Smokey and the Ark

During the time all of this was happening and by this I mean Mary’s new self-respect for herself and her increasing faith, two incidents occurred to occupy her time. First, Whitey, the stray cat that inhabited her sunroom since the beginning of winter disappeared. Mary had taken him in during the freezing cold because she felt he would certainly die outside in the bitter weather. Whitey stayed there all winter eating and sleeping. When spring came he continued to stay indoors with little or no desire to venture outside. Mary had to force him out at times just to get some fresh air. But if she hadn’t of done that Mary thought he would have never gone out again. He had been out on the street obviously, a long time and was just glad to be fed and cared for.
Then it happened one day suddenly without warning. It was early morning and Mary was getting ready to take her husband, Robin to work. She went outside to put bird food in the feeder and the next thing she knew one of the cats was crying. She didn’t think it was Whitey because he had such a raspy voice. This vocal outburst resonated. It was more like one of her other cat’s calls. However, when she went inside Whitey was the only one there. He seemed very frightened and acted so strange as if Mary was some intruder. He seemed to be on the defensive.
Before she knew it he went running for the front door which Mary opened and he ran off like some wild rabbit being chased by an invisible dog. That was a week ago. Mary never saw Whitey again.
Within a few days of that incident Mary got numerous calls from her friend Carolyn regarding some feral kittens she had seen running around in her back yard. There was one gray long haired Persian looking one. She said it hissed and spit at her and frightened her.
Mary decided to go over to see if she could see it. The first time she went over there was no sign of it. Mary told Carolyn if she wanted to catch it then she needed to buy some food for it and attract it that way. Apparently Carolyn did that for the next day she phoned Mary all excited. The little kitten was back but Carolyn was frightened of it.
Mary couldn’t believe the size of the beast that Carolyn was frightened of as it was no more than a few ounces in weight and mostly fluff – like a pompom ball. It sat between two garbage cans looking up scared and exhausted and Mary thought, possibly dehydrated with the heat. Instantly, Mary went into action.
She said to Carolyn,” do you have any towels or blankets we can try to cover it with?” With that Carolyn dug into the garbage can where she had just recently thrown out an old quilt. One cloth might not be enough as the kitten took to running alongside the wall of the house as soon as they approached it. It was heading for the driveway to the front of the building!
“I’ll go around front, Mary suggested to Carolyn, “and we can corner it between the two of us.”
As Mary approached from one end and Carolyn from the other the little thing snuck under the neighbour’s fence which was between them. Carolyn then went around to the neighbour’s house and into his backyard with her cloth in tow. Mary watched and directed as Carolyn slowly dropped her towel down over the kitten all the while pleading her fear of being attacked by this ferocious beast. Mary could do all she could to keep from laughing until Carolyn shared she had some traumatic incident with a cat as a child.
Presently, Carolyn quickly scooped up the kitten in the material. She held it out at arm’s length towards Mary. Mary grabbed the bundle of joy close to her chest feeling the trembling fear of the struggling tiny baby.
It was love at first sight for Mary but who doesn’t fall in love with an infant? Not everyone, Mary soon found out. Carolyn didn’t want it, Mary’s friend two doors over from her rejected her offer as well, and so Mary decided to take the little thing into her home and heart. When Robin saw it that night, he too, had fallen hard for him. Apparently, Robin's grandfather had a cat very much like it he called “Smokey”. So you can guess what the new baby’s name became, can’t you?
The little guy has been upstairs for three days now living in their bathroom. At first, Mary had to deal with Smokey’s fear of her. Carolyn and she had put him in a cage and when she got home she had to take him out to feed him as he was skin and bones. Mary looked down into the cage at the snarling grey mass that sat at the far back of the cage.
With a quick move Mary, using one of her towels, grabbed the baby as quick as anything and pulled him to her. Smokey couldn’t move as Mary had his body bundled like an Eskimo baby. Because Mary only had dry cat food for her adult cats she took some soft dog food she had and stuck it up to his mouth.
He didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Mary realized he had never had food before and was still on his mother’s milk which must have been all but dried up by now! Mary decided to force feed him and pushed a little between his lips. He realized it was food! Hunger overcame his fear and aggression and the little kitten gave in. He almost bit off Mary’s fingers in the process! Wisely, Mary filled a bowl while holding him and watched Smokey demolish it. Holding the baby in one hand she refilled the bowl again and held it back up to his mouth. Once again the little lion stopped hissing and ate a second basin.
Mary began to coo and talk to it and knew that reassuring voices and much touching would be the only solution to his wildness. Within two days, he began to stop hissing, and began purring. In three days he rolled over and let Mary rub his tummy and play with him. More was yet to come but for now Mary enjoyed the presence of this little gift from heaven. Mary laughed to herself as she thought of this latest addition to their brood. One had been taken and another given. But that is not what amused Mary. It was the fact that Mary overheard Robin call their house “the Ark” to someone just the other day.
It was this epithet that reminded Mary how precious these little creatures were to God as she recalled the story of the flood. Noah had been commanded by God to get a pair of every living kind of animal into the ark he had Noah create. Mary hadn’t thought of it before but realized God must have cared about these animals as much as he did humans to make sure they survived the flood.
Mary thought to herself: what was one more feral cat to feed especially if she was doing God’s work? Smokey would be added to the Ark, another joy to remind her just how awesome and beautiful her God was. Mary looked down at her little baby and smiled a huge smile. The best was yet to come!

Free At Last: sweet victory

It was a special day for Mary as she had taken three weeks to do it but had finally stood up to her demon “fear” and confronted someone who had been frustrating her at the church. Mary felt it was necessary for her to have had that lengthy period to allow God to work in her heart and do whatever he was doing. Today was the day that there was grace sufficient to speak up and deal with an issue that had bothered her and it wasn’t going to go away unless she spoke the truth.
Mary’s trust in God was also being built up. She began to recognize God was for her and not against her despite circumstances and emotions. It brought her to a new level in her faith journey. She was also in a place where she began to respect who she was more and realized she had to respect herself by speaking up. Today without hesitation, by the grace of God, she had finally spoken up. Why did it take so long? When the problem arose she had received the promise of Isaiah 30 that came to her. The passage told her that it would be in waiting for God she would be saved and quietness was her confidence. And so with her new found faith she had waited.
Until today; it was the day. Mary felt relieved when she walked away from the phone call to the Pastor who had been involved in the situation where she had volunteered. For Mary this was a real move of faith because she had been educated to respect those “men of the cloth” you worked or volunteered for. That meant you never stood up to them. Yet if she was a chaplain, as she had been educated to be, and anointed by a cardinal then, then didn’t she need to respect her own authority and role?
It was a very pleasant conversation that had taken place between Mary and the Reverend. Mary made it understood to the pastor her frustration over her ordeal. It was a real relief when she finished talking and had put down the receiver. However, the real clarity came after this conversation. It came when Mary talked to another volunteer who had known of the problem. Mary was enlightened by what was said: those involved all had the same desire to respect the pastor and his position. However, orders were always obeyed without consideration for the other volunteers that they worked with. As a result, Mary and many other volunteers’ toes had been stepped on by other volunteers as they tried to follow the minister’s orders. As a result, many got hurt because everyone was trying to respect these men of God. Sadly, it would not be the first or last time.
However, Mary had done something finally after all these years. She realized she had no voice as an infant to speak up to her drunk father as she hid behind the sofa. She had no voice to speak to the Mother Superior as a six year old. Today she had broken free. God had given her the grace to finally speak her mind.
A revelation came to Mary at the same time that all this occurred. When she had joined this church seven years ago she had been baptised for the third time in her life. Significantly, Mary recalled, that at the time, God seemed to speak to her and tell her he was dealing with “pride”. Mary had struggled with humbling herself these last years in each situation she dealt with and with every conflict. But she recognized the pride at the root of it and did her best to be meek.
However, it came to her today that pride had two meanings. Sometimes being proud could be a good thing for if we knew we were a child of God then we needed to respect and honour ourselves. Mary realized in speaking up to the pastor she not only overcame her fear of his position but had respected herself in the process. In this incident, she realized pride was a positive attitude that showed a reverence for one’s own person. It was not just a negative vice as she had always seen it as.
It was a wonderful moment and she knew a great deal had come about during the weekend Encounter at the church that at the time she was unaware of –like the increase of faith she had attained. Mary sat back and felt joy at what God had done in her. She now looked back at the Retreat and saw why she gone home early after having so much trouble sleeping on the cots. It was the need to respect herself and her needs for a comfortable bed that sent her packing. Before this time Mary would have endured the night with no sleep because she didn’t think she deserved better. Somehow God was at the back of this, Mary knew it because this time after one night at the encounter with no sleep she had had it and went home on the second evening!
Now as she looked back Mary sat crying at all the times in her past she had disrespected herself and her own needs. But Mary’s tears were a blend of sadness and joy because Mary felt today, after this conversation with the minister, she was set free. She certainly felt freer. And she was reminded of Martin Luther King’s words: Free at last, free at last, Almighty God, free at last. And she was. And she knew it.
Postscript: What happened in this short period of time really took years of prayers, counselling, and healing by God’s hand for things to culminate in this one sweet victory.