Miracles Do Happen!

Little Blackie at Old Webster Ave. Location


Compassion is that which makes the heart of the good move at the pain of others. It crushes and destroys the pain of others; thus, it is called compassion. It is called compassion because it shelters and embraces the distressed. - The Buddha

Yesterday was a very bad day for me. After the encounter I had in the morning with those two very mean people, I really questioned myself, and why I do what I do – feeding over 50 cats every single day in high crime ridden areas, trying to make a difference in other people’s neighborhoods by getting these cats spayed and neutered, all out of my own pocket – spending over $6000 a year on food ALONE - of my own money, money that could have gone to better my own life, so that I didn’t have to struggle with paying my bills like I do now on a monthly basis, and just think of the yearly vacations I could have taken. All I could think about yesterday was where was I going to feed the five little kitties that have depended on me every single morning at that location, how will they survive without a shelter, etc. I called 911 from work to request that the police officer that responded to my call (I had to leave for work – could not wait around any longer for someone to get there) – to the Devil Man’s call – call me at work. He did, a nice officer named Mike Grabowski – he actually listened to everything I had to say, and then told me my alternatives. I didn’t really have any except to get written permission from whoever allows me to put food on their property. That would be a monumental task, so his phone call left me just as disappointed as I was before he called. I then called a city worker and he told me what I wasn’t expecting to hear. That the property – the vacant lot that I had been feeding on for years – was actually owned by the woman in the house next to it. So I couldn’t go on that property anymore, legally. So the only thing I could do was hang my head low, get home from work, get the cat I had neutered (it’s a boy!) and return him to Parsells where he came from (he was such a good boy), and drive near the location to scout out a new one, or talk to a homeowner that I thought might at least listen to me. I didn’t have much faith though.

Little Red at Old Webster Ave. Location

When I pulled into this driveway (which is just around the corner from the said lot), I didn’t think anyone was home, but noticed a man in his truck in the house next door on the corner. I walked up to him, he didn’t speak much English so he called for his wife. This young woman came out and at first, so many words spilled out too quickly, I didn’t want to be rejected again, so I quickly gave her the jist of what had happened that morning, and what I was hoping to get from her – permission to feed kitties on her property. She told me she has seen me over the years – her house being in direct view of where I park in the morning, and before the house across the street from her went from being boarded up, to a livable house – this is when I had most of the cats that are there neutered and spayed. When after all of that came out of me, she spoke to her husband in Spanish, and then her head nodded, and I could her – over the traffic on that corner, speaking the words ‘yes’. My eyes instantly started to well up. I had such little hope and faith just moments before.

Humans cause each other so much angst and pain, and yet it is also humans who relieve us and make us feel loved and understood and calm our souls. How strange that the same creatures can have such very different effects on us - some to hurt and some to heal.

I am so very grateful to this wonderful couple, I must find something to reward their good deed. My friend suggested a beautiful potted plant full of flowers. I would love to give them money or gift certificate – none of which I can afford, but will find a way.  I thank them both for their compassion.  There is so little of it in the world these days.

This morning, after I placed a few plastic totes down and a board over them to shield the food I placed in between both totes to shield the rain we are expected to have all day today and night, I called quietly for the kitties, and sure enough, little red and little blackie came and gobbled up the food.  Its amazing their instinct to survive, they were starving after not having eaten yesterday, after those evil people threw their fresh food away that I had placed down minutes before.  People like that will pay for their acts in the end.  God will see to that, I am sure.

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all these."