Life Is Worth It

Sometimes life hands us tough choices that we would rather not deal with, but are forced to tackled head-on.  Some decisions I have not yet encountered in life but think I already know how I would respond in that situation.  Even worse, sometimes I watch others make decisions and wonder why in the world they would have chosen that. (Judging at it's worst).  It isn't until I am faced with the same (or similar) situation that I begin to understand where people may be coming from...

My childhood days were filled with animals.  My many pets taught me a lot about life and love.  They also, unfortunately, taught me about death.  I have continued my teaching of death through pets to my kids. I've even told parents, "Every child needs a pet to love so that they can experience death."  (What a morbid way of looking at life!)  We had the misfortune a little over a year ago to put down our cat of 9 years due to a mysterious broken hip, among many other sad losses.

 

Yesterday my daughter called me crying,

"Mom! Come home quick! Something is wrong with Milo!" For those of you who do not know my amazing story of how we got our cat...basically God told me what to look for and where to find him (believe it or not).  I ran out of my office and hurried home to find my three children surrounding our injured Milo.  After a trip to the Vet it was determined that he suffered from a hip fracture.  His only hope was a hip surgery.

It was against all my principles to put hundreds of dollars toward a cat- even one as remarkable as Milo.

We took our broken kitty home to make a decision- life or death. My daughter and I cried on the way home knowing, without words, what our answer would have to be.

All through the afternoon I rationalized why the best choice would be to put my young cat down.  "It's a lot of money."  "That money could be spent on braces for my kids."  "That money was being saved for a mission trip to Mexico."  "He's a cat! Are we supposed to spend money on pets?"

Round and round I went.

Just when I thought I knew rationally what the correct answer was, my house would flood me with reminders of Milo: fur on my wood floors, a kitty door leading outside, the orange statue that looks just like him, my garden filled with holes where he likes to dig, the water bucket he drinks out of, the dog food he steals away from my dog, the scratches on the furniture, the picture of my son holding him as a baby kitten in the hallway, the chair he always lounges in, a kitty toy on the floor...

Sometimes I rely too heavy on logic.

What a shock to have my husband come home and question the possibility of surgery instead of putting Milo to sleep. I realized I had never considered saving my kitty. I have it in my messed up intellectual head that when a pet has an accident I simply say goodbye to the pet and not spend any extra money.

My husband had a different view: Milo is just over a year.  He's a healthy, strong cat.  The surgery is routine with amazing recovery.  This was all very odd since my husband is constantly complaining about the cat hair and annoyed at the claw marks on the furniture. Yet here he stands having more compassion on our beloved pet than I have!

What is wrong with me?

It was in that moment of conversation that I realized my thinking was messed up. "Oh well, another cat gone" was my quick response to a critical decision.  Of course there are times (and will be times) when the right decision is to put an animal down, but I had honestly never even considered saving him!

Well, to make a long story short, we decided to save him. 

It still rattles my mind that we are spending money on a cat! But then I think of the example I am setting: sometimes we need to fight for what we love even if it's hard and not give in to failure so quickly.  I find myself excited, but embarrassed that we are doing surgery on our kitty. 

My three kids have given me their birthday Target Gift cards to help with soaps & shampoos, they organized the recycling to get turned in, they volunteered to use their old backpacks for school this year and even did some chores around the house without even being asked!

Through this decision my children learned that while it is a lot of money...

Sometimes life is worth it!