How loving Lennie changed my mind about pets

First of all, as someone who wasn’t raised with and has never owned a pet, every meme about cats is true. They are the star of their own show, and you’re the novice actor with a bit part. They will snuggle when they are ready to, will play when they feel like it, and will emerge out of their safe space on their time. They are immune to the sound of your voice, will ignore your pleas, and unless allured by food, are the original social distancers.

So, from confidently asserting that I was fine with pets, as long as it was others’, that I had no problem adoring their quirks, as long as they were at arm’s length, to now whispering “I love you, Lennie” in the midst of a hectic day, it is a tale of an about-turn in the face of first-hand experience.

Lennie, although, is an exhibit among cats. Temperamentally mild, she mewls sparingly and invites play by gently bouncing off your feet as you walk by. In the early days after my sister brought her over for weekend visits, I did try, somewhat, to be immune to her liquid brown gaze narrowing as she struggled to keep her eyes open, her dorrito-shaped face sculpting into a triangle if you lifted it for a kiss, and her soft pink paws walking pitter-patter over you as a stopover on her destination.

Three Lennie-inspired reflections:

1. Mortality: We’re off to a macabre start.

My sister insists that Lennie’s soul is eternal, and that the redemption of all creation one day means she will go ahead of her and stay ready to respond to her voice, in heaven as on earth. I don’t know — “Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:12). While pondering on Lennie’s trajectory including her slow deterioration and eventual death is dreary, it does spur a sense of urgency. In a treatise, Thomas Watson wrote, “He who often meditates of death — will make the best preparation for it.”

2. Uncertainty:

Lennie is smothered with affection, squeezed with cuddles and is the theme of many impromptu songs. Yet, going by her fright at the sound of a doorbell, her commitment to secluded corners, and her forlorn wailing at the crinkle of a can of tuna, one wonders if she thinks she’s one misstep or meal away from death’s door. Her memory clock resets each day, not taking the comforts of yesterday for granted.

For a to-do lister, detailed scheduler, and timeline-bound goal creator, grappling with uncertainty is discomfiting.

3. Curiosity:

It’s endearing when Lennie’s head turns, her ears tilt, and her eyes fixate on a squirrel, chirp, or a twig. One of my favorite ways of learning is to ask questions of people from all walks of life — in that sense, I’ve never met a stranger. Being curious is a valuable trait that supports the injunction found in Old Testament law, “then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly”. And Proverbs states, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” In our present state of the world with fixed ideological priors overruling any appeal to withhold judgment, hear all parties out, and be willing to change one’s mind when presented with evidence, I want to be like Lennie: ever-learning, ever-teachable, and ever capable of being influenced.

Lastly, I can imagine the generosity, wonder, and compassion, a pet would arouse in a growing child. So, future hub, if you think the kids would benefit from a pet in the home, I wouldn’t object. We’d have a role model in Lennie.