“Mama!”
I heard my daughter, but it was in the back of my mind. You
know, how when you’re busy doing something you think is more important and you
tune people out? Well, she finally got tired of it.
She yanked on my arm and shook it until I looked at her and
then said, “Mama, we need to let Miss Kitty play outside.”
“We can’t let Miss Kitty outside, darling. She might run
away and get hurt.”
I watched as she processed that and then went back to work. It
wasn’t long before I felt another tug on my arm.
“Mama, we need to get Miss Kitty a huge climby thing and put
cat nip all over it so she can run and jump and have lots of fun.”
I looked at Miss Kitty lazing in the sun shining through the
window and told my daughter, “I think Miss Kitty is having fun already.”
She peeked around me and watched Miss Kitty for a few
minutes and then said, “That doesn’t look like fun to me.”
I wasn’t sure how to explain to a three-year-old that cats
like to be lazy and that it is fun. I tried, but I never quite got through to
her. It was when I saw tears well up in her eyes that I really started to pay
attention.
“It’s ok, Honey,” I said, and gathered her in my arms. “I
promise, Miss Kitty is having fun.”
“But she needs to have more fun, Mama,” she said. “She needs
to have all the fun she can. We need to help Miss Kitty have fun every day.”
“I think Miss Kitty is very happy with the way we take care
of her.”
My daughter shook her head. “It has to be better, Mama. It
has to be the best home in the world, with lots of love and fun and cat nip. We
have to make it perfect for Miss Kitty.”
I laughed and told her I didn’t know if we could do perfect
but Miss Kitty wasn’t complaining. It was then that she got to the crux of the
matter.
“But, Mama, we have to make it perfect because Miss Kitty
can’t go to Heaven like we do. This world is all she has. We have to make her
Heaven here.”
I wasn’t sure who had told my daughter that animals didn’t
go to Heaven but I wanted to slap them. Instead, I hugged her tighter and we
took a trip to the store. That afternoon, we bought the biggest cat tree they
had at the pet store and several bags of cat nip. One way or another, Miss
Kitty was going to have Heaven on Earth.
