Guest Author - Linda J. Paul

Sophia came into my life today... Not the Goddess.. the cat. I belong to a group called freecycle.org on line. People post things that they don't want, and other people see them and go and pick them up. Really a great system. I got a washer, dryer, refrigerator, stove, and a brand new pillowtop mattress for free!! Sometimes people even post pets that they can no longer keep. And, in most cases there is a later email stating that the pet has been taken.

I have been very good about not taking in strays for a while now. My cat colony was down to 12,after successfully placing three of my feline friends into loving homes.

But today there was a posting that broke my heart.. and my resolve not to adopt any more cats. A compassionate poster had presented a case that I could not refuse.

It seemed that her neighbors had moved out almost a week ago. The owner of the house came to check it out for re-rental, and when he opened the door, out came a very skinny, very frightened cat. The poster and her family had managed to catch the cat, and tried to feed it water and hot dogs. The cat would not eat but was still hanging around the house in which it had lived.

So, I sent out an email, and twenty minutes later returned home with a wonderful new friend. She looks like a patchwork quilt. She is gray and white, with yellow tiger striped stockings on all of her legs. I put her in my special cat healing room with a can of fancy feast, some water, a litter box and a cozy blanket to cuddle up with.

I went in to visit with her after explaining to my other cat-kids that we had a newcomer who could not be disturbed.. several of the crew were already sniffing under the closed door.

I sat on the chair and watched her as she sat on the table and watched me. She was so thin that her bones were sticking out in odd places. Her eyes were running and she looked pretty shaky. But, she had eaten the catfood and drank some of the water.

After several minutes of co-watching, she jumped over to the chair and cuddled up beside me, with her paws lightly touching my stretched out hand. She looked up with me with such a trusting look in her eyes, I knew that she was saying a heartfelt "thank-you." We both knew that she was going to be just fine now.

What bothers me the most about this story is the fact that someone would leave a home and in the process leave a cat trapped inside that home with no food or water. Now, it could be an oversight, but according to the compassionate poster, the family who lived there "didn't much care about anything or anyone."

I don't know the full story, but I do know that there are people who leave their dogs in a hot parked car for hours, drop a mother cat and kittens off in a box in the middle of nowhere, and go out of their way to hit an animal who is trying to cross the road. I know this because I have witnessed all of the above happening.

Why do we as humans feel that our lives are any more precious or valuable than those of our animal counterparts? If that had been a forgotten child in that house today the parents would have been charged with every crime under the sun, and there would be a public outcry... but.. Sophia is just a cat.

All I can say is that I am proud and humble to be chosen to be Sophia's human, and I will do my best to provide the love and compassion that perhaps has been lacking in her short life in the past.

In Love and Light to all the Sophia's out there....