Cheap Therapy

I have a soft spot for cats. I'm not exactly sure when it started; growing up I had dogs. But somewhere along the line I became a "cat person." My family teases me, saying I am more than that. At times they've accused me of being one of those weird cat ladies. You know the type. While I don't have eighteen flea-infested furballs roaming the house, taking over the furniture, (I also don't wear an apron throughout the day with its pockets stuffed with kitty treats), I find I do sleep better if I have a cat at the foot of my bed. I tend to share the last spoonful of milk from my cereal bowl with whichever cat is begging for a taste. And yes, on occasion, I have been known to talk babytalk with my sweet babyboo honeypie cutiefaces. I ADMIT it! So sue me. The truth is these cats of mine give me much pleasure. Hearing them purr while I pet them is relaxing. They entertain me when they're curious and playful and they don't drool.

I "lost" one of our three cats two weeks ago. He was hit by a car and had to be put down. It had already been a difficult week for our family as we were walking through a more serious tragedy with some friends. And now this. I was heartbroken by the loss of our pet. My eyes still well up with tears when I think about it. But life goes on. Our family bawled as we said our goodbyes that night at the animal hospital. We drove home in silence, but another wave of tears hit us as we arrived back home. It was a Thursday night, so to help take our mind off our tragedy we flipped on Survivor. Some tears and whimpers slipped out in between the tribal challenges and strategic back-biting, but the kids and I began to calm down. During commercials we blew our noses and talked about how much we'd miss Chester. But the most healing part of the night came when our youngest cat entered the room. Rocky bounced around the living room, clueless of our loss. He snapped at our toes and begged us to play with him. Even though we didn't feel like it, our kitten made us laugh and thankful for the cats we still had.

Take it from this weird cat lady: pets are cheap therapy. (They can also be the reason you need therapy in the first place.)

Adoption is a Good Thing

Adoption is near and dear to my heart. When I was a little girl playing with dolls, I had babies that I "gave birth to" and others that I would pretend I adopted. It seems God was speaking to me and softening my heart toward adoption even as a child. Three of my friends growing up were adopted, (I'm sure there were more I never knew about), and I was intrigued to learn that my own grandfather had been adopted, as well. Years later, as I enjoyed one of my first dates with my future husband, I asked him how he felt about adopting children someday. "Great!" that adorable man answered. For some reason my premature comments didn't scare him off and, after making two babies ourselves, we adopted two more and completed our family. Adoption is a good thing.

Saturday, November 15th is National Adoption Day. This special day was established several years ago to help raise awareness of the need for foster care and adoption in this country. Currently 129,000 children in foster care are waiting to be adopted. For more information check out nationaladoptionday.org.

For an inspiring read on the subject, pick up Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul. In it, under "Defining Moments", you'll find a piece I wrote entitled, "Appropriately Impolite".