There is an organization, Tails High, near Washington, D. C. that deserves an angel star in heaven for finding homes for lost, feral or homeless cats and kittens.
Similar organizations exist all over the country. This one is in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the river from me. They have an arrangement with a Hallmark store whereby they take a few cats on certain days to the store, in hopes of attracting an owner who will fall in love with one. An ancient maxim observes that it is our animals who choose us, and as I listen to the tales of cat adoptions, I think this must be true.
Consider Blanca, for example, who was passed over time and again. One day my friend Eileen, who works with Tails High, prayed to St. Anthony (patron of lost things, including causes) for a miracle: Find a home, she prayed, for the beautiful Blanca. At that very moment, a woman walked into Hallmark and adopted her. The owner adores her and comes back periodically to show pictures of Blanca (now renamed Snowy).
Percival was another lost cause, in need of his own cat angel. Luck is not always with the valiant. The last of three “White Knights,” Percival had his share of disappointments. When Eileen took him once again in his carrier case to the Hallmark store, just a few small meows during the entire drive betrayed his trepidation. Once at the store, he was every inch the brave Knight-of-the-Holy-Grail for which he was named. It was Halloween. Many people came over to the pretty cat, reached out, even hauled him out to hold him and hear him purr in their ear. Each time they put him back in his cage and moved on, bought their cards, forgot the beautiful homeless cat.
At the end of the day (why is it always this way?) a tall lady, Linda, walked into Hallmark with her daughter, shopping for Halloween extras and was drawn magically to Percival.
“Oh, what a beautiful cat! I grew up with white cats!” she exclaimed, and the rest was love.
The next day Linda came to Tails High with her husband and a brand-new carrier. They signed the contracts and took away their love. I’m told that Percy is slowly charming two elderly female cats and sleeps on his lady’s bed, eating delicately, behaving every inch the knight, or prince, he is.
And which is the angel in this story? The women at the shelter, who make it their business to save lost cats? The lady Linda who took Percival away? The cat itself, who will fulfill his destiny to give a human extra love? Or the coincidences of angels diving invisibly into our lives, coordinating coincidences, to serve the animals and people whom they love?
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