Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday where I start the week off in my writing with one piece of gratitude, which for today is for all the pets that each of us own or have owned in this world from time to time.
Currently, my partner and I own a cat named Smokey, who was abandoned by his mother near a dumpster in Franklin, Tennessee back in July of 2015. Thankfully, my sister rescued and nursed him back to health during his first year and a half before eventually bringing him to our home here in Toledo, Ohio. Ever since, I’ve been blessed by Smokey’s company and have found a tremendous amount of gratitude for him for three main reasons that I feel probably qualify for many other pet owners as well.
The first piece of gratitude is because Smokey offers me a ton of unconditional love. When I’m depressed, he always seems to know and tends to nudge me with his nose until I start petting him and when I do, he responds with very loud purrs that somehow are able to take away some of my sadness.
The second piece of gratitude is because Smokey is extremely playful. He really enjoys this game where I throw a small furry ball high up above his elevated perch, to which he then races up to grab it in mid-air, confidently putting it in his mouth after he does, then returns to wherever I am and drops it at my feet, waiting for the next go around. Why I treasure this and the rest of his playfulness is because it often helps to shift my attention away from the negative zone and onto a positive one.
Lastly, and most importantly, what I’m definitely the most grateful for overall with Smokey is his loyal companionship. In a world that often tends to feel so lonely to me sometimes, there are plenty of moments where having him follow me around from room to room, constantly meowing to get my attention to pick him up, that make me feel far less alone because of it.
I should also mention that prior to owning Smokey, my partner and I owned a cat named Driggs who was actually the pet that initially taught me how to unconditionally love. This cat was such an angry cat all the time at first with me. No matter how hard I tried to get her to love me, she always kept her distance. That was until I finally let go one day and stopped trying, because I was just in too much pain to care, when suddenly she jumped on top of me while I was lying on the couch, then kneaded a bed for herself on my stomach, and fell asleep purring. From that point forward, she always knew when I was having one of those high pain days, because she would meow until I’d lie down and make myself available for her to fall asleep on me. On some level, that action was always far better medicine than any pain-relieving pill could ever bring me.
Nevertheless, pets can be wonderful companions if we treat them well and show them the same type of love that I feel God brought them here to offer each of us. I have a ton of gratitude these days because of the two pets I’ve owned, who each found a way into my heart and soul in their own unique ways, which I’m sure can be said for countless others in this world when it comes to their own pets…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
