Mr. Cattypants

When you tell the truth, justice is done, but lies lead to injustice.

“WHAT IN THE WORLD is making that sound?” Liz asked her husband, James. “It sounds like a cow impersonating a siren.”

Liz pulled the curtains back but couldn’t see past the torrential rain that had turned the evening sky ominous.

“I’ll go check it out,” James said, taking a flashlight from the shelf.

“Can we come?” pleaded their seven-year-old twins, Molly and Michael.

“I come!” two-year-old Emma echoed, refusing to be left out of the adventure.

“You guys stay here. I’ll be right back,” James instructed.

“What do you think it is?” Molly whispered.

“A dinosaur!” Emma shouted.

“It’s not a dinosaur,” Michael corrected. “Dinosaurs died a long time ago—like two hundred years ago!”

Before Liz had a chance to set the record straight on the demise of the dinosaurs, James reappeared with a wiggly mass of wet fur in his arms.

“Kitty!” Emma squealed, her chubby fingers reaching for the cat.

James was soon surrounded by six eager hands wanting to pet the trembling cat in his arms. Liz ran to get some towels.

“Let’s give the poor thing some room,” she said, wrapping a brightly colored beach towel around the orange-and-white cat. His white socks were caked in brown mud.

“Can we keep him?” Molly asked.

“Please, Mom!” Michael chimed in.

“Peeeease, Mama?” Emma’s ocean-blue eyes were wide with expectation.

The kids had been asking for a cat for months. Molly had even started praying for one every night. A part of Liz wanted to make their feline dreams come true, but a bigger part of her recognized that the cat in her husband’s arms likely belonged to someone else.

“Kids,” Liz began, bending down to her children’s eye level. “I think this kitty belongs to someone else. He probably got lost in the storm and couldn’t find his way home.”

Molly’s bottom lip began to quiver. As their most sensitive child, Liz suspected Molly’s impending tears were as much about her empathy toward the cat being scared and lost as it was to the realization that God had likely not provided a miraculous answer to her prayers for a cat.

“But what if we can’t find his owner?” Michael asked. “Then could we keep him?”

Liz glanced at James. He simply shrugged his shoulders and adjusted the bundle in his arms.

“Let’s talk about that after we try to find his owners first. Deal?”

James placed the cat on the floor. After several minutes, the cat began exploring. He rubbed his face against Michael’s leg, pawed at Molly’s shoelace, and ran his tail along Emma’s shoulder, which elicited a belly laugh from the toddler.

“He looks like he’s wearing pants!” Molly observed, pointing to the large white patch that ran from the middle of his back down both legs.

“We should call him Mr. Cattypants!” Michael suggested.

For the next three days Liz and James posted signs and talked to neighbors about their temporary visitor. Meanwhile, Liz watched her children become more and more attached to Mr. Cattypants.

At the end of the third day, the phone rang. A distraught woman named Amanda said she had found Liz’s sign and believed the cat in the photo was her cat, Toby. She explained how he had slipped out the back door when she went to bring in the patio furniture cushions before the storm. She lived several miles away and couldn’t believe that Toby had gotten so far.

Liz invited her to come right over.

“There’s my sweet Toby!” Amanda exclaimed as soon as she laid eyes on him. She scooped the marmalade-colored cat into her arms.

Emma reached up for Liz to hold her. Michael and Molly huddled close to each other.

Amanda wiped tears from her cheeks, then handed Liz a photo of Toby with her family, which included two children around the twins’ age.

“My kids have been heartbroken,” Amanda said. She knelt down in front of Michael and Molly. “You are our heroes. Thank you for finding our kitty and for taking such good care of him.”

“Emma hero?” Emma asked.

Amanda laughed and touched Emma’s cheek. “You are my hero too.”

After Amanda left with Toby, Liz snuggled on the sofa with the children and listened as they talked about Mr. Cattypants. Meanwhile, James grabbed his laptop and searched cats available for adoption on a cat rescue site.

It looked like Molly’s prayers would soon be answered after all.

PAWS & PONDER . . .

Have you ever faced a situation where you knew telling the truth would result in disappointment or heartache? What did you do? What was the result? How do you find the courage to tell the truth, especially when it’s hard?

Paws & Pray

God, I want to be a person who is truthful and champions justice, even when it may cost me something. And yet I know I cannot do this in my own strength—I need your help. Grant me the courage to always speak the truth in love.