This is a long story, but something I like to share.
Sometimes being in the right place at the right time is maybe more than a coincidence.
Sometimes something that is no big deal to you has a higher purpose.
So I’m running late for work. My niece had stopped by with the baby and of course I had to spend some time with my grand-nephew.
I’m flying down a country road, trying to wipe the baby puke off my shoulder and I see something moving on the side of the road up ahead.
I know it’s not a leaf, the wiggling isn’t random enough.
As I whiz on past I can tell by the too big wobbly head that it’s a baby something and it’s getting awfully close to traffic.
So I turn around and drive back, I can’t find it and think maybe I imagined it and turn around. I whiz on past it again, and yes it is a baby and it’s heading into traffic.
So I go back, go past it again, turn around and spot it up ahead and pull over.
It’s a kitten, a tiny fits in the palm of my hand, eyes not yet opened, calico kitten.
How in the hell got out in the middle of nowhere I don’t know.
I look around and don’t see any more kittens or a mama cat.
She lets out the most pitiful cry and when I pull her closer to me she starts sucking on my shirt.
Now what am I supposed to do? The nearest pet store to get formula and bottles is miles away. I’m already late. I can’t leave her in my truck while I walk dogs, it’s the middle of August, 98 degrees out, she will never survive.
Then I remember the vet’s office a few miles back and I know the vet, so I rush back and luckily catch the vet on her way out to lunch.
I did a lot of promising that I would be back if she could just hold onto the kitten until I walk some dogs and buy some formula. I promise that I will not dump the kitten on her. She agrees and as I hand over the kitten it pukes sticky black gunk on my shirt.
The vet says that doesn’t look good but she will do what she can.
I rush off to work. The vet calls to tell me the kitten has been fed and is doing fine. The black stuff was road dirt she had sucked up, she was so hungry. I say I’ll be back to get her and the vet says no rush.
I name the kitten Kismet.
I finish walking the dogs and since the vet said no hurry, I rush on over to another dog I need to walk. That way when I pick up the kitten I’m done for the day and can devote my time to her.
I also stop by the house to put on a clean shirt, after all I have dried baby puke on my shoulder, dried kitty puke on my chest and did I mention I was walking dogs in 98 degrees?
I warned you this was long.
When I get back to the vet there’s a woman standing at the counter filling out some forms and we get to talking.
She tells me about her house burning down and how she lost all of her cats and a few dogs in the fire. She was there getting copies of the rabies certificates for the surviving dogs so she could renew their tags.
She has her two grandsons there with her, they look to be about 5 and 6, and how she had hoped to be there earlier in the day but they had held her up.
So I tell her about the kitten I found and how weird it was to find a kitten in the road like that.
When the vet brings the kitten out everybody in the office wants to see her, especially the two little boys.
The woman asks me if I’d like to give the kitten away because she misses her cats and she’d love to take the kitten if I was willing. We talk a while longer and the two little boys are just staring at the kitten, and you can tell they really really want her.
I start thinking about having to get up very two hours and how I’m already so busy that I don’t have time to think, and how will my dog accept a cat in the house.
So I ask them if they really want the kitten. They both nod yes and I said if its okay with your grandmoth… They both jumped up, one grabbed the kitten, the other the formula and off they went running out
the door.
The grandmother walks out and then comes back in laughing and said the boys went to hide in the car because they were afraid I would change my mind.
I said there was no way I’d do that to kids.
So I went home without my Kismet, but I knew she was going to a good, loving home.
But this isn’t the end of the story.
A few weeks later the vet calls and tells me the woman who took the kitten wants me to call her.
So I call and am happy to hear that the kitten is alive and well. Her eyes are open, she’s super sweet and very attached to the younger of the two boys. She followed him everywhere. He took it upon himself to be responsible for the kitten and set his alarm for very two hours and alternated between waking his mother and his grandmother to feed the kitten. She was his cat, they were good buddies, and the family was very thankful to me for giving her to them.
I thought that is all very nice and I’m glad the kitten is happy in a good home but it was no big deal to give her to them. I’m just glad it all worked out.
Ok I promise we are almost at the end of the story here.
Then the grandmother lowers her voice and she says, no you really don’t understand just how much the kitten means to my family and how much we thank you.
You see, the little boy is the one who accidentally started the fire, playing with matches.
He was so upset at what he had done, guilty about starting the fire, blamed himself for killing the cats and dogs that had died in the fire. He had been depressed and wanted to die so he could go to heaven to be with his beloved pets.
Of course none of the adults blamed him, he was a child.
All I could think is how horrible it must be for a small boy to carry around so much guilt.
Having the kitten turned him around. Now he had a purpose, a kitten to care for and he was back to being the happy little boy he was before.
For that his family was grateful.
I’m not religious, I don’t believe in what people call God.
But I do believe that every decision made that day, from playing with my grand-nephew for too long, to stopping to change my shirt, to catching the vet just in time, to the grandmother bringing her grandsons with her and running late, everyone of those choices came together because a little boy was meant to have that kitten.