My daughter’s house is almost finished. It was heavily damaged in the August flood in Baton Rouge. We have been down several times helping them put their house back together. One of the ways we offered immediate help was to dog-sit the grand-dog Ruxin. Typical of this family, Ruxin is a designer dog. He is part this, some of that and the rest is a mystery. Ruxin is going home to Baton Rouge in June. We will be down to two dogs. Both of them are rescue animals. You could say they were “unplanned canines.”

We are experiencing mysterious canine behavior from one. She whimpers in the middle of the night until someone touches her, or more specifically scratches her belly. At first this was mildly cute. Now it is annoying. Dora has experienced lots of change in the past months. Bailey our big lab has gone on to the great fire hydrant in the sky. Then Ruxin showed up for an extended stay. I’m thinking I’ll get her some doggy Prozac so I can sleep through the night. When Tamara comes home on the weekends, Dora will see people preparing for bed and rush in and lay on Tamara’s pillows. She is finding out, as I did many years ago, there is another Alpha in the house and it ain’t us.

I also have served on staff with feline members of the domestic animal group. I have worked for a couple of cats. They hung around a long time, but were always over shadowed by the crazy canines.

One of the cats was my lawyer cat.

When we were in Arcadia and the kids were little, Andrew received a phone call from his friend Richard one night. I heard Andrew say, “Yes.” Then I heard him say, “Two.” He hung up. Not five minutes later, Richard’s dad, Russell Davis was standing on my back stoop with two kittens. Russell said, “Your son just ordered these from my son.” Russell is an attorney. Who am I to argue when an attorney tells me that possession is nine tenths of the law and I’m holding the feline bag?

After he noted I had legal possession, he jetted out of there.
I figured out the two questions to which I heard the answers. “Do you want a kitten?” The second inquiry from Richard Davis was, “How many?” Russell argued the next day that our children had established a legally binding oral contract regarding transfer of feline ownership and I was stuck with the kittens. Lawyers!

They were cute yellow kittens. I don’t know the official name for the cute yellow cats, but I suppose you cat lovers do. The cat we kept we named Boudreaux. It is really senseless naming a cat, because they won’t come when you call them. They only show up when you have tax papers in your lap or when you’re typing and they want to walk across the computer keyboard. Boudreaux stayed with us through three churches. He got old. One day he walked into the woods and we never saw him again. It was a sad day. If there could be a good cat, he was one.

I was reminded of that Wednesday night. I was at the office working late. I opened my office door to enjoy the cool May weather and I saw two yellow kittens standing in the driveway of our church office. They reminded me of those kittens that Andrew ordered. When they ran under Edwin Dunahoe’s law office, I knew they were lawyer cats. I wonder if the lawyer knows he has kittens. They are really cute. I might start feeding them. Maybe I can work a deal for one. They made me smile and think of a cute little boy, now a grown man, who once ordered two lawyer cats on the phone. I thanked God for the family He gave me.

Funny how some things that happen today are similar to something else that happened twenty five years ago. The writer of Ecclesiastes hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.” I hope the things happening in your life give you a sense of gratitude for what God has given you.