Michael-Grams: M-G: 6.20.13 // Postscript to The Wrong Kind of Freedom

While I was out of town, my stepdaughter who was on her way to work called me around 7:34 AM on 6.17.13 to say that she had spotted Lexus on someone’s front porch. She thought that I was in Cleveland and wanted me to come over to verify it was Lexus. She texted me two pictures, and it was Lexus alright! Though Lexus was still in our hearts and minds, Beverly and I had assumed that she was already dead. The odds of being three months on the streets without claws to hunt, defend, or escape presented an unlikelihood of survival, but God had other plans. After about a month on her own, God led Lexus to the house of Jenny and Armando who happened to be cat lovers! They live about half a mile away from us!

That following day I went to where Lexus was sighted and met with Armando who told me that they had been feeding her for the past two months. Though they could never get close to her except on one occasion, Lexus had been a comfort to their two autistic children by simply being there. I provided him with an animal trap to catch her and within an hour Lexus was trapped!

Almost three months had passed since her free fall (3.20.13). Lexus was slenderer and haggard-looking. Her once shiny coat was dull and dusty. She had sustained minor injuries and now walks with a limp, but she survived by the grace of God the elements, vehicles, territorial felines, dogs, and shortages of food and water until she came across Armando and Jenny. We both realized that God did not have to preserve Lexus, but He did.

Now, Bentley, our white Bengal, was not a happy camper to see Lexus as we were. His life had undergone a radical change, too, over the last three months, not as harrowing as Lexus to be sure. It is interesting to see Bentley’s behavior in being territorial, aggressive, totally detached from the past seven years of experiences with Lexus, and torn out of the frame over strange scents. One advantage Lexus had over Bentley now was that she not only had instinctive survival traits as Bentley, but she had street smarts in surviving vicious claws and fangs. Bentley was clawless as well as clueless! He didn’t care what she had been through. To him, there was another cat in the house with a wild scent, and he was beside himself.

I was proud of Lexus’ resolve. Rather than fleeing when confronted by Bentley, she stood her ground and did not retreat even during the clawless paw exchanges. He would back down every single time though nearly twice her size, and run behind the recliners growling and hissing; some king of the jungle, huh? I can only imagine after the past three tumultuous months, she was just looking for a little peace of mind and quiet. In time Bentley will make the adjustments; he had before after Lexus was gone for four days.

It’s more work and tiresome to stay angry and display other negative behaviors than it does to be at peace. Being angry will wear you out and everyone around that supercharged emotion. It’s too bad some people never get that. It is just another manifestation of living outside the boundaries of God’s will. For Bentley, he was just being an animal, but for humans, it is just plain disobedience and mean. I can’t help but think Bentley’s insensitive ways are due largely in part to being territorial and having something to do with scent, after all, he is an animal and incapable of self-awareness and abstract thought. In spite of that reality, so many pet owners insist on injecting human traits into their animals and are shocked by certain behaviors, like I was with Bentley!... The real shockers are the humans!

Cats are naturally big on establishing turf rights and smell that is why they mark their territory by urinating on trees and whatnot. Bentley would even hiss and get irritated with us whenever he smelled a hint of Lexus on us. Come to think of it, whenever I brought Lexus back from the vet, Bentley would go bananas and vent on Lexus for several days by hissing and growling and being a plain old redneck cat! Lexus was gracious in response to Bentley’s belligerent overtures back then as she was now after her terrible ordeal, but with that said, she learned on the “outside” to stand her ground as she is now doing on the inside. Unlike Bentley, she had been out there in the jungle defenseless and lived to tell about it.

Definitely, the wrong kind of freedom, symbolized by Lexus’ run, does not have a positive future and will cause us more problems than we can possibly shake a stick at when we choose to live a life apart from God. It is such a dangerous place to be, and it never ends like it did for Lexus because she didn’t come back on her own. This is where the analogy ends. We thank God for returning Lexus to our family, for Christie spotting Lexus and making that call, and for Armando and Jenny in feeding our baby for two months and willingly giving her up for Lexus to return home.

I guess putting up with the cat talks and sleep deprivation until détente is established between Bentley and Lexus is a small price to pay in having her back safely within the fold. God be praised for his gracious and merciful ways even in the little things of life. <><