Life Lessons From Furry Friends Pt. 1

Tiger and Fluffy

Neither Tiger nor Fluffy really matched their names. Tiger just barely had a touch of orange and the occasional black stripe whereas Fluffy was just clearly not fluffy in any way. We got these two cats as kittens together when my siblings and I were very young. They were the first baby animals we ever had to care for and that became apparent when my sister and I thought we’d try a little science experiment with them.

Both of inquisitive mind and of course always questioning the system, we were determined to know if the old saying, “a cat always lands on its feet”, was true. So my sister and I both grabbed one of our new kittens and promptly threw them off our elevated porch, waiting excitedly for our results. The good news was they both did indeed land on their feet and were perfectly unharmed. The bad news was our parents were furious with us. Our punishment was not being allowed to touch them for a week. What strikes me the most when I think about this story (one of my family’s favorites) is that after that week was up, and really for the rest of their lives, those cats were loving and friendly to us. What I learned from them was a lesson in forgiveness. Sometimes forgiveness is really hard, but if I compare my problem with someone to being thrown off a porch…suddenly it doesn’t seem so complicated.

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