Learning From My Pets

**This is Miles




The other day my boss was sharing with us how we can learn a lot from our pets.  I have owned a lot of  pets in my day from worms (well it was a worm farm that I helped my parents with) to horses.  I learned something from each.  The worms didn't teach me too much other than worms really aren't as creepy as one would suppose (I had to help sort them from the big piles of soil), and I learned that worms pee. Sorry.  Just the facts.  :)  

What I learned from our former stray cat (now our newest house baby):

The cat in the photo above is Miles our newest kitty.  Several weeks ago Miles was a stray cat that I had taken to feeding and watering because I was worried about available food and whatnot for this sweetie as the weather was getting so cold.  I began leaving Miles food and fresh water every day on my deck.  

Tenacity & Appreciation & Trust
Miles taught me that there are rewards in being tenacious.  Every day for a week, he would come to my deck, eat the food I left and then sit at my sliding door.  Every day I left him more food.  When I came out and he was there, he would purr loudly and rub against my leg with a thank you.  When the weather started to get extra cold I worried about this cat that came to my deck so often (he obviously had an owner at one point he didn't remotely behave like a feral cat) so I made him a shelter away from the cold with old clothes and boxes.  The next day Miles showed me his wound.

Because I saw Miles' injury, I became even more concerned.  I told me husband that there had to be something I could do to help this cat.  I asked him if he would object to me taking him to the vet to be looked at and if he got a clean bill of health as far as feline leukemia and other catchy diseases could he stay.  My sweet husband having witnessed my growing relationship with the dirty little stray told me to make an appointment.  

The next day I brought Miles to the vet (of course he was still "Stray" according to his chart).  He received a clean bill of health and his wound the doctor said looked like it was healing well and that we could leave it alone.  Miles became an addition to our home.

When we have hurts and pains we should bring them to someone who can help and not try to take care of it all ourselves.
After being in our home in his own little room for two weeks, I noticed Miles licking furiously at his hip.  I called him and he came up to me and turned his side toward me.  There is was, his wound was about four times its original size and stick with infection.  Miles had been fussing and picking at it when we weren't around and instead of making things better, he made things much worse. It reminded me how too often when we are hurting instead of bringing our pain to God or to people who can help us, we hide the pain in hopes it will go away or keep bringing it out to fuss over allowing it to continue to hurt but not heal.  We aren't necessarily qualified to cover all of our ills.  

Psalms 147:3 says "He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds."  God is willing to help us.  He has provided his word, pastors, counselors and others to help us by working in tandem with God.  He wants us to come to Him.  All we need to do is trust in the Lord and show Him where it hurts.


we should bring our pains to God and to someone who can help us with them.  Hiding them doesn't help us heal and often we