Rainy Day Blessing

Sometimes blessings come in very small packages.

My Tuesday began with frustrating disappointment. It was to have been an eagerly anticipated flurry of activity but waking to tornado warnings and heavy rain completely devastated my plans. Taking my favorite first cup of early morning coffee to my favorite porch to sit in my favorite chair, I intended to listen to the wind in the trees and watch the sheets of rain march across the pond, and thoughtfully rearrange my busy schedule. But that, too, was eliminated as a possibility. My chair was occupied.

There, in the chill and damp, deposited in the center of the seat cushion, a tiny ball of kitten had taken refuge from the storm.Now, it's not that I'm not a cat person; I am. It's just that a dozen or so years ago, I developed allergies that make their proximity to me very unpleasant, so my coffee cup and I reluctantly went back indoors. No sooner had the door closed behind me than I worried that the shivering little fellow was being soaked by the windblown mist. At first, I moved the chair to a more sheltered location and decided to spend the day attending kitchen chores that I might keep an eye on the porch and its intruder.

Before long, a box filled with towels heated in the dryer found its way to the porch, eventually followed by a saucer of warm milk. As the day progressed, the unlovely eyes were tended with diluted antibiotic drops.My hands were washed a million times with antibiotic soap and rinsed with peroxide as I braced for the aftereffects of having touched a CAT...Eek! I busied myself in the kitchen, put on a pot of soup and checked the kitten, set a loaf of bread to rest and checked the kitten, did the dishes and checked the kitten, cleaned the refrigerator and checked the kitten. In the dim light of early evening, I stepped to the porch yet again and was startled to find the scrawney mother cat positioned between her baby and me. She hissed once, jumped off the porch and turned to stare defiantly. I went back inside and watched through the side-light as she returned and hungrily finished the kitten's milk. Ugh, I thought...'if I feed her, she will stay' and I couldn't deal with that. On the other hand, she was hungry. Throughout the evening, mama cat stayed close, was given warm milk and tuna. By bedtime, the wind and rain had moved on to other places and mother and baby were comfortable curled together and sleeping in my favorite chair. And as I curled comfortably in my own bed, I smiled, realizing that it had been a very satisfying and productive day.

At first light, the two of them were gone. My favorite spot for morning coffee had been returned to me but it seemed like a lonely place on Wednesday morning so I had my coffee at my desk.