Divine timing is something which creates beauty and amazement and there is no earthly way you could have orchestrated it.
Miraculous days start “normally”. I had been care taking my mother for a year, 500 miles away, and it was good to be home, for a week’s break, doing
“normal” things with my husband and cats.
Our cats’ litter had deteriorated, so we drove 25 miles to Eugene to find a more effective one at one of their twelve or more pet stores.
The kitty litter aisle was forty feet long! We did not want pine litter, as it is hard on my and the cats’ breathing. We had tried the newspaper brands, crushed walnuts were not to our liking, and we were not sold on the clumping brands because
of our Persians’ long fur. If it attached to our cats’ fur, then when they groomed, we wondered “Would the litter “clump” in their digestive tract?".
We were reading bag after bag of clay and crystal litters. When someone pushed their large metal grocery cart up to the litter section, I approached them like the “kitty-rozzi” and interviewed them about their choice. “Have you used this brand long? Does it hold odor? How often do you change
it? Do you have long or short haired cats?” Everyone smiled and gracefully answered our survey.
We then read up on their selected brand. In the hour of ‘scientific research’ none of the customers shared their cats’ names.
Then this beautiful, blue-eyed woman with shoulder length white hair, reminiscent of a white Persian cat, tossed a bag of litter into her cart. I noted her kind face and purr-ceded to ask her my list of questions.
This was a brief few seconds of divine timing with our lives merging in a city of 161,000 after leaving our town of 10,000.
When she responded, “We have two short haired cats.” I quipped, “Oh, you look like someone who would have Persians.” She stopped, caught her breath and quietly said, “We did have two. We loved them. But Miracle died a year ago.”
I already knew the answer to my next questions, before asking them, so I began
crying.
I tearfully chocked out, “Was she a rescue cat? Was she orange and black? Was her full name Ms. Myrakle?"
“Yes”, said Linda.
I was stunned! What were the unbelievable odds!?
"We fostered and named Ms. Myrakle for the Humane Society of Cottage Grove,” I said. “It took three days to gently clip off all her tangle fur mats. When the last vicious ball, that was
preventing her from moving her back leg to its full extension was clipped off, she lifted her head off my lap and looked into my eyes as if to say, "Thank you!".
Then she slowly stretched her leg fully out for the first time - in a long time. She was the sweetest cat. She never fought with our cats and accepted my daughter’s two dogs. But sadly, we had to give her back to the shelter, when I had surgery. It was a tearful
goodbye.
We have wondered what happened to her, even after all these years. Just this morning I was reminiscing about her while looking at the newspaper article I had written, trying to find her a loving home.”
Linda, now also crying, recounted her life with Ms. Myrakle, “Four years ago I told my husband, Gene, that I wanted a cat for my birthday.
We saw Ms. Myrakle on the shelter’s website. Persians have
lovely purrs-onalities, and we liked how her name was spelled - so we went right over and adopted her.
She was elderly, had only a few teeth, so we knew she would be a challenge. Gene would get down on the floor and hand feed her soft foods. We both loved her, she was the sweetest cat.
We live close to this store. I never come in on a busy weekend. I have no idea why I came in today.
While driving here, I was
feeling grief because it has been a year, this week, since Myrakle's passed from old age. I miss her and our other cat, it is the oddest thing, they both died the same week, but a year apart. Then what she said next stunned me again! “Our other cat’s name was Angel,” she added.
I had to grab her litter filled buggy for balance! As the author of the online Angels and Miracles newsletter for twenty years, teaching others to “Expect Miracles” (name of my first book)
this divine encounter by the kitty litter was an unexpected overwhelming joy.
For a day that started off “normally” it had a remarkable miraculous ending!
Linda and I felt that Ms. Myrakle’s love brought us together to assuage our grief and thank us for the gift of loving her. Myrakle had found a loving home! We discussed how we felt she had come from a toss-away-breeder after “no longer being of use” and the cat was thanking us for her last
years of love, comfort and grace.
As soon as Linda arrived home she told her husband, "I had the most amazing thing happen at the pet store." He said, "Oh! NO!” And began looking around for a newly adopted pet! She laughed and told him that it was “someone” she met.
Linda and I are now good friends, united by a cat in heaven. May you live a life filled with miracles.
Appreciation for Tips 'n' Tales