OK isn't OK

I have been deceived. My OK isn't OK. We were fooled by the fish bone weeks ago. OK has feline renal failure and it is a wicked disease. I thought he was going to fool them, when the vet was surprised that he was eating the boiled fish I was fixing him. But it has turned cruel. The next day he ate fish, but on Friday he lost interest. Looking back, I think this disease was already in him when he first came to our house. I have a note in my journal, 19 June, 2007. I used a plastic shelf we had in the house, and made him an "apartment" outside the back door, to protect him from the rain, because the house kitties hated him. Remembering then, he was sick. But I knew nothing of feline renal failure, and blamed it on a weak constitution. OK has been with us for more than two years. And I can't talk more about him just now. He is a weak, and sick, kitty. I have come close to losing him in the past, more than once. And I keep thinking, this is another hoax. Just a kitty, I know. But he is one of the Lord's little beasts ( For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Psalms 50:10), and we love him.

Boomerangs

Our house is on a corner lot. On the opposite corner lot is the place where they process and sell drinking water for our community. And at a house on that property, at the next corner over, not too close to us but not too far, lives Boomerang. Boomerang is a male Siamese cat, and he is pretty young. I have no idea what his real name is, or if he has a real name. But I call him Boomerang.

One day there was a big cat ruckus at our house, and for the first time I saw this wiry, fiesty little cat. It looked to me like he was picking fights with our cats. They weren't happy with it, and neither was I. When I tried to run him off, he wasn't going that easy. In fact, he turned and confronted me. I was kind of shocked, because most strays run from us. We look different, and they really don't want any kind of confrontation. But Boomerang turned and acted like he was going to attack me. I don't remember how it turned out that day, but he did depart. I hoped I wouldn't see him again, and I really had no idea where he came from.

Not too many days after that, he was back, scrapping again. And this time Mike was not to happy about it. In fact, he was trying to shoo him off with a broom, but that was a volatile situation. This little skinny cat was spitting and snarling. More than once he snuck into our "front room" where we have classes. He got into it with Stinkey, who scared easy, and Mike found the only way out of the situation was to pick the Siamese up by the scruff of the neck. He couldn't turn on him that way. And so Mike picked him up, and to my surprise he took him and sort of flung him out into the field of weeds and grass behind our house. The grass is pretty high, so I think it was a soft landing. But boy, all four feet were out with claws bared; it was an interesting site. Mike said the next time he showed up he would take a stick to him. I am pretty sure he was kidding....but

I really didn't understand why this cat came to pick fights with ours. Dinkey is a lot bigger than him, and OK is a street fighter.

The next time, I decided I had better do something if I didn't want to see more fur fly, so I talked nicely to him and sat down at the corner of the house. I realized that day that he wasn't interested in fighting with my cats. What he was interested in was getting past them and getting to the dish of cat food inside the house. He was just hungry. And that day, that was how he calmed down, was by my giving him a little dry cat food.

He was so thin. But I knew that feeding him was not wise, because he would want to move in. And there are five cats here already, none of whom wanted that. It isn't that they just don't like him. They squall, and fight, and fur flies. Injuries happen. It is not a good situation.

I was pretty sure that he lived at that house at the water plant, so the next time I spoke nicely to him and he let me pick him up. So I carried him back to his house. The man there, took him from me, and I thought I would share my wisdom that they needed to get their cat fixed so he wouldn't wander off. Well, this guy wasn't too happy hearing advice from a farang (foreigner). Not only a foreigner, but a Christian one ( I think he may be M.) And he proceeded to tell me that, yeah, the farang cats came to his house and bothered HIM, with the implication that these were my cats he was referrring to. I was a little upset but said nothing, thankfully, and I just came back home. I hoped I wouldn't have to deal with it further.

But not too many days hence, guess who was back. So since he had let me pick him up before, I did again, and took him back home. The man was there again, and I was polite. The man showed me they had put a door on the outside room where the cats (he has a bunch) live, and that he locked this one up. He said he had just gotten out, and headed for our house immediately. I said, I guess he likes it there! I thanked him and left.

Next day, guess who. When I took him home, the lady was there, and she said (basically) "You can have him!" I politely declined, telling her that my cats would not agree to this.

What I was noticing on all these visits was that they had a LOT of cats. And in their food dishes? A bunch of leftover rice. No wonder he came to my house. Their cats all skinny and unhealthy looking.

My cats, most of the time, fairly healthy but definitely well fed. In fact, on a daily basis I have to toss some dry food down the toilet. The dry food that isn't quickly eaten gets kind of yucky in the humidity, and since they know that it tastes better right out of an air-tight container, they are willing to wait until I give in and put out some fresh food. Hence, we have leftovers.

So that is how we have progressed to today. A few days ago, I started taking a little bag, with the leftovers, along with me when I take him home. And I started calling him Boomerang, because he just keeps coming back! Now, though, he really looks forward to me picking him up and taking him back home, because when we get back to his house, and I lock him up in his room (I do it myself now, I don't even bother the people-- and they wave me on)-- only then does he get his food. In fact, now, most of the other cats at his house like to get locked up in there with him when we get there! And none of them are quite so skinny anymore.

I was thinking this morning, that I guess we all have our own "boomerangs"--that is, something not too convenient, maybe from a past transgression, that keeps coming back into our lives. We can get angry and frustrated with it, or worse, or we can use the food that we were flushing down the toilet to relieve the situation. And maybe it will help somebody else out.

(Romans 8:28) ........see you next time.....

LOL I wasn't intending to"boomerang" YOU!

Crows

When I go jogging in the mornings, there's usually some birds on the wires along my route. One morning, when it was hot and I was sort of struggling, I noticed some of the sounds the birds make. As I was chugging along, the crows started saying, "walllk, walllk, wallkk!" Or at least, that is what it sounded like. And another bird that is often out was saying "by eek, by eek, by eek!" ("By eek" in Thai, roughly, is "go further.") Seems to me that this is often the way it is when we are trying to "run our own race." Some crows out there tell you, oh well, just "wallkk" and others, the ones who encourage us, say "by eek. by eek. by eek." As much as I may want to walk when I hear those crows, the fact is, I guess I am a little rebellious in that, it makes me want to "by eek" and keep on .....Matthew 26:39.

Remember whose race it is......Php. 2:16....

Happy Cat Day

Well, if you could see Little and OK today, they are doing obeisance to Dagon the fish god (just joking!). I thought you'd enjoy hearing about this.

After yesterday, praying for fish for the cats, or "catfish" as I like to call it, Mae Gae came by this morning (her purpose is another story, remind me to tell you later). Anyways as she was leaving, I mentioned that I wanted to buy some fish for the cats if anybody was selling it (this is the way we don't have to pay high fish prices. Someone walking down the road with a bag of fish probably wants to sell it. You just have to know who to ask.) I knew that trucks had been bustling about the village since sometime yesterday, and I knew the wind was calmer, so there was no doubt some fishing was getting done. So I relied on Mae Gae to put the word in a few ears that somebody wanted to buy some fish. Shortly after that, two B. girls came to my kitchen door. Guess what they had? TWO BAGS of fish. One bag, probably a kilo of squid and a couple small other fishes, the other bag had FOUR trevally (sp?) another one I don't know what, and a small "Eastern small tuna." Talk about hitting the jackpot. I would have been happy today with ONE FISH. So I spent awhile cleaning and getting fishes into the freezer. (Of course, I couldn't get away without boiling a squid and a trevally and de-boning the t. for the cats, and boy were they excited. Little has basically been rolling around (too fat to walk today) all afternoon. And OK no longer looks like the half-dead worn out guy that he looked like last week. He is a Happy Cat. TTL. Shortly thereafter, the neighbor's siamese cat made his morning visit, but that is a story for another time. Remind me to tell you that one later too.

Happy Anniversary, and fun at Immig......

Today, Aug 14, marks a special anniversary. Seven years ago today we got on a plane in Pensacola to head to this country. Funny how some dates stay with you. A friend told us before we left, "keep your sense of humor, and think of it as an adventure." Well he was right and it has been. Sometimes a great adventure, sometimes a tedious one....as in this week. We were due on the 11th to report to immigration for our "90 day" report. Rather than driving there, which is about an hour, we thought we would mail it in, which is acceptable and we did that, last Friday. Special mail so it would get there in time. On Monday the 10th, the Imm. Officer called me. "Khun Jody" she said.....and explained that all the papers were not in order--I hadn't sent some copies of certain pages in our passport. Not only that, it turned out that the stamp on our little piece of paper said 1 August. I thought it said 11 August. (The stamp had smeared a perfect little square next to the "1" which I mistakenly interpreted as another "1" and therefore, the 11th. oops.) And she says, well that means you are "on overstay." Trust me, overstay isn't good, and means a big fine. Nehemiah here. I apologized and said "Excuse me, I am sorry, the stamp is not too clear, I thought it was the 11th. " aghgghghhhhhh. She said, "Oh never mind, you come tomorrow to our office (the 11th) and it will be ok." Trust me, we left bright and early, and went in HUMBLY....and the Lord was merciful. She overlooked our big mistake (you must understand, a blurred stamp that we didn't check into IS our mistake, not the fault of their defective stamp) and not only that, she stamped our next 90 day report as being 90 days from that date (the 11th). Not back to the first. Well, that's what I remember. I think I will go and check again!! Thank the Lord for a good ending to THIS "adventure"!

My Cat is OK

Well, he is for today. For those in the know, OK likes to steal fish. And about two weeks ago, he did steal one, and ate it raw, the whole thing, bones and all. I was thinking his sickness was his usual "raw squid, parasites" thing; when I see he is not well, and a fever starts in, I usually give him antibiotics, and within a few days he is back to his happy, thieving self. But he didn't start getting better. In fact, he stopped eating after about two days, and after five he stopped drinking water. On the morning of the seventh day (no, he didn't rest) he couldn't even pee, so we went to the vet, which none of us enjoy. Turns out he had a fishbone stuck in his mouth, next to a front "fang"-- and from what I gather it wasn't the only one. So they had to knock him out to remove it, and then gave him an IV for three days because he was so dehydrated. He still really likes fresh fish. And I wanted to give him fresh fish to help him recuperate, but this is the rainy season, and this week has been pretty blustery weather. The fishing boats haven't been able to go out, and fish has been in short supply. However, God did bless two days ago. Mr. N's student gave Mr N a LONG squid--at least a foot long--and N, like us, is pretty weary of eating "Pla Muek", so OK and Little reap the benefit, and have enjoyed it for three days. However, this am, it's all gone, but, the weather was good last night, and I know folks were out fishing!

It's Sunday whoo hooo

It's been a busy time. Without going into too many cyber details--in fact, I won't. But today was a good day in the work. Mr. Mang came to church, and BROUGHT A FRIEND! After lunch, Mike began teaching Mr. Mang some Bible. Last week during the message, Mike said "A Christian needs to tell others," and Mang spoke out in the meeting saying, "But I don't know how to preach!" Amen, talk about an answer to prayer. And pray for Joe, the visitor. His first time EVER in a Christian meeting.