week 13: meant to be
this week on the little dream farm
This is a tale of Jimmy’s adoption story.
I have this theory about how animals come into our lives.
It was formed by our late, great kitty, Boonce.
For more than a year, Boonce sat in a cage at the Morris Animal Refuge in Philadelphia. Day after day, dozens of people walked by her cage, as each of the cats around her were adopted one by one. But not Boonce.
It wasn’t until one night, Chris and I were walking home from grabbing sandwiches for dinner at the Reading Terminal Market that we happened to pass by the Morris.
“Do you guys want to come in and see some puppies?” one of the staff members asked us as we walked by.
“Say no more,” I said as he was holding the door open for us to walk through.
I couldn’t tell you what any of the puppies looked like at all. All I remember is the way I found Chris standing in front of Boonce’s cage, crying.
“She’s a senior kitty,” he said as he was trying to mask his tears. “And she’s been here for more than a year.”
I’ve often thought about the series of events that had to take place in order for us to choose to go to that specific spot for dinner, walk the city blocks in that specific pattern, pass by at the exact moment members of the staff were outside, at the exact time there was a litter of puppies at the rescue.
Whenever we reminisce about Boonce, I say to Chris, “You walked in the door that day and it was as if Boonce said, ‘There he is. All this time I’ve been waiting for you.’”
So a few weeks back when Little Lady took a very stunted pee in the litter box, I noted it as strange. When she backed her butt up to the front door and peed on it one night while Chris and I were watching a movie, we started her on antibiotics, thinking she likely had a UTI.
But then when I found pee on the hutch, on our bedroom dresser, and on the kitchen backsplash, I immediately had another thought: God and the Universe have another plan entirely.
The funny thing about cat rescue is you spend all this time loving these animals back from all kinds of horrific backstories or you spare them entirely from a much worse path their lives may have taken.
Naturally, you fall in love with them. Every single one of them.
And then, as God and the Universe would have it, you give them away.
When detailed in that way, it sounds sad…tragic even.
But looked at from another perspective, it’s nothing short of a miracle. Or as I like to see it…meant to be.
My theory, is that we have soul contracts with the animals who come into our lives, and us into theirs. I can’t explain it, it would stand to reason there’s no way to prove it, but in the years we’ve worked with animals we’ve witnessed this miracle time and again.
Some things…are just meant to be.
And the details are all being worked out to ensure these soul contracts are fulfilled.
The way we’re matched up with our animals is meant to be.
You might think we were mad at Little Lady or disappointed we couldn’t keep Jimmy. And yes, for a brief moment, naturally we were.
But my intuition knows better…that Little Lady’s marking was a gift—a clear sign—that there was something bigger at play.
So we shared our decision to put Jimmy up for adoption. To those of you who commented and cheered us on and supported our decision with care and understanding and grace and love—thank you for your kindness. It really helped us.
I also made a post on our villages Facebook page, thinking we might have a chance to find an adopter nearby.
That was on Monday. By Wednesday, Jessica had sent me a message.
“Hi Sarah. I’m interested. Have no other pets or children right now.” And she left her cell.
We were on the phone the following day with plans for her and her partner to come see Jimmy.
When they came through the door my shoulders dropped a little…I felt at ease about them both.
They’d shared with us that a year and a half prior they lost both their cat and dog within a month of one another, and hadn’t had the heart to even think about getting another animal in all that time.
“But then I saw that photo of Jimmy the night you posted it,” Jessica said, “And I just had a feeling.”
Turns out, her partner, James, had seen the photo the very next day, and had the same exact feeling. But, he never mentioned it to Jessica.
When she and I spoke on the phone earlier that afternoon, she said she needed to speak with her partner first but that she felt like he wouldn’t have any issue with it.
Turns out, when she brought to his attention this little black kitten she wanted to go see, James already knew exactly the one she was thinking of.
We told them about our rescue efforts in Philly and our life here on the farm. They told us several stories of all the animals they’ve each and both had through the years.
And in true soul contract fashion, they told us they’d like to move forward with adopting Jimmy, and we agreed they were a perfect fit.
That was on a Thursday. They were heading out of town for the weekend and wondered if we could plan for the following Tuesday…which gave me a few more nights to snuggle with that precious little boy.
So the plans were set in motion.
As they were leaving, I was laughing and telling them both that I’d have to give them a list of all the nicknames we’d come up with for Jimmy in the five weeks he was with us.
I told them, “Jimbabwe” was my current favorite.
“That is so funny, I am going to have to tell my daughter you said that!” Jessica said excitedly.
“Oh, how come?” I asked.
“Well that’s my daughter’s nickname for James,” she said. “She used to call him Jimbob, but he didn’t so much like it…so she started calling him Jimbabwe, instead.”
The hair on my arms stood straight up as I laughed at what some would likely call a strange coincidence.
And as they left and I closed the front door behind them, I closed my eyes, smiled, and mouthed upwards, “Thank You.”
The confirmation doesn’t get any clearer than that. That’s how you know…it’s meant to be.
As fate would have it, we decided to go to dinner one night out of the blue. And on our way home on this cold dark night in February, we found a little black kitten in the road.
We spent five fantastic weeks with him, giving him all our love and affection and being showered in his in return. And when it was time, we were nudged to let him go, not because we didn’t want to keep him…but because we couldn’t.
Jimmy’s family was out there waiting for him. All that time their hearts were healing, and just when they were mended enough, there was Jimmy, ready to come home.
Now, I’d love if you’d share in the comments below—tell me about how you know your animal(s) is/are meant to be?
Just ordered another bag of these laundry pods because I can’t get enough of how amazing they smell! Every time I do wash I am happy because the house smells good. Each time I freshly make one of the beds the room smells lovely all that week. Every time I pull out another piece of clothing to put on…it’s heaven!
Our truck got a flat in the driveway the other day and it reminded me how much it would suck to be stranded without a way to fill the tire, so I grabbed two of these portable air compressors to keep in each of our vehicles. Sure, having roadside service is handy, but when you just need some air in the tire to get to the closest tire shop, these are such a huge help and saves lots of time, too!
We get asked a lot where our living room chair covers are from and these washable covers are ones I’ve been using for years—both on our couch in Philly and on a couch we have in our office here as well as on the chairs in the living room. They are so easy to clean and take on and off—well worth it!
*Note: Not all, but some of these links are affiliate links. That’s no matter to you, as it costs you nothing. However, if you make a purchase, we -may- receive a teeny weeny commission.
Our first cat together, Pepper, passed away unexpectedly 4 years ago.... we and our human and furbaby family were all devastated :( It took a while, and Mum's white cat, Sheba, took it on herself to comfort me. And Jelly, the dog she thinks is her twin sister :)
At some point, I felt Pep was nudging me, telling me to stop grieving and go to the pound, there was a cat there who needed us as much as we needed him. My husband, Jason, had felt it as well. Well, none of the mini-panthers were able to come home with us. I did one last walk down the short row of cages. Then I saw a pool of black huddled up in his litter box. He showed me he was a tuxie, when I put a finger through the cage to pet him, as he purred his head off :)
Long story short, we took him home a week later. First thing he did was plop at the foot of our be,d on my side, and look up at Jason.. so Jason got to belly rub his furry belly! Pep would only let me do that without murder paws! He and Sheba spatted, we found that Feliway helped, thank goodness, because it was a couple of weeks till we could get him neutered. One time, Jason saw Sultan walking down the hall and said "I know that floofy butt!", he'd been visiting us for food for several months!
The furkids all get along well, with spats now and then, but all in all, it's a happy home :)
In fall 2012, my then-new boyfriend lived in an apartment in an old building next to a house, which had a little side yard. The neighbor mentioned to him that there were two tiny kittens there, but that he had never seen a mama cat or any other kittens. My boyfriend would go feed the cats, and sometimes I would go with him. There was a male brown/grey tabby, and a little female tuxedo kitty.
This was Arizona, so it wouldn’t get terribly cold, but too cold for two tiny kittens outside all by themselves. The neighbor was going to take the tabby, and my boyfriend the black cat, because he thought it would be cool to have a black cat. However, the neighbor eventually decided not to, so my boyfriend took both cats.
We drove those cats from AZ to NH the following summer, and since then they have been back to AZ with us, to Colorado, and back to AZ again. The tabby is the favorite and is practically my boyfriend’s soul mate; I can’t believe how close he came to not having him. So glad his neighbor changed his mind! And the little black cat is definitely a character, and so bossy!