You know there are so many lessons we can learn from God's other creations. Sometimes the lessons need us to pray for better understanding on them.
Cats are indeed a challenge to understand sometimes. I just learned something about one of my "strange" cats this week..Umm for one thing she is smarter than me. LOL
This cat was a feral born outside cat that wound up in my yard when she was about 5-6 weeks old. It took me months to catch the little dickens to get her to the vet for shots and spay. I tried to make her an indoor cat but she was NOT having it and so we have learned to let her come and go as she pleases and to be very careful to be sure she is not accidentally locked in the house or out porch. (She is totally wild and violent if she feels trapped or threatened in any way)
She is the kind that runs like wildfire from all other humans but me and my daughter and my one male cat. Everything else that moves or breathes is hissed at growled at and she runs away.. She will come to me to be loved and petted and purrs like an engine but if another cat comes into view she begins trying to growl at them and purr at me at the same time! (It IS hilarious but she has mastered this), look at cat growl 2 seconds put head in my hand purr two seconds, growl, purr, hiss wildly growl and run like wildfire if other cat comes closer.
SO recently I realized I had a mother raccoon brought her two young ones to be eating the cat food at night. (They learned to use the cat door before the cats to the out porch!) I began locking the cat door at night for fear the raccoons would be in the porch WITH the cats and kill them.
Well my little girl learned fast that the little escape hatch won't let her out and now she won't come in to eat so I have to wait for her to come and put a dish outside for her and stay there to watch her eat then pull the dish. Well the raccoons picked up on this real fast and so instead of running away when I put the lights on and turn the radio on (told that would keep them away) they come running instead!
Sasha was outside on the lawnmower and I put her dish right outside the door for her to come eat. Well the raccoons were hiding under the deck and saw this and came running. I yelled at them to try to scare them away from Sasha but it only worked for a few seconds. I yelled at Sasha to run away but she just stayed laying quietly on the lawnmower. The young raccoons came and looked right at her and she just stayed there quietly not making a sound nor running. I was in shock. She would be flying into the woods if it were another cat yet a big ole raccoon that could kill her in an instant she just sits there!
I got scared and decided to let them eat what I put there in hopes they would get full and not bother her since she wouldn't run and they were not afraid of me all that much either and they were between me and her.They emptied the dishes looked, right at me through the screen turned and looked right at Sasha then ran RIGHT for her! I yelled at them all yelling at Sasha to RUN. She STILL just sat there with her head down. They stopped right at her brushed against her and took off.
I was in a panic that she seemed to have no idea the danger she was in. I tried all kind of stuff to make her come into the porch to eat. I tried to force her to eat during the day by not putting any food out for her at night but she just went hungry and began loosing weight. I was desperate for her.
I began feeding her at night again and of course the raccoons figured it out by the second night and were here to eat too. I asked for advise from a long time feral cat rescuer.
She told me that had Sasha made any noise or even took off running those raccoons would have seen that as a threat and would have then attacked her. She was doing exactly what she needed to do in order for them to not attack her. Even when they ran right up to her she still had the "smarts" enough to submit to them and put her head down and stay quiet.
My passive/aggressive kitty is also a very wise kitty. She knows exactly when to stand firm (gives warning growls and hisses to other cats) and when to submit to the "greater authorities".
Indeed we have a lot to learn from God's other creations. I sure hope to always be as "wise" as Sasha and always know the difference between when to automatically submit and when to run like wildfire.
