, a cat can be a miracle.
I have always been a cat lady. I married a dog man. I faithfully did the dog scene for fifteen years. In the end, the Chinese killed our old dog with tainted dog food back in 2007. I said, “no more animals” after that horrible day. What I really meant was “no more dogs”. Don’t get me wrong I liked dogs, but our labs were just too rambunctious. At the time, a cat seemed so very unlikely, as Jie Jie, my eleven year old was very allergic to cats. A year later she became un-allergic. Apparently children can grow out of pretty intense allergies. Jie Jie was/is a cat lady too. So, when she attained non-allergic-to-cats-status; she began to ask/beg/whine for a cat. Mike, being a dog man, said no-no-no to an indoor cat.
Just so you know, an outdoor cat was not humanely possible for us. We are blessed to live on a little piece of God’s green earth which includes woods, creek, a nearby river, and a mowed field. Mother Nature, in her generous abundance, included coyotes and bobcats. Consequently small dogs and cats do not last long in our neck of the woods. A sick joke is told around here, that 4 p.m. is cocktail hour for predators, as little lap dogs are sent out to do their evening business never to be seen again. So if Jie Jie and I were to get a cat it would be an indoor cat.
When I set out to do something, I get obsessed becuase I want to make the correct choice. I felt it was necessary to find the right cat for our family. My research found its way to Rag Doll Cats. As a breed, Rag Dolls are typically: personable, sociable, quiet, light shedders, and extremely easy going. So easy going they can be trained to lie limp in your arms, hence the name Rag Doll. In way of size, Rag Doll cats are the cat version of a Saint Bernard dog. The males are often as much as 20 lbs. In a nutshell a perfect pet for the Bensons. I checked to see how much a purebred Rag Doll would cost; and it was about six hundred dollars; which of course is way out of the budget for Mr. Mike “No Cats” Benson. My search took me to look for a “free” half-breed male Rag Doll cat.
Now this is where it gets tricky. Rag Dolls are not rare, but they are not necessarily common. I found three breeders online in our state. When the breeder sells a kitten, they are “fixed”, so to speak, so they do not produce more Rag Dolls. I realized early on, locating a mixed Rag Doll was going to be like finding a “needle in a haystack”. Having little faith God would care about my cat search, I said a halfhearted prayer which might have bumped the ceiling of my bedroom in earnestness. The Bensons normally do not lead a charmed life. So many times we pray and fast fervently for immensely important things such as a life to be spared, a job to be found, etc… to no avail. We just suffer thru the trial and learn whatever lessons are to be learned and soldier on.
So one afternoon after a couple of weeks of checking shelters and the classifieds, I stopped by our town’s cat rescue center, a well-known haven for cat ladies and homeless cats. Cats of every size and color were housed in cages and several freely roamed the place. I went to the front desk and told the woman seated there, I knew I was making an impossible request, but I was searching for a Rag Doll mix male kitten. I felt embarrassed for appearing so fussy while a couple of sweet cats rubbed up against my ankles. She did not say a word for a moment, but instead blinked at me once, twice, three times and finally four before she replied, “ Umm… the only male kitten we have available at the moment is a Rag Doll mix”.
Now it was my turn to blink several times and I replied, “ Well I guess we have found our cat”. She took my name and number. The Cat Lady, who was caring for the male kitten and his three sisters, (the girls were already spoken for) called me back before I even got home. Later she told me the male kitten could be mistaken for a purebred because his markings and big blue eyes were so very Rag Doll. He and his sisters were dropped off at a shelter a couple of hours away from us. Because they were so young and needed so much attention, the kittens ended up at the cat rescue center. With the Holy Ghost (and quite possibly my Great Aunt Nettie) backing me up, I confidently put my foot down with Mike about the cat issue. Faced with such powerful opposition, Mike crumbled.
So great was this miraculous witness for the Cat Ladies, they did not even check our references. After all, when the Holy Spirit is your reference, it is not necessary to check further. A couple of weeks later, Oliver, as he became known, was brought home and began his life with us. Oliver lives up to his Rag Doll personality traits. He is quite content to be dressed in doll clothes, lugged around by Hong Mei, and cuddle with everyone, including Mr. Mike “No Cats” Benson. You can hear Oliver’s happy purring rumble as he trots thru our house like he owns the joint; which he pretty much does. Oliver is the perfect pet for our family.
Shortly after we got him, I told the kids we came by being cat people naturally since it was the Egyptians who domesticated the cat. Dogs were domesticated to be companions and workers, but cats were domesticated to be gods. Jie Jie thought about this for a moment and said, “Well that makes sense. You can tell Oliver wants us to worship him.”
A few months later, I marvel at how we came to find him. For whatever reason, we were to have Oliver. I have absolutely no idea why this is so. Because I saw the dismal conditions of that orphanage in China; I cannot reconcile homeless children with homeless cats. A rational mind would conclude the children were more important than a cat. This is one of the mysteries of God. All I know is a divine spirit delivered Oliver close to our home and then nudged me there. For this I testify, less important things like lost keys and parking places are found, and the perfect cat finds a home.
So dear reader, what are your thoughts on Meaningful Coincidence or Synchronicity? Do you have a witness you would like to share? If so, please do tell.