First, we have Skeeters. Skeeters is two times as big as the other two boys. He is bright white with some grey and tan scattered over his body. He has beautiful green eyes and they look like someone has gone around them with eyeliner. While he is the largest and could easily be the most dominant, he is the most gentle and kind. If he is eating and the smallest of the cats walks up to the bowl, he will back away and lay on the floor until the little guy finishes. He rubs on everyone and checks on us every 20 minutes or so no matter where we are in the house. If you touch him or talk to him, he immediately starts purring. His purring is very loud and does not stop until you stop paying attention to him. He is never sick, crabby, or ill tempered. I say that he adopted me. While I was looking for a pal, every time I came into the room of cats he was in, he would jump on my lap and start playing with the button and zipper on my jacket. I think he approved of me and started the paper work somewhere between my 5th and 6th visit. He loves being a lover and loves being loved. Almost everyone wants to adopt him.
The second largest cat is Buddy. He chose to move in with us along with his brother. Buddy was the one that caught my eye. He was in a room with his brother and one female cat that hid in the box. Buddy is mostly medium grey with black stripes. He has a white belly and some white paws. His face always seems to have a look of curiosity or wonder on it. He is very habitual and He can only be cuddled with in certain places at certain times. If you were to pick him up snuggle and kiss on him and tell him what a good boy he is, he would wiggle to get free. When you placed him back on the ground he will run and hop like a wild horse. He seems to get so excited, I think. He may just be annoyed and be trying to shake off all that cuddly stuff. He is very sweet as well, although he is pushy. When I first saw him, he looked lonely and I spent a lot of time in his room with him. His eyes were scarred over from a virus cats get although I was told he was mostly blind from someone putting something in his eyes. Every time I put out my hand, his face ends up in it. He is very soft - which always draws comments from guests. When he sits still long enough for pets and scratches, he drools. Kitty drool, not big drool like doggy drool. I felt he had a sweet heart and also felt that no one would adopt a cat with scarred eyes and little sight. I knew he had to become my, well, Buddy. The thing is that he navigates with skill and can spot a lady bug on the ceiling at a glance. He chases and bats at everything I throw at him, never misses a crumb of food in his bowl or on the floor. He is a big talker and cries out to me from all over the house when he can't find me. He is independent but when he wants his cuddle time, he demands it.
His brother, Toby, is black with a couple white paws and a white belly. He has a white undercoat and faint dark grey stripes all over him. He seemed to protect Buddy when they lived at the orphanage. But when you tried to touch him in any way, he ran for cover. The staff told me that black cats are the hardest to find homes for. It seems they are not very desireable. Knowing that, Toby would have to move to our house too. It was a good thing I wanted Toby to join us because the staff said they were bonded and had to stay together. I believed that his behavior reflected a need to be loved. He was afraid and timid and the only thing that could overcome that would be loving on him. He is by far the smallest and had the most issues. For a while he was sneezing blood but we got that fixed and then he recently got a huge gum disease and had to have all his side and back teeth pulled. When he first came home he would not let anyone pet him or touch him, let alone hold him. Several times a day, I would grab him and hold him. He would fight and scratch until he wiggled loose or until I had lost too much blood to stand on my feet. Eventually he settled down and is now the sweetest and most loving cat.
All three boys , all once strangers. All of them very different in behavior, size, shape and color. All of them have varying degrees of health or impairment. If you think about it, they all are different enough that it would be easy to imagine liking one or two of them and maybe not liking the third simply because they are different.
Here is the thing. Everyone that has visited just loves them all. We love them all and treat them the same. We care and protect them the same and value them the same. It seems easy and natural to do so.
So why is it so hard to treat other humans the same? Why do we judge and discriminate by size, color, behavior and attitude? Why do we find it so hard to love them for who they are? You have to admit that based on what the staff told me about their looks and behavior that at least two of them had little chance of a good home - if any.
But look what happened, they all got a home and all of us live together very well.
Buddy was kind of labeled as handicapped. If he is handicapped, he hasn't noticed it and he is certainly treated the same as the other boys. When I shake the treat bag, he runs to the basement and I have to toss his treat to him at the bottom of the stairs. Not bad for a guy who has bad vision! He reminds me of an interview I saw on a talk show. The host was talking with a person who had to constantly be in a wheel chair. He asked them what they would like people to know most. The person said that he wanted people to understand that he was a person like everyone else. He wanted people to talk to him rather than look away. He wanted people to greet him and talk to him rather than look afraid to talk with him. He wanted to be treated as normal as possible.
We were all created by a loving Father with a deep desire to be loved - all of us. Some of us have more challenges than others and some of those challenges are larger than others. We are all human. We all have similar hopes, dreams, desires, and needs. Why should it be so hard for us to understand how those who are not exactly the same as us would want to be treated? Let's go to the other side of the spectrum. I have heard some of the most beautiful people talk about how people ignore them. They talk of how people are afraid to talk to them and they get asked out on less dates than most people.
If we look at how we function we can see that we are kind of messed up. If you are a grey striped person with scarred eyes and partially blind, people look away from you and are afraid to talk to you. If you are a timid little black cat people try to be nice to you but just don't understand why you fight, and so they give up. Or if you are the most beautiful one. White with beautiful black and grey and tan colors. You have the most amazing green eyes that catch everyone's attention. Yet you too get ignored.
All these guys want to be loved. All us guys want to be loved. What's the problem? It seems pretty simple.
Love somebody. Love Everybody. Regardless of what's on the outside because what's on the inside is the God designed desire to love and be loved.