The Cat, the Fleas and the Mouse
Little problems can follow little problems and end up making a big mess!
The cat went blind and at seventeen years old we knew that it was time to let her go. The good news was that the other cat would now be able to go live outside. We would be pet free inside for the first time in sixteen years of living in the house.
It was a relief to get rid of a blind cat that had given up trying to find the litter box. Nothing feels quite as nauseating as stepping in cat pee first thing in the morning.
It was about two weeks later when the fleas showed up in earnest. Every time you walked through the house they seemed to flock to your socks. Cook’s Pest Control responded quickly to my cry for help. The fleas were back in a week and so was pest control.
This week I noticed the first mouse droppings. We have always had mice in the walls and probably in the attic, but they rarely showed their faces inside. The morning I spent cleaning all of the plastic containers and the cabinet the now-outdoor cat sat at the window watching me. I swear she was laughing.
Today the mice droppings started showing up in every room I walked through. Just one or two droppings would be laying where ever I happened to look. I am beginning to feel like a Dr. Suess book or at least a Cat in the Hat book (The King, the Mice and the Cheese).
I am tempted to bring the cat back in the house, but I have not caved yet. Consistent cleaning, clearing and spraying should eliminate the problem. There may be an easier solution, but there are negative issues with those easy paths.
Maybe my pest problem is more about my life that I care to think. Just when I get rid of one issue, another pops up to take its place and often brings along friends. It is like the demons driven out of the man, coming back to find it clean and in order, but empty. I am driving things out of my life, but I am not filling them up with the right stuff.
My problems will not be imagined away any more than I can pretend the mouse will just pack up and leave on his own. I have to invest the time and energy into cleaning up and getting things in order and then filling my life with the things that God had called me to do.
Are little problems causing big issues and keeping your from your purpose?
I too have this fixing one problem to have a multitude rush in. I have had it and am filling up continually with his word and with His work. Idleness has gotten the best of my family and me but no longer will we be controlled by the way the tide rolls or for that matter the way the animals (good or bad) try to control us in our life. We have also faced the cycle of leaving the cats in to tend to the rodents or kick them out and deal with the pellets. We all have something to deal with we just have to set our boundaries and stand with them. God has called us to stand firm in Him and keep about His work and to not be distracted to the works of the world.
Just like your cat now sits and looks in from the world, let it stay there. We can go out into the world and be part of it but we must keep it out of us.
I LOVE this last quote that you offered, Christy.
It sums up all that I have been facing or really not facing and that I am now cleaning up after.