While I was so busy noticing all of the chaos around me, I failed to notice those tiny little flowers that grow up around a crack in the sidewalk. You know what I mean…the little miracles in a barren landscape?
I’m probably exaggerating. I do that.
I’ve mentioned many times how my cats do not like each other. Hate each other is more like it. Ever since Henry Chow was brought into the family, Kitty Bartholomew has been greatly displeased. I have cleaned up the flying fur on too many occasions. It has been a challenge to feed them in the same room, and I have to keep litter boxes on opposite sides of the house because they refused to use the same one. My ninja kitty, Henry Chow, has stalked Bart around the dining room, using the table as a platform to pounce from above. And Bart has taken up sleeping with one eye open for fear that Henry will creep up on him as he sleeps. After almost a year of living together, I had given up hope of them ever finding common ground.
Enter Indiana Jones.
The puppy loves the cats. He follows them all over the house, wagging his tail and barking at them. When he’s feeling rambunctious at night, he has even given chase from time to time.
The cats do not like Indy. I imagine Indy talking to Henry Chow as he licks Henry, and tries to pull his tail, and Henry reluctantly lays motionless to avoid being chased. I imagine Indy saying, “I like you Henry Chow.”
And I imagine Henry Chow replying in his irritated, Himalayan cat accent, “I do not rike you, Doctor Jones.” Like a foreign villain in an Indiana Jones movie.
While I was busy trying to teach Indy that pulling the fur from the cat is a bad thing, I missed the budding friendship between the former enemies.
I was in the mudroom, feeding the cats, when I noticed something strange. They were sitting very close to one another, and neither of them was hissing. Then I saw something that just about made my eyes pop out—Bart leaned in and touched his nose against Henry Chow’s nose. Like a friendly greeting. And Henry didn’t attack. In fact, he greeted Bart back.
I nearly spilled the cat food on the floor.
I don’t know what really caused the new friendship. Was it just a case of, “if you can’t beat them, join them” or was it more something along the lines of becoming allies in the war against the marauding puppy? I may never know the answer, but it has taught me a valuable lesson…never give up hope. Sometimes you just have to be really patient, and things will work out in the end.
Those seem to be words to live by.
Until the next time…I will be watching for more miracles to pop up!