Litter, Litter Everywhere!

Recently my husband and I visited my brother-in-law Bob in Maryland for a few days. Periodically during our stay a neighbor’s cat would appear outside the sliding glass door on the deck, meowing to come in for a visit. Apparently, Bob would give the cat some milk and some dried cat food, as he said “Kitty” was nursing a new litter of kittens, and he wasn’t sure she was getting fed enough with a tumultuous situation at the neighbor’s house going on.

Momma cat and I bonded quickly. She was a very affectionate cat, coming in first to be petted and appreciated. Only later after she felt everyone had had their fill of petting her would she gravitate to the food station to lap up all the milk and have a few nibbles of dried food. After more wandering around and getting rubbed, she would meow to go out again and back to her kittens.

We had a nice surprise the morning we were getting ready to leave. When I opened the front door to go out, Kitty was on the front porch with all five of her kittens nursing right there with her! Bob marveled, as he said this was the first time she’d brought them over. And I loved cuddling them and playing with them briefly!

Bob told me the story of the cat, how this was the third litter she’d had. Conversations with the owner after every litter were about “you know - you could get the cat spayed if you don’t want any more kittens.” “Oh, yes, I’ll have to do that.” And then boom, another litter before you know it, with the repeated conversation each time!

I had to smile when I heard that, as I recalled a time I had a cat that kept getting pregnant before I could get her spayed. Ours and the neighbors’ cars always had paw prints on their hoods, along with resting cats warming themselves from the engine heat on cold days. I’m sure it was somewhat annoying to the neighbors, while we were waiting to give the cats away!

In fact, I know it was particularly distressing to one neighbor to always be worrying about the cats. One day he started his car and a fast streak of fur came running out from under the car, minus about an inch of his tail! The neighbor felt so bad, but we certainly couldn’t blame him. That became a catalyst to deal with the expanding cat population before the mother became pregnant once again! Our relations with our neighbors and the stress and annoyance the cats were giving them (and us) weren’t worth it. We needed to be more proactive about solving the problem. So we did.

Thinking about all these litters and the issues that arose made me wonder:

• What areas in my life do I need to be more proactive about?

• What litters resulted and caused problems that I didn’t need and could have prevented if I have been more decisive and followed through immediately?


• How has my procrastination in some areas caused my own litter and mess that I need to take responsibility for and clean up?


• What areas are there where I've asked God for help, and he's still waiting for me to act on the answer he's already given me?!

I could bless myself by my obedience in doing what I know to do first!

Perhaps there are some areas you need to think about and follow through with as well. I suspect we all have them. Maybe it’s time to own your litter! Then deal with it as appropriate. It could be keeping you from moving ahead in some other area where you desire to make progress.

I encourage you to take action and Meow-ve ahead with your life now!! ;-)