Life is full of all sorts of opportunities, many of which come in unexpected forms at unexpected times. For my wife’s friend Heather, an opportunity to do a great good deed came in the form of a scared and scrawny stray cat she found hiding in some bushes.
Heather loves cats and thought of adopting it, but she already has two, and she’s convinced that taking on a third would officially qualify her as a crazy cat lady.
So her goal in prodding and cajoling the cat out of hiding was to rescue it. The way the cat acted after being given some food and water convinced Heather it was once someone’s pet, so she took it to a vet to see if it had an embedded identifying microchip.
Within a few minutes, the vet found the chip and called the owner, who was beside herself with joy. Heather insisted on delivering the cat, and she was elated to see how happy the owner was to be reunited with her pet.
She found out the cat’s name was Hava, and she had been missing for 16 months. Her owner had given up hope of finding Hava and had actually held a funeral. She couldn’t, however, bring herself to dispose of Hava’s bed and litter box.
It’s a great story that proves the wisdom of this old Quaker saying: “I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”*
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
*Wikiquote.org documents this quote’s history, noting that it has been widely misattributed and was “published as an anonymous proverb at least as early as 1859.” In Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations, a variant of it appears (without attribution) in lines of verse.