Life has its ups and downs and sometimes we wonder why bad things happen to us.
Anyone who knows us, knows that we love animals, and we have
plenty of them. They bring us happiness along with frustration at times and also some
heartache, but we love them. Interactions
with my animals can teach me a little about life and how I can avoid some of
the “bad” that happens, believe it or not.
We recently adopted two kittens named Bo and Buddy. They
were very small when we received them, and they are both super loving outdoor
cats. Buddy is curious and loves to be in the middle of everything going on. He usually walks with me out to the chicken
coop to collect eggs so today was no different. I noticed a large fire ant mound right by the chicken coop. I did not know what fire ants were until I moved to
Texas and let me tell you, I could have done without knowing. They are little
black and red ants that will swarm whatever is a perceived threat to them and
start stinging it. I see that Buddy is walking right to the ant mound, so I tell
him to stop, don’t go over there a couple times. Now we all know that cats are
not good at listening to commands, well, this one is no different. Buddy walks right over and stands almost on top
of the fire ant mound and they are swarming. I snatched him off the mound as
soon as I could, but it was too late. He took off like a rocket when the ants
started stinging him. I didn’t see him for a while but when I did, he didn’t
want anything to do with me. My normally loving cat was staying as far away
from me as he could.
What do you think was running through his mind? Maybe he was
thinking I’m not going near her because she allowed me to get hurt or maybe, I’m
not going to her because she caused this to happen.
Do we ever do this in life? Maybe this is how we think of
God at times?
What happened today was: Buddy didn’t listen to the clear warning
given to him because he was too busy doing his own thing and it could have been
much worse if I hadn’t snatched him off the ant mound when I did.
Maybe we could all learn a lesson here about listening to
wisdom even when we don’t fully understand.