(Picture Left: Cricket and Cali....Cats who went from doom and gloom to love and celebrity; all on a simple twist of fate)
Life is ironic sometimes.....how the lives and fortunes or misfortunes of both people and animals can turn on a dime; a choice; a random circumstance.
I don't recall the exact circumstances I decided to rescue two orange kittens from the shelter euthanasia list several years ago.
Presumably I had an open foster at the time or perhaps I fostered the two ginger cats myself. I don't even recall if the names, "Cricket and Cali" were names the kittens came with (from the shelter), names I gave them or names later given them by their adopters.
None of that seems to matter now.
What does matter is the email and delightful pictures sent to me yesterday from Cricket's and Cali's adopters.
In the lovely note, "Jenny" informed me how happy she and her husband are with the two cats, how wonderful the little red tabbies are with the couple's new baby and that Cricket and Cali recently landed a very coveted spot on the "Cat Fancy" calendar!
I couldn't help but think to myself the irony of life.
Only minutes before, I had just looked over a long list of equally beautiful cats on the current day's shelter Euthanasia list (wow, how little has changed over the years).
None of those cats I could rescue however, as these days, willing cat foster people seem impossible to find.
And yet, for the discovery of a foster and the possibility of rescue, any of those then doomed cats, could have potentially, a year or two from now wound up as "Calendar Cats!"
What about some of the dogs who starred in "Annie" having been previously rescued from rejection and death from local pounds?
Yes indeed, life and death, joy and tragedy often turns on a dime; a simple twist of fate!
There are those wise people or sage philosophies who maintain that, "as a man thinketh, so he becomes."
In other words, we all choose our own destinies and fates through our thoughts and deeds.
But, is that really true -- for people OR animals?
I don't believe that anything in life is absolute.
I believe in the end, life is, yes, a combination of both, our thoughts and actions, (i.e. "free will") but also, to large degree, random circumstance.
How after all, can the person walking down the street who gets randomly killed by a car running out of control be "responsible" for their fate? Did those who died in the Twin Towers on 9-11 "create their fate" by simply going to work that day? Do those cats and dogs dumped at shelters when their people "move" create their fates by not being friendly enough or not jumping in the laps of those who pass by their cages?
I don't recall Cricket and Cali being particularly "friendly" when I picked them up several years ago. In fact, I don't recall the cats at all.
I imagine my reason for choosing them to rescue at the time was something mundane and practical -- like we didn't have other red kittens for adoption.
The cats' rescue from death at the time was a simple twist of fate that in fact, had little, if anything to do with the cats actual behavior or "deeds."
But, a few years later these formerly rejected and "unwanted" cats have gone from doom to a form of celebrity -- at least in the cat world.
In her note to me, Jennifer said, "Cats bring such joy to people!"
I wrote back, that it is only when the people are OPEN and welcoming of the enrichment that animals bring is that true.
Sadly, for the animals dying in our shelters each day, their potentials to bring joy, beauty and enrichment to people goes unheeded and unrecognized.
For joy to actually occur, it needs to be welcomed, sacrificed for and valued.
It also seems to need, in many cases, a "simple twist of fate." -- PCA
************
I don't recall the exact circumstances I decided to rescue two orange kittens from the shelter euthanasia list several years ago.
Presumably I had an open foster at the time or perhaps I fostered the two ginger cats myself. I don't even recall if the names, "Cricket and Cali" were names the kittens came with (from the shelter), names I gave them or names later given them by their adopters.
None of that seems to matter now.
What does matter is the email and delightful pictures sent to me yesterday from Cricket's and Cali's adopters.
In the lovely note, "Jenny" informed me how happy she and her husband are with the two cats, how wonderful the little red tabbies are with the couple's new baby and that Cricket and Cali recently landed a very coveted spot on the "Cat Fancy" calendar!
I couldn't help but think to myself the irony of life.
Only minutes before, I had just looked over a long list of equally beautiful cats on the current day's shelter Euthanasia list (wow, how little has changed over the years).
None of those cats I could rescue however, as these days, willing cat foster people seem impossible to find.
And yet, for the discovery of a foster and the possibility of rescue, any of those then doomed cats, could have potentially, a year or two from now wound up as "Calendar Cats!"
What about some of the dogs who starred in "Annie" having been previously rescued from rejection and death from local pounds?
Yes indeed, life and death, joy and tragedy often turns on a dime; a simple twist of fate!
There are those wise people or sage philosophies who maintain that, "as a man thinketh, so he becomes."
In other words, we all choose our own destinies and fates through our thoughts and deeds.
But, is that really true -- for people OR animals?
I don't believe that anything in life is absolute.
I believe in the end, life is, yes, a combination of both, our thoughts and actions, (i.e. "free will") but also, to large degree, random circumstance.
How after all, can the person walking down the street who gets randomly killed by a car running out of control be "responsible" for their fate? Did those who died in the Twin Towers on 9-11 "create their fate" by simply going to work that day? Do those cats and dogs dumped at shelters when their people "move" create their fates by not being friendly enough or not jumping in the laps of those who pass by their cages?
I don't recall Cricket and Cali being particularly "friendly" when I picked them up several years ago. In fact, I don't recall the cats at all.
I imagine my reason for choosing them to rescue at the time was something mundane and practical -- like we didn't have other red kittens for adoption.
The cats' rescue from death at the time was a simple twist of fate that in fact, had little, if anything to do with the cats actual behavior or "deeds."
But, a few years later these formerly rejected and "unwanted" cats have gone from doom to a form of celebrity -- at least in the cat world.
In her note to me, Jennifer said, "Cats bring such joy to people!"
I wrote back, that it is only when the people are OPEN and welcoming of the enrichment that animals bring is that true.
Sadly, for the animals dying in our shelters each day, their potentials to bring joy, beauty and enrichment to people goes unheeded and unrecognized.
For joy to actually occur, it needs to be welcomed, sacrificed for and valued.
It also seems to need, in many cases, a "simple twist of fate." -- PCA
************
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