Who would have thought we could learn spiritual lessons from our pets? I certainly didn’t. When I was a child, pets were on the bottom rung of the family hierarchy. Obviously, we fed them, and if a cat came home battered and bleeding, we nurtured the poor thing as if it was a human baby. Nevertheless, that was as far as it went: no spaying or neutering, no vaccines, NO VET. In short, it was nothing like the prevailing attitude society has about pets today.
Fast forward a few years, and I wanted to continue my tradition of having a tabby cat around, but when my children came along pet care became just another chore that had to be done. Again, pets were relegated to the lowest rung on the hierarchy scale. I didn’t want any more responsibilities to make sure a life (human or animal) ate nutritiously or need to worry if their internal plumbing was working. The children were enough!
Fast forward a few more years (yes, I’m old). I was living alone and the apartment was a little lonely. All right, VERY lonely. I dutifully went to an animal shelter to pick out my next tabby cat and instantly fell in love with the little guy. It is late 1990s at this time and they wouldn’t let me take the kitten home until he was neutered. He was 12 weeks old! Then, I ended up with a veterinarian for vaccinations and other concerns. This was getting expensive, but like I said, I fell in love with the cat and didn’t care how many hoops I had to jump through to be able to take him home.
So, now I have an unsexed cat that will not make more little cats, and he has had (seemingly) as many shots as a human baby. We settled into life at home and all was good.
The chore of cleaning the litter box was hit-or-miss with me, and my kitty certainly forgave me for a lot of litter box sins, until one day he decided to leave me a message on the floor, right next to the litter box. I was not appreciative of this gift. I yelled and ran looking for paper towels and Lysol. I was a crazy women; threatening this poor animal with bringing him back to the shelter. All he saw was that his human had lost it and he probably had no clue why I was behaving this way.
And then, I had an epiphany…
As I was cleaning up the mess and scooping (and scooping) the litter box, a thought came to me that God had entrusted me (ME!) to care for one of his precious creatures and I was mucking it all up. Suddenly, I saw life from the cat’s point of view. This incident made me grow spiritually by a factor of ten. It had all been about my ego (“How dare this animal foul my home?”) and then I realized it wasn’t the cat’s fault that he did what he did, it was MY FAULT for not cleaning the box in a timely manner. It’s called responsible pet ownership! It’s called taking the high road – whatever cliché you want to use. I was humbled by the experience and remembered to thank Spirit for the lesson.
This happened 17 years ago, and to this day I still have incredible respect for animals that I never felt when I was growing up. No one taught it to me, except for maybe my cat, and it was augmented by some deep spiritual reflection.
Today, I live with a cat and a dog and you would be amazed at what the dog has taught me! I’m still growing spiritually, and it is not related to visiting a building on Sunday. It’s because more of my soul is awake today than it was 15 years ago…and I am so thankful.
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