How to Kill a Kitten
These were Kurt’s last words to me as I groggily slipped on my shoes and went to get in the van.
“If you get there and you just know that it’s suffering a lot, then you need to slip it into a bag--a paper bag works the best--and slide it over the exhaust pipe of the van. Turn on the van, and it will just slowly go to sleep. It’s the most humane way to kill a kitten.”
I felt a little wave of nausea sweep over me at the thought of having to be brave enough to do this.
Adriana (click here for the last prayer request) called me, sobbing hysterically just before 5 in the morning. I raced downstairs to the phone and couldn’t make out what she was telling me. One of her three kittens was gravely injured, and she said she felt God tell her to call me.
“Do you need me to come over?” I asked finally.
“Yes,” She said.
So within 10 minutes I was in the van, wondering what on earth I was going to face when I got there. All I knew was that I had a responsibility to help this kitten live or die. Only God knew what else awaited me.
We went in to the laundry room where the kitten lay, unmoving. It was then that I understood what had happened. I sat down with the little white puff of a thing and began stroking its neck.
Adriana, unable to sleep, had come downstairs to check on her precious 6 week old kittens, and had played with them, fed them and then put them away, so she thought, in their box to sleep some more. As she left the laundry room, she closed the door, unaware that one kitten had bounded out of her box following Adriana. As she closed the heavy security door, the kitten had its head caught, and was thoroughly squashed between the door frame and the metal door itself.
The kitten had convulsed, stopped breathing, and lay motionless when Adriana raced for the phone and called me. She could not even look at the poor thing, much less touch it. By the time I got there, she had been able to put it on the bed and it had started to breathe again, although labored.
I stroked its shaking head, and suggested we pray. I prayed for Adriana, and we felt God’s peace wash over us. I prayed for the tiny creature beneath my hand, and I felt it move. When we finished praying, I thought we should check the kitten. I felt its ribs, its neck, and stood her up. She took a step or two, shakily at first, and then lay back down. We petted her and she began to purr. She closed her eyes and sighed.
I stayed with Adriana for a bit, talking about how God gives us opportunities to grow in our faith. Because you prayed for a way for her to be motivated to get together with me for discipleship, she was provided an opportunity. God has brought us close! He is bringing Adriana closer!
A few hours later when the vet’s opened up, Adriana took the kitten in to be checked, and the vet told her that it was a miracle that the thing had survived. They kept her overnight for observation, and saw that her neck was almost broken in half, but by some miracle the thing had lived. By the next day, she was walking, eating, and even playing.
Adriana has a long way to go in her baby faith, but God has a plan for her. She recognizes the hand of God in this incident, and that it happened for a reason. She has decided to change the name of the cat from “Micah” to “Miracle.”
Now you must pray for me as I have to give this poor thing two injections! The first time was horrible, and I ended up a shaking, teary mess, and the kitten ended up pricked more times than you can imagine.
God has unusual ways of working, and he calls us to obey him even if it means thinking you are going to someone’s house to kill a kitten.
Unusual Update
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Adriana and ‘Milagro’ with her neck brace on.
