The Best Cat In The World

I had planned to write about other happenings today, but received some sad news from my sister-in-law, Kathy. Many of you may remember our cat, Molly, whom we had for several years in the States. Kathy made a home for Molly on their farm when we moved to Zambia. I got an e-mail from Kathy today saying that Molly had died yesterday due to what the vet thought was an intestinal blockage. She had been at the vet several days before with pneumonia and had actually gotten better. However, she took a turn for the worse and died Friday morning. It's really hard to write this without tears because she was just the best cat imaginable.

About six years ago I searched for a kitten at animal shelters because Tracy needed a sermon illustration for Prolife Sunday. He was showing the differing glories of God's creation and that sermon was truly visual and interactive. Plus, it was a live animal show! Tracy compared the glory of a rock and a mountain; a plant and a rose; a bug and a mouse; a kitten and an iguana; and, a child and an elderly person.

There was only one shelter that would loan us a kitten for a weekend and that was Happy Tails in Rock Falls. As I walked down the aisle of the animals cages with dogs barking in the next room, a little black kitten stuck its paw outside of the cage and waved at me. It was love at first sight. Although we were just borrowing the cat, I "happened" to stop at the store for a litter box, litter, catfood, and food bowls. As Tracy pointed out Molly in his sermon, he looked at me in the pew and said, "We are just borrowing her, right?" Right!

When she came to us, her coat of fur was brownish. But, within a few days her hair became a glossy black. Molly wormed her way into our hearts with her gentle and loving ways. So affectionate, she didn't know a stranger unless it was another cat. She loved to climb inside bags when I was unpacking groceries. One of her famous tricks was the coin disappearing act. If you placed coins on our kitchen counter, she would sit on the bar stool, and one by one she would take her paw and swipe each coin off onto the floor. Each time she would look on the floor where it landed to see what she'd done.

I believe there will be animals in the new heavens and the new earth. And, I hope ones we have loved will be there, too~here's to Molly, the best cat in the world.

"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." (Romans 8:20-22, ESV)