Ninja Cat

Do not plot harm against your neighbor,
who lives trustfully near you.

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT ABBY,” Kory’s mom said on her way out the door. “I’ll feed her and clean the litter box when I get home. She’s a good little cat and won’t bother you at all.”

Kory locked the door behind his mom, then walked down the hall to his bedroom. He had just arrived home after completing his first year of college, and everything—including his mom’s new night-shift job—felt different. His siblings had all moved out. His parents had divorced. And his mom now had a cat.

Or at least she claimed to have a cat. Kory hadn’t actually seen the cat in the hour he had been home. He saw food and water bowls, a litter box, and a scratching post, but no cat.

It didn’t really matter, though. He was starting a new job in the morning at a construction site and needed sleep more than he needed to meet this new member of the family.

Over the course of the next week Kory barely saw his mom—and never once saw her cat. The only evidence to prove he was sharing the house with the two of them was the dirty dishes piled in the sink, tiny pieces of kibble in a bowl, fur stuck to an upholstered chair, and rumpled covers on his mom’s bed.

A few days later, Kory was sitting at the desk in his room, working on his computer, when he stopped and looked around. “What is that awful smell?” He rolled his desk chair back, and the odor intensified.

Kory apprehensively peered over the arm of his chair and winced. The source of the offensive odor—something that should have been left in the litter box—was flattened under the wheel of his chair—effectively and thoroughly smeared onto the wheel and into the carpet.

“What in the world? CAT! Abby, this is disgusting! Where are you?”

Kory jumped up and threw open the bedroom’s closet doors. He pushed aside the window curtains. He got down on his hands and knees to look under the bed. He even opened his dresser drawers. But there was no sign of the cat.

As he was trying to decide whether bleach would harm the carpet, he heard a faint scratching sound coming from behind his desk, which was pushed up against the wall. Kory had to crane his neck to see the narrow space behind it.

Standing spread-eagle on hind legs, with her body flattened against the wall and her green eyes focused on Kory, was an orange, black, and white long-haired calico cat.

“Well, you must be the elusive Abby that wasn’t supposed to bother me at all. I got the fragrant gift you left me,” he scoffed.

Abby held her pose until Kory grew tired of staring her down. He went off in search of carpet cleaner and maybe a respirator. After soaking the carpet with an extra-strength stain remover twice, he used half a can of Lysol to sanitize the wheel of his chair.

The next morning, there was no sign of Abby—or any pungent gifts.

With no further incidents over the next several weeks, Kory, his mom, and Abby fell into a comfortable routine of not seeing much of each other.

One night, after Kory finished a long workday, he dropped onto his bed more exhausted than he had ever been before. His arms ached, and his legs burned. He barely managed to kick off his shoes before crawling under the covers. He was just drifting off to sleep when his feet touched the end of the sheet, which was soaking wet!

Kory jumped from the bed, ripped the covers off, and saw a puddle stain on the sheet that had soaked through to the mattress.

“Abby!” Kory bellowed, storming out of his room in search of the feline perpetrator.

“Who does that!” he yelled into the dark house. “What kind of beast climbs into a man’s bed, shimmies under the covers, and decides it’s a good place to pee!”

There was no amount of bleach or scrubbing that could get the acrid smell out of Kory’s mattress. He was forced to buy a new one that remained safe behind his closed bedroom door.

By the end of the summer, he and Abby had developed a mutual respect for each other. Eventually, she even permitted Kory to pet her with his feet—just far enough away to be within her comfort zone. Kory considered it a détente.

“Well, Abby, I guess Mom was right,” Kory told the cat the night before he went back to college. “Other than carpet cleaning, some wet feet, and having to buy a six-hundred-dollar mattress, you weren’t a bother at all.”

PAWS & PONDER . . .

In what ways might someone plot harm against their neighbor? Do you think this verse only pertains to next-door neighbors or other people too? What is one practical way you could extend kindness and grace to a neighbor today?

Paws & Pray

Father, you have commanded us to love our neighbors. That includes people in close proximity to me but also strangers I meet. I am often so focused on my to-do lists that I don’t take time to slow down and pay attention to others. Allow me to see with your eyes, to love with your heart, and to serve with your hands. And help me to forgive anyone who has wronged me.