The Abused Kitten

[snopes]

Over the past several years, our now eleven-year-old daughter has been persistent in asking for a cat. My wife and I tried to placate her with fish. This worked for a while, but she finally exclaimed, "Daddy, you can't hold fish!" So a few months ago, I was speaking to a friend who is a veterinarian, and I told him we were looking for a kitten. Then just before Christmas, he phoned and said that they had a little kitten in that had been treated badly. Well, I took my daughter down to see the kitten, and the moment she saw it, that little black cat was coming home.

So we went to the local pet shop and bought all the things one would need for a kitten. So Gomez, as we eventually called him, came to live with us. Because he had been so abused, he hid underneath the sofa or any new hiding place that he could find. We were getting concerned that our little cat didn't realize that we had his best interests at heart. We wanted to have a relationship with him and to love him. However, his response was to run away. Then one day, he disappeared, and while we searched everywhere in the house, we concluded that he must have slipped out a door. Three days later, while my wife was putting some bed linen away, she found the cat and the three days of mess. Gomez scooted downstairs and hid underneath the sofa. Eventually, we phoned our vet friend, and he came over with some chicken pieces. He persuaded him to come out, and we put him in a training cage. So over the next few weeks, Gomez was fed and petted and talked to. The training cage has been put away now, and the other night, Gomez was sitting on my daughter's lap, sleeping. He has finally understood that we are safe.

People will often visit our churches. They come to us, nervous, frightened, or sometimes battered and bruised by life's problems. They do not realize that we want a relationship with them. They don't realize God wants a relationship with them. Obviously, we can't have training cages, but are our churches places where these people can find love and friendship? Just as Gomez discovered that we wanted only to love him, eventually, through tenderness, people will discover the same through us. We may be the tool that our Father God wants to use to express His love to a bruised and battered world.

[Chloe]

So what does it mean that his little girl wanted a churchgoer to hold and he tried to fob her off with a fish?

Obviously, we can't have training cages

Go on you know you would if you could.

[Squirt]

Rubbish! This is all lies! The last time I pooped in a cupboard at church they kicked me out!

Also, does the term "My wife and I tried to placate her with fish" bring to mind for anyone else?

[BlushingBride]

Originally Posted by Squirt

Rubbish! This is all lies! The last time I pooped in a cupboard at church they kicked me out!

YOMANK!

(I'm at work right now. I work for a church. It wasn't easy explaining to the coworkers why I was cracking up at this. "No, I think you're misunderstanding the analogy, BB. See, it doesn't mean that you're supposed to act like a literal kitten...")

[Lainie]

[hijack]Gomez is a great name for a kitten.[/hijack]

[Fantine]

All I have to say about this is, it was a really dumb idea to get an abused kitten as a first-time pet for a little girl.

[glisp42]

Originally Posted by Lainie

[hijack]Gomez is a great name for a kitten.[/hijack]

Morticia's better.

[BamaRainbow]

Originally Posted by Lainie

[hijack]Gomez is a great name for a kitten.[/hijack]

Especially if it has a fondness for destroying toy trains and goes crazy whenever French is spoken.

[Dropbear]

The ending is all wrong - it should go:

Obviously, we can't have training cages, but we can build cages of love around our visitors. We can surround them with our compassion and hold them with our understanding. We can hold them in an eternal embrace with our kindness. The grace of God shown through our Heart and Soul, the Spirit in our Eyes can the bars of a Cell from which the only Escape is INTO HIS LOVING ARMS!!111 WE MUST FIND WHERE THEY SQUAT IN THE DARKNESS OF OUR SOCIETY AND SENTENCE THEM TO A GAOL OF HIS INFINITE SWEET LOVE!!!.

Dropbear

[DrFraud]

Originally Posted by snopes

Over the past several years, our now eleven-year-old daughter has been persistent in asking for a cat. My wife and I tried to placate her with fish. This worked for a while, but she finally exclaimed, "Daddy, you can't hold fish!"

Depends on whether they're alive or not, innit?

Depends on the species actually... way back, before I was even born, my Dad had an oscar that would let him pet it.

And I used to have some large comet goldfish that would rub up against my fingers when I was cleaning anything in their tank. They also would take dried krill out of my fingers.

Now I have three large comet goldfish... they don't do the petting thing, but they do do the krill thing heh.