The Brat...I Mean, Cat

I guess since I've given you endless information about my character of a dog, I should probably tell you about my cat. It's only fair since I've had her longer, right?

I got Macy from a student at Limestone College when I was working there as an Admissions Counselor in 2001. I was getting ready to move into an apartment in Gaffney and got the urge to have a pet. I didn't think I'd have the time to spend with a dog - they require a lot more attention - but I said if I could find a gray cat like the one I had in high school, I would get one. The aforementioned student told me that she had a gray female she needed to give away, so she was mine. I came up with her name kind of weirdly because I was sitting there trying to come up with a good name for a gray cat and "Macy" kept creeping into my brain, because of the name Macy Gray (the sort of singer). So that ended up being her name.

She was only a teeny, tiny five weeks old when I brought her home. She cried all the way and wouldn't eat for about three days. We tried every kind of cat food imaginable and tried feeding her milk through a syringe. I was so afraid she was going to starve. Then one day, I had picked up some McDonald's and was sitting eating fries. She came up and started sniffing at the hand containing the fry and when I reached out to see if she would taste it, she nearly took my finger off. She was lovin' it. I've always wanted to write the big wigs at McDonald's and tell them about how their french fries saved my cat's life.

Eating is no longer a problem for her. She's pretty fat and likes to sit upright like a Buddha statue sometimes. It's pretty funny. She thinks she always has to have food in her bowl, whether she wants to eat it right now or not. It's all part of her Queen of the World mentality.

Macy is a little different than most cats. She only answers to her name. Don't try any of that "Here kitty, kitty" business with her. She'll just look at you like you've lost your mind. She's not much of a cuddler (of course, you could say that about a lot of cats, probably). But when she gets ready to cuddle, by golly, you'd better be ready for it. She likes to bite toes. And she likes to pitch fits and talk back. She really does! If I tell her to leave a certain room or to come to me, she'll usually do it, but she's talking back to me the whole time. "Reow!" She does not like to be told what to do.

She thinks she's running the household. She has no idea how not in control she really is. Don't tell her this, but it's not really all about her. Aren't we like that sometimes? Getting so wrapped up in our own little world that we forget that there are other people out there. We think we are so in control. But, truth be known, we're never in control. I'm sure if I forgot to feed Macy for a while, she'd realize how out of her control her life really is. And sometimes in our lives, we get to a desperate point that we realize how out of our control our life is, too.

But thankfully, I know the One Who is in control. He provides all the things I need - shelter, food. All the things that I forget about when I think that I have it all together. Our pastor yesterday talked about how God is the one who holds it all together. I hope I won't let myself be like a self-centered little cat and realize how much I depend on my Master to keep my life in order.

If the dog has eaten her food already this morning, Macy's probably realizing how much of her life I control right about now...