Sunday September 19, 2010 –7:10 p.m. –Mugsy is still out there. The humane trap is set for a live capture so once the rain stops we’re hopeful that Mugsy will be caught. However, the rain won’t clear out until Tuesday so it could take a few more days.
I could have sworn that I shared these photos (and story) on my blog already, but I looked and couldn’t find them. So here’s the story. During the first days of Mugsy’s displacement while I was preparing to climb down into the search area, I noticed a strange formation in a tree right at the entrance of the woods. It was two sides of a tree with bark that was peeled down so that it formed a natural heart shape. Vicki Mayfield was behind me and I pointed at it and said, “Look! It’s the sign of love! It means were going to find Mugsy!” This was five days before we had even captured Mugsy on camera and during a time when I could tell that hope was starting to fade. But seeing that heart inspired me and reminded me of this scripture: “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (2 Corinthians 13:13)
This sign of love also reminded me of a snide comment that someone made to me once on a search for another lost cat. They said, “All of THIS for a cat?” Well, not really. All of THIS work that we’ve been doing has been not only for Mugsy, but also for the memory of Ross Mayfield and for the loved ones (his wife Etta, his son Rick, and his daughter-in-law Vicki) that he left behind. Ross loved Mugsy. And Etta still loves Mugsy. How could anyone not want to help this family recover the one living thing that is still out in those woods after such a horrific crash? Okay, I get that non-cat people just don’t understand cat fanciers. What I don’t get is when they condem acts of compassion and love for people and, especially, animals. I suppose when they look at the pictures above, they won’t see a heart, they see peeled bark.
Um. It just dawned on me that I poked fun (wasn’t it just yesterday?) of someone who thought they saw a cougar in the Mugsy picture. I guess that since I’m now pushing the “do you see the heart in the tree?” that I probably owe that person a BIG apology! I’M SO SORRY THAT I JOKED ABOUT YOUR SEEING A COUGAR IN THAT PICTURE!
But, no, seriously now…doesn’t it look like a heart to you? Am I alone in this?
