Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2024 Blog #2

January 8, 2024

Results of my Cat’s Death

Ivan, my cat with a lot of personality, died this week. One morning he was sitting on my lap purring and demanding my attention. In the evening, when I returned home from the office, he was howling. It looked like he had suffered from a stroke. He was not moving except for his vocalizations. I carried him up the stairs and laid him on a blanket on the couch and sat next to him. He let out a few more howls and died as I was petting him. My other two cats gathered to attend his death. It was almost like they were having a private wake.

It was sad to see him die, and now the house his quiet without him. Of my three cats, he has been the one with the most personality. He let his presence be known, insisted on getting attention, and was quite naughty from time to time. My other cats were playful with Ivan, less so with one another. Ivan certainly was the center of the cat socialization.

Ivan wasn’t always such a wonderful cat. My daughter first met him when she lived in Pennsylvania. The cat originally lived with a woman who had all kinds of troubles. During a hurried leave, this woman gave this cat to a third party to care for. The third party had trouble with the cat. She already had a male cat and her cat, and the new cat, were in mortal combat. Ivan was an angry cat.

My daughter knew the third party who had unceremoniously been presented with the cat. She came to visit and was warned about this “angry cat.” She sat down and observed this “angry cat” in the doorway. The cat glared at her, and she met his gaze. This continued even as she continued to converse with the woman that she had come to see.

After a while of her staring at him, he approached her, and she detected a slight purr. Soon the cat was rubbing her leg. Next, he jumped in her lap and demanded her attention and insisted that she pet him. The cat went home with my daughter that day, to the great relief of this third party who had been the recipient of the cat. A few years later, my daughter relocated to New Jersey. She and this new cat took up residence with us for a while.

He quickly ingratiated himself with my female cats and made himself at home. Rather than being angry, he was the happiest cat I had ever known. Sometimes I wished that he was a little less friendly. It is difficult to work when a cat is sitting on one’s lap. Yet, Ivan the cat had nine great years together.

And now I am missing this silly, naughty, cat who brought me so much companionship. He did, however, bring me a few wise lessons. The first is that if cats, or people, are behaving badly, perhaps it is because they are put in a bad circumstance. There are times that we see people behaving badly, or in ways that we consider evil, and it is not because of their nature, it is because they are in bad circumstances. Perhaps the way to keep people from behaving badly, is to find out why and help them fix the circumstances that they are living in. Ivan the cat behaved well when he lived in a different circumstance and so can people.

The second lesson is that we leave a mark in this world, for better or worse. Ivan’s death has left a void in my life. We have effects on other people as well. Do we live lives that are such that others will miss us when we are gone? When we die, will people say, “thank God” or will they say, “we miss you?” We can’t decide when we die, but we can decide if people will miss us when we do.

Let us help others to live their best and let us live lives that will cause us to be missed when we are gone.