There comes a time, maybe it’s due to getting older, I’m not
sure, but there is that time when we simply have to accept our defects, they
are so glaring. And, instead of trying to hide them inside of our passions or
passionate ideologies, we have no choice but to realize, yes, I do this. Maybe because
they are sort of mild I can accept them, or maybe because I share their
acknowledgment with most of my family and even my pets, they have become an
integral part of who I am, and without them, I would not be me. And I’m not
even talking about any nasty habits that seriously affect the other members of
my family, like smoking or spraying scents around the room that some of my kids
are allergic to. I don’t do these things, so I am not on that particular tract of
causing unnecessary harm. But I do other things, and my cat Pearl has let me
know she is well aware of it.
I have this unusual habit of walking out of the kitchen or
the bathroom when the water in the sink is still running. I have had this
tendency for years. My kids and others in my family who have noticed this are
never hesitant to reprimand me in a very kind but exasperated way that, once
again, I have left the water running. It’s not a harmful type of a thing – I’m
not going to set the house on fire with this and most of the time the water is
running into an empty sink, so I won’t cause a flood, but it is just a reminder
of a negligence, and where you have one negligence, there can be others. It may
be a sign.
So, thankful to say, I am trying to keep myself abreast of
this and remember to turn off the water after I use it, both in the kitchen and
the bathroom. In addition to wasting this precious national resource, I most
definitely increased my water bill upwards of tens of dollars, something I hardly
can afford to do, and it is all a waste. Years ago, I left the water running
and left for work, a 9 hour stretch until I again got home. You can only
imagine the expense and waste of that. Thank G-d, the water ran continuously
down the sink and there were no blockages.
And then there’s Pearlie, my tiny fluffy ball of love that I
have had since 2006 when she was born from a stray in my yard … she looks like
a pearl … white with grey swirls of fluffy fur …. And pink ears …. Her lineage
must have Siamese, because she looks so much like a Siamese cat except for her
chubby round face.
Pearlie has been with me for over 10 years, and she knows
everything that goes on around the house. She is strictly a house cat. I once
tried to let her out only to discover an enormous welt over her eye – she almost
lost that eye from being attacked by another street cat – so that ended me
letting her out, and in the house she has stayed since, over the past 9 years
or so now.
So it is not by surprise – although it was a tremendous
surprise to me when it happened – that Pearlie would be aware and alert to my defects,
particularly this running water issue. And it happened just last week that I was
washing dishes with my usual cold water (I am grateful that my water issue
doesn’t increase my hot water bill – I only use cold water for everything
except when I take a shower ) in the kitchen sink and my phone rang in the
other room. Loyal to my water issue, I simply walked away from the sink,
unaware that the water was still running.
The phone conversation took me into the living room and then
into one of the bed rooms and onto my computer, where I had to look up
something and it was quite a while until I was able to stop. What actually
caught my attention was Pearlie, making unusually distressing noises from the
kitchen. All of my cats have their own noises and ways they call me, and Pearl
makes this particular noise when she has used the litter box and is alerting me
to clean it, and also when she has caught a palmetto or water bug or a gecko
and is calling me to come and look (I love gecko’s, and usually rush very
quickly to see if I could save it from her …usually she has not done much harm
and is in the early stages of attacking it and is calling me to see what she
caught – if it has not been harmed, I quickly grab it and set it outside to reclaim
the rest of its life). But this day when I was on the computer after my phone
call, Pearlie was making this noise and I thought she might have caught a gecko
so I was very quick to come and see ….
And she was simply sitting in front of my kitchen sink,
making this distressing urgent type of noise …. She caught nothing …. She was
simply letting me know that I left the water running …..
I cannot describe the feeling I have of gratitude to these
tiny creatures that really do look over us. Even when we feel we are so
advanced and capable, they are there to fill the void, to correct the hidden
and embarrassing flaws. It is amazing to me how they cover for us.
Over the years, I have given myself credit continuously for
things that I consider remarkable – even to the point of haughtiness. At 61, I still
mow my own lawn in the Florida heat and work completely online as a registrar for
a virtual college, something that many of my friends of this age cannot even
fathom to do. Even mowing my own lawn and creating butterfly gardens, spending
hours in the yard in the Florida heat scares even my own adult children. I now
live by myself with my cats and a rescue chicken and manage to keep my house in
one piece – and keep myself functioning as well. And then I have additional
private victories that I have become so arrogant about, personal
accomplishments to gloat on - even in private. But all this self adulation just
crumbles when your tiny cat calls to you from the kitchen that you left your
sink water running. How fantastic is that? How truly helpless am I without something
like this?
Of all the things I am passionate about, protecting animals
probably tops the list. Not only because we have such a remarkable mitzvah in
our Holy Torah not to harm animals, but because so often they are our helpers, sent
from HaShem. I used to think that that saying ‘G-d couldn’t be everywhere, so He
created mothers’ was very true, but now I realize that mothers cannot even hold
a candle to some of these remarkable creatures He created to help us. When we
least expect it, we are given creatures that befriend and care for us, even unaware.
