Let me introduce you to Oakley, the hinder half of Annie and Oakley, my two teen-aged tabby mousers. Litter mates and identical in appearance, I can tell them apart only by their attitudes. On that point, they are as different as salt and pepper. Especially when it comes to the matter of trust.

Annie trusts me, Oakley does not. To say Oakley is skittish would be an understatement. I can’t get within ten feet of her.

When these pubescent, female felines arrived in their portable kennel, I was an unknown. Their eyes were dark and wide with fear. They hid behind anything they could find.

But I left them alone and left them food, and they left me a mouse one morning, right next to their dish. A fair trade.

Annie soon warmed to me, running her little ‘motorboat’ as my mother used to call a cat’s purr. Because of her trust, Annie sleeps in the garage at night, high atop stacked tubs in a soft kitty bed

Oakley sleeps outside beneath the low-spreading juniper bush, and dashes in each morning when I open the door. Wet if it rains, cold from the night, and always hungry, she scurries in and up to the dryer where the cat food dish sits beyond the reach of our dog, Blue.

I don’t shut Oakley out. I call her each night, just like I call Annie, but Oakley doesn’t come because she doesn’t trust me. If she did, she would sleep like Annie, dry and cushioned with a midnight snack always at the ready.

Oakley may start coming in when the weather forces her.

And isn’t that just like us? Running for shelter when we’re forced, rather than stepping into love via trust.

It reminds me of me and God. When I trust Him, circumstances always turn out better, and my needs are always met. But more than that, I have the peace of His presence. He loves me. I’ve learned to trust that.

Funny what we can learn from our animals.

Do you have a cold-shoulder pet with trust issues? How did you win it over?

 

 

#lovingthecowboy