~~ Cats pay it forward ~~

During a stroll, my son pointed out a puff of black & white fur trying to keep up beside us in a weed infested field, I stopped him from heading over to it, "It probably belongs to one of these houses." Like most good teenagers he didn't listen. When he came back with the bundle his eyes were moist & his voice trembled. "I think someone's poked his eyes out." The barely palm size matt was covered in fly eggs, there were swollen red mounds where eyes should have been, it smelled like sickness. At home, a warm, wet wash cloth was the best I could do for a mother's cleaning, until Big Thor came over. Thor was a massive cat, we had found him in the snow by our apartment dumpster years before where his mother & siblings had frozen to death. He had bitten through my husband's leather gloves (winning his affection immediately). Now he came, pawed at the kitten softly. At first I was afraid how he might react to this new invader. With one paw on the little guy's head, he started cleaning & purring. With its’ mouth open came the loudest purr I had ever heard from any cat, much less this little tennis ball-sized matt. Thor became a surrogate, even allowing him to nurse his "Male" nipples at times. The vet treated his severely infected "eyes", after a month, he could see. Being quite the hunter, we named him Nimrod. He slept with Thor everyday even till the last breath Thor breathed, when he cleaned Thor's head and walked away. My nieces brought in a sick, abandoned kitten from their barn 2 days later. Nimrod grabbed him by the nape of the neck, he's cleaned him every day for 4 years. Cats pay it forward.