Pets – Are They Really Life Lessons in Disguise?

Two of my more recent pets, Lenny and Louie.

Growing up on a farm in northern Wisconsin, I had any number of pets. They were my companions and confidants. They were my unconditional friends that listened and loved me no matter the day or the mood. Little did I know that these pets were teaching me about life at the time.

Of course, cats were the most plentiful and I always had several that were my favorites. Those that I remember best were named Fuzzy Britches, Rhondo, Martha, Ert, Snooper and Joe Cat. These cats are remembered for a number of reasons – some for having unique names, one for having an untimely death and finally, many because they managed to escape a variety of precarious situations.

Funny Names

Fuzzy Britches is one of the first cats I remember and this is very vaguely. Most likely it’s a memory conjured up with the help of descriptions provided to me by my mother. As a little girl, I had a hard time pronouncing the letter R in Fuzzy Britch’s name. You can only imagine that how that sounded and how it made my parents and other laugh. Martha and Ert also fall into that category of unique names as my intent was to name them after Bert and Ernie. Oops! The names Martha and Ert are pretty close, right?

Gone Too Soon

Rhondo, unfortunately, was the kitty that met an untimely death. Rhondo was actually a gift from a friend – not your regular barn cat that we had on the farm. We were best buds . . . Rhondo would follow me around the farm as I carried out the adventures of my day. Many times I would be in the garden, in the barn or wandering around the woods.

Our farm is located on a well-traveled county road and one day my travels took me and Rhondo too close to the road. This is when I learned that some people are mean and unforgiving. I heard a car approaching and looked up just in time to see a car swerve – not away, but toward, my cat. Thankfully Rhondo was killed instantly. It is because of this that I have no time for people that do not respect pets or other animals.

Don’t Give Up

Snooper, Martha and Joe Cat were truly cats with nine lives. For example, my brothers would hold our dog, Clyde, and grab Snooper and taunt the dog with him. Then they would let them both go – just barely giving the cat a head start. Snooper always made a quick getaway but Clyde also always just one step behind.

Martha, too, showed me the resilience of animals. It was summer time and we were haying. My dad was moving a wagon full of hay. Martha ran out at the wrong time and boom, her back legs were run over by a wagon wheel. Now, for those of you that have never hefted a hay bale – that’s about four tons of hay that ran over this cat.

Martha, amazingly, got up and ran away. She disappeared for many, many days and we all thought she had run off to die. To our surprise, Martha came down from the hay mow about a week or so later – skinny but fully recovered.

Finally, Joe Cat lived through an event that to this day still shocks and surprises me. One of the machines we had on the farm was called a straw chopper. Its premise is pretty simple. A straw bale is put into a vertical chamber that has several blades in the bottom of it. Once started and engaged, the blades rotate and thus, chop the straw, spewing it about six feet out the side of the machine and into the calf pen or cow stall.

Many times there would be half a bale or so left in the machine and the cats would jump into the chamber to take a nap. When I used the machine, I almost always checked the chamber but one day my dad needed to chop straw. Meeeooowww! Out jumps Joe Cat with gashes on his side and half of his paw missing. The vet, who happened to be there to treat a sick cow, told me that Joe Cat was going to die. For some reason, though, I wouldn’t take no for an answer. Over a few weeks, with a little penicillin and some first aid care by our dog, Heidi, the cat lived on and continued to be a great mouser – even with one less paw.

Life Lessons

As an adult I look back fondly on these relationships and realize that I was learning life lessons all along. First, names are important – as is pronouncing them correctly. Secondly, there are mean people out there that do bad things. And finally, never give up no matter how bad things look. You just may run faster or have the determination to get out of your situation. Hmm, makes me wonder what my current pets are teaching me!