This is maybe my favorite thread on the site. So many great stories… I’ll humbly add one more.
Keeping this as short as I can… close to 20 years ago when our daughter was born, I had to leave the hospital not too long after her birth sadly to put down a cat who had been my little friend for 15 years or so up to that point. The symmetry of that day has stuck with me through the years, God giving us a little girl and taking the sweet little cat we had known for so long on the same day. I thought about it pretty often.
Fast forward to earlier this year, my Mom and Dad both suffered through serious medical decline. Both were in the hospital between March and May, most of that at the same time in different rooms in Lakeland. We lost my Mom in May, and three days later my Dad was released from hospital. I stayed over with him that night, and it was just agonizing, really clear he wouldn’t be able to stay there. My sister comes by to relieve me the next morning and brings this kitten, who she said was like Rambo running through the jungle trying to get to her while she was out on a run. He was absolutely not taking no for an answer, so she brought him to our Dad’s hoping I would take him.
And then within a few minutes of meeting the cat, my Dad collapses again, rushed to hospital again, and then gone, ten days after my Mom. Yeah, it’s been a good year… although we did get both of them out of the hospital for four days around Easter… a few very special days.
So now we have this guy, who I call Little Buddy because that’s exactly what he’s become. He’s such a little bastard, playfully attacking everything that moves in this house (including our dog four times his size) but with such a sweet spirit. I figure if I play my cards right he and I probably have about the same amount of time left on the planet. It’ll be interesting marking time watching him grow, mature and change. God’s symmetry.