Vet

Today is the day we’ve been dreading. We always find it really difficult. In fact, we haven’t dome we realise for the past two years precisely because it’s too difficult. We’ve tried all sorts of thing to make it easier and, bottom line, none of them really work. But this year we had the ultimatum. We ‘phoned the vet to ask for the flea treatment for the cats and they wouldn’t give it to us because we hadn’t taken them in for their yearly check-up and injections. They said they weren’t legally allowed to give it to us! Legally allowed? What do you do? What do we do? The thing is you see, trying to get our cats into the cat box to take them to the vet is a nightmare. No, really it is. Mostly, we completely fail. We’ve tried locking the at flap so they’re trapped in the house. Didn’t work. They hid under the sideboard where we can’t get them. If we leave the cat flap unlocked, they just run wild until they get there. And then we don’t see them for two days. We have the cuts and bruises as proof of our efforts. But the vet said the couldn’t legally give us the flea treatment. So, today’s the day! I just had a break from writing this blog and saw Floyd in the kitchen. Nothing unusual about that, except about half an hour ago we managed to roll him up in a blanket and put him in the cat box ready to take to the vet! But…now he’s in the kitchen. Somehow he escaped from his cat box as if to say, “You ain’t taking me to the vet!” And now he’s gone. So he won’t go to the vet today. And that’s the problem. Mostly, we can’t catch them. And when we do, they escape! What is so frustrating is that we know what we’re trying to do is for their own good: to protect them from all sorts of things they might catch out there in the cat world. They don’t understand that, so they don’t want to get in a cat box and go to the vet. They will do anything they can to avoid it. We see a bigger picture. They see what’s in front of them. I wonder if, in the book of Hosea, a very similar thing is going on: God sees a bigger picture. We see only what’s in front of us. God says, “Come back, it’s better that way!” But we don’t like what God says and we don’t understand that he’s got our best interest at heart. The truth about God is that he always has our best interest at heart. And he’s always inviting us to come back to him. Mostly, I only see what’s in front of me. It may be I have something to learn about God from attempting to take the cats to the vet. Maybe you do too.