Thomas

My first pet was a cat I named Thomas James.

I must have been about four years old and, truth be told, the kitten was intended for my sister who is two years younger than I am. As I heard the story, my mom picked up the kitten, a tuxedo cat first, then me and was on her way to get my sister. I bonded so completely with Thomas in that short period that my mom did not have the heart to tell me that the kitten was for my sister.

Thomas was a fixed male and an indoor/outdoor cat. He most definitely was a mouser. He usually came in at night to sleep with me but there were times that he didn’t. Those times were usually in winter during a snow storm. He had come home a day or two later smelling like hay and occasionally like a cow barn from the neighbor’s property.

Thomas slept in the crook of my arm and would come when I called his name. Well, it wasn’t a call as much as a yodel that rhythmically went “here kitty, kitty, kitty, Thomas” with the emphasis on his name. I often wonder what a young boy could of done to teach a kitten to sleep in the crook of his arm and come when called.

Thomas was my companion until he passed away at the ripe old age of 18 while I was away at college. I remember being devastated.

I have had three cats since Thomas. Each one has been special and unique in their own way but none of them has agreed to sleep in the crook of my arm (although one of them came when I whistled the theme song of Star Trek, The Next Generation).

I was reading a topical article the other day entitled “Do our pets go to heaven?” I remember that there was lots of conjecture but the bottom line was that the author didn’t express a conclusion.

I don’t know what heaven will be like but I think it will be both better and different than anything we can imagine.

What I do know is that my cherished pets have contributed to defining who and what I’ve become. I pray that everyone can see the fruits of my faith walk of life.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” - Matthew 12:33-35

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” - Colossians 2:6-14