WHERE'S TIGER?

WHERE IS TIGER?

What happens to our animal friends, or pets, when we are asked by God to go to another country to share the Bible? Well when you read this story you will realize that the God of the Universe who created and gave us animals to love even remembers to help us when we can't be home to care for them. He even cares for my flower garden. He waters my plants and keeps them from freezing long past the time other things are destroyed by the cold weather. Look at this amazing example of God's love and care.

 A sweet cat, Jenny called Tiger, was so loving. Jenny had him from when he was a kitten in 2004. When we returned from a mission to Mexico in 2005 in September, we left for a short trip to town. Upon return we found big fire trucks spraying the ground where our house used to be. The Red Cross gave us lodging and worked with the Inn to allow cat and dog. But the cat disappeared. We feared he had been eaten by coyotes.  We were amazed how God helped the pets out of the burning home. Even sheep had protection when the fire jumped the pen and avoided the trees in their pen. The fire went on burning 6 acres.

  Tiger was such a special kitten. It was a huge disappointment to the little girl of 14 who had given so much to Jesus on the mission trip, and then her flute was burned and her little kitten plus her special Bible was destroyed. Does God care when we are hurting? Oh, yes. We were housed in several places and 9 months went by before a home was ready on our land enough for the kitty cat.



Little Tiger

  The fire burned the home so fast, we wondered how Tiger ever made it out in time. We were so worried and Jenny was crying so hard the fire fighters feared a person had perished in the fire. She tried for a long time to find Tiger. Heart broken, she shed a few tears at night for the kitten who used to sleep on her bed with her.

  Poor Tiger. It was figured that some wild animal had eaten Tiger.

 

·         Six years later in September of 2011 we compared stories with the neighbor that watches our dog Patches while we are on missions. She has a cat she calls Larre that asked for lodging right after our house fire. He gets along perfectly with our dog Patches. Larry sure looks like the older version of Tiger. He came right to me and is afraid of most visitors. The story makes us quite sure it is the same cat.

·        The neighbor said Larry cat arrived some years back with a bad respiratory condition. When it sneezed black stuff flew everywhere. He was so sick, she took him to the vet. He must have had inhalation damage from the house fire.
         Another clue makes us think it is the same cat. He had a bad habit of jumping from behind a chair or from under the bed grabbing onto her leg and hanging on like she was a tree. It was not vicious, it just was hanging on. The surprise was irritating. She would yell from surprise and let him know it was not appropriate. This was taught by our sons in play with her. I did not enjoy such surprise but they thought it was fun. She broke him of this game.

  The neighbor Brenda has several dogs and so Larry stays in a bedroom and hides from all people and dogs. Once in a while Larry comes out and runs all over with the smallest dog. One day he was mad at the small dog and Patches and swatted them when they walked by. That was the end of the fight.

  HOW DID WE FIND TIGER?  HOW DID WE GET TO KNOW OUR DISTANT NEIGHBOR?
Our dog Patches did not like the kennel I was using so he went to the same house where Larry is lodged and asked if he could be living there when I am gone. Now for more than a year, every time the suitcases are brought out to begin packing, Patches wants to run to the neighbor's home in fear he might be taken to the kennels he hates.

 The neighbor is a very kind animal lover who welcomed him and gave me a call. The tags on Patches indicate who he belongs to. She wants to put another tag on him as well so that when we are gone, she will be called and can rescue him. Patches is a cocker spaniel who loves children and loves to go find other dogs to socialize with. He has grown up with the freedom to roam over 60 acres of land belonging to us and vacant lot beside us plus about 1000 acres behind us. He is terrified if he is restrained in an enclosure and digs out of everywhere and even bends metal fences to escape. He loves people and fears being left behind.

 My precious neighbor  refuses pay and does the cooking for ours and other dogs she has. She is a stay at home person who has a husband who had brain surgery so she must be very attentive to his needs. Her husband adores Patches and is teaching him to shake hands.

 The neighbor says she is part of our mission projects by caring for our beloved pets. She feels it is her God given task.

 Patches really loves to play with the cat Larry and she wondered why. When I was picking him up after a mission this spring, I saw the cat and he came right for me. I took Jenny there a couple weeks ago and she is sure he is her cat. He is in an animal heaven. There is so much love for him where he is. God fixed this story to a good ending and settled in Jenny's heart a question she had with the sorrow of loosing all her belongings. God does care. ALOT! He did what was best for the whole family and the cat and the people we stayed with while our home was being fixed up.

 The cat has really been missed but it is more difficult to transport a cat back and forth to one who will care for him. At the time of the fire we had not met our neighbor. She came by and offered housing but we took another offer.

 My loving dog is missed when I am gone. But God cared for this important detail.  To part with a loving pet is one of the many sacrifices for going on mission for God. God will probably give extra loving animals in heaven. A bird, cat, dog, dolphin, or whatever will bring us joy. The greatest joy will be to see Jesus.
 God always provides for all our needs (Phil 4:19)