Kindness

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
—Seneca

A scrawny, injured cat wandered into our luscious, jungle yard in April 2021. It looked like it wasn't long for the world 🪦. From a distance we'd look out at it from the kitchen window and it appeared to have the bluest eyes. “Ol' Blue Eyes” was Frank Sinatra (not saying I'm a fan, but that's what came to mind). Kitty Frank 🐱 drank from the bird bath and it wasn't long before Paul started the feeding. Sometimes, he'd go out into the darkness of those rain-soaked, spring mornings to stand guard and make sure Frank ate. Every morning that we saw Frank again, we'd high five:

“Woo, Frank made it through another night.”

We lured Frank closer and closer as the weeks passed. We were pretty sure that Frank had once known a home 🏡, since he knew the meaning of the sound of a can of cat food 🐟 being opened, and the shaking of the treat bag. We also realized right around that time that Frank is female ♀.

“Did somebody just leave you, Frank?”
“How does somebody just leave their kitty?”

It makes no sense to me. It actually breaks 🔨 my mind trying to understand how that happens, and I will never know. Just like I'll never know what really happened to her, and how she ended up outside, all alone. Vets and cat rescue people will tell you that this is commonplace.

The first shelter we offered Frank was under our resident wheel barrow, flipped over and elevated to make a nice kitty hut on the outdoor lanai, adjacent to the screened-in porch. By this time, Frank was starting to head bunt and rub up on us. If I sat in just the right position on the concrete, Frank would step right onto my lap to get a little 😻 love. It was pretty amazing that we got Frank so close to the house in just a few weeks. The power of kindness (and food).

I made beds with cardboard boxes, blankets, towels and Paul brought out his old Army jackets and laid them on the grass. Frank seemed to prefer the concrete to the soft. One day the limping started. We saw that something had munched 🐊 on Frank's rear leg in the night. Upon closer inspection, the additional injuries and potentially serious health challenges appeared numerous. Malnutrition, fleas, intestinal parasites, abdominal lesions and more. Frank is supposed to be fluffy and grey, but she appeared with a rust-tinted coat and hardly any fur. Signs of being bound or trapped had worn the fur off Frank's front paws in strange horizontal patterns. Frank was really suffering. Every time she and I sat together in those early days, I would just look into her lambent, aqua-jade eyes and cry 😢.

Pretty soon after that, I got it together and managed to lure Frank into a carrier. In cahoots with our veterinarian, I arrived and left Frank to be patched up. Surgery, medications, flea treatment—the works. She's hanging in there pretty well today 😺. It takes time with wounds like hers, so we have to be patient.

Kindness is something we like to remember and try to live by.  It's in our mission:

“...We promote the daily practice of self-inquiry, civic engagement, volunteerism, yoga and kindness.”

and it's not something that can be overstated. Kindness is good for your mental health¹. Practicing kindness is the very best way to get in touch with the goodness within you. To serve another being is to serve yourself. To rescue another being is to be rescued.

Footnotes

¹American Psychological Association [APA] on Kindness