Day 1205 Perfect Match

 

After months of mourning the loss of our sweet Peps, Tim and I are finally ready to start looking at kittens and cats...and maybe, just maybe, we’ll find our perfect match. As a little girl, I had a few favorite books, and Barney Beagle was right up there in my all-time top ten. It’s an old book, published back in 1962, but the story and its lessons are timeless....and yes, I still have my book! 

The story follows a little beagle named Barney who lives in a pet shop, eagerly waiting for the right person to find and adopt him. Each time someone walks into the shop, Barney hopes it will be his person. One after another, people enter with characteristics that clearly match other dogs: the sheepdog is adopted by a large man with a furry jacket, the poodle by a girl with a fluffy collar and puffy hair, the boxer by a boy with upright earflaps on his hat, and so on. Each time, Barney gets excited and then disappointed as he realizes the person isn’t meant for him.

Eventually, every dog is adopted except Barney, and the clock is ticking toward closing time. A mean-looking boy comes in wanting to adopt him, oh no! The boy handles him roughly, and Barney knows this is definitely not his person, so he bites him on the nose, sending the boy running out. Just as the shop owner is about to close, Barney sees another boy through the window, wearing a hat with big floppy ear covers. Once again, Barney hopes… maybe this is his boy! And he’s right. They instantly know they’re meant for each other. But then the boy checks his pockets and realizes he doesn’t have enough money to pay for Barney. Luckily, in true old-fashioned children’s-story fashion, the shop owner lets the boy take Barney for whatever he can offer, and Barney leaves the shop happily with his boy.

There are so many important lessons in that story, patience, trust, timing, kindness and the belief that our perfect match is out there if we let the universe take the wheel.

When my friend sent me a video of an adoptable cat in a shelter, I wondered if this could be MY cat. I filled out a two-page application, that left no stone unturned, and now I’ll wait to see if I get an appointment to meet her. Times sure have changed with cat adoptions. People used to struggle to give away kittens, and now even an older cat costs at least $200 to adopt, go figure. At least I know I’m ready to welcome a new kitty into our home, a home that’s had a huge void since Peps died. Fingers crossed that Tim and I will find the cat that belongs with us… and just like Barney Beagle, it will be our perfect match.

As we begin this search, I'm cautiously excited to welcome a new pet into our home. Here’s to new beginnings, healing hearts, and the tiny paws that will someday fill our home again...once we find each other! Who knows if this three year old kitty will be it, but I'm sure (thanks to Barney) that our match is out there ..just waiting for us to find her (or him). 

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened” ~Anatole France