A Pregnant Stray Cat, A Tall Bookshelf, and A Moral
A pregnant cat and a tall bookshelf can teach us a lot about perception.
We'll start with the the legendary tale of "The Pregnant Stray Cat," which happened today.
Which also means it's not that legendary yet, but if we pass the story along and add some embellishments, it could be one of the greatest epics of our time.
Story 1: What to do with a pregnant stray cat
Dallin and I were concluding an evening walk with our dog Ahsoka when Dallin spotted a very fat gray cat in our shared backyard space. He went over to say hi and we noticed that she had some scarring on her lips and walked with a pitiful limp on her back leg. She seemed pretty dirty and had many burrs stuck in her fur as well.
We made two assumptions from this image:
1. She was a stray.
2. She was very pregnant.
Dallin spent the next hour sitting outside with the very-pregnant-cat, hoping that she wasn't carrying any sort of ear mites or other bug. We weren't sure what to do and were especially worried because it seemed like a very-pregnant-cat shouldn't just be going out for an evening stroll in such a state AND it was supposed to rain soon.
Dallin called the emergency animal control line since the Bloomington humane society and animal shelter were both closed, but they said a limp and some facial scarring didn't warrant an emergency pickup so we should try to care for the very-pregnant-cat for the night and bring her in tomorrow.
Except we have a puppy who was all too interested in that very-pregnant-cat and we were also worried that the very-pregnant-cat might pass on some kind of bug to Ahsoka. We considered trying to build barriers to keep the very-pregnant-cat on our deck for the night, but decided to ask someone from our church if they could house a very-pregnant-cat for the night and we'd take her to a shelter in the morning.
After we found someone generous enough to take her, Dallin went back outside to find the very-pregnant-cat snuggled up against someone else's deck.
"Oh sorry, we've just been keeping an eye on this cat. We think it's a stray," Dallin said to the woman on her deck.
"Um yeah that's my cat. He likes being outside," replied the woman on her deck.
"Oh. Yes, right. Good. Glad. We just didn't know. Cool. Okay bye."
Story 2: The bookshelf that was too big
I found a $10 bookshelf on IU's furniture exchange site and message the seller to see if it was still available and find out how tall it was. She replied saying it was available and that it was 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide.
I got pretty excited about the idea of having this beautiful tall bookshelf in our front room where guests could learn about us by looking at the types of books we read, so I said we'd take it.
I asked my brother and sister-in-law if we could borrow their car because I thought 7 feet was too tall to fit in my car, so we got their car to go pick up our giant bookshelf.
When we arrived, our seller's boyfriend carried out this significantly smaller than 7 foot tall bookshelf. Being pretty flustered because it was raining and the whole thing felt a little bit like an alley drug exchange, we took it and drove off. Dallin thought we'd been cheated (rightly so) until I went back to read the email about the bookshelf.
Turns out the seller did not actually claim it was a 7 foot tall bookshelf. It was a 2 foot 7 inches tall bookshelf.
Golly were we glad we had borrowed a bigger car to pick it up.
And here is the moral from these two stories.
Sometimes we see something or someone and we make assumptions.
For example, sometimes we see a fat, male cat with a loving home and we see a very pregnant, homeless female cat in dire need of shelter.
OR we think we're getting a 7 foot tall bookshelf for our home and as it turns out we're only getting a 2 foot 7 inch tall bookshelf to match our other stubby bookcases.
We are all imperfect perceivers. We may have the best intentions for the pregnant cats or the tall bookshelves we come across, but sometimes what we think we see simply isn't the actual truth of the circumstances.
At that point we have to admit we were wrong.
And laugh at ourselves.
Especially if we've gone to a lot of trouble to accommodate for a very-pregnant-cat or tall bookshelf.
I love to build stories and understand how others experience the world. I like feeling like I have an insider look at many lives, but oftentimes I have trouble even understanding my own life. Do I sometimes think I'm a 7 foot bookshelf when I don't even hit 3 feet? Do I worry about myself as a stray when in reality I'm doing okay?
So the moral of these two different stories is something like, it's hard to see others clearly and it's hard to see ourselves clearly. Sometimes we need help from others to find out we're not looking at a very-pregnant-cat and in some cases, well, we'll just never know what we are seeing.
But we should do our best to be kind to others in their attempts to understand the world and do our best to take time to perceive before making judgments about just how pregnant the cat is or tall the bookshelf is supposed to be.
We'll start with the the legendary tale of "The Pregnant Stray Cat," which happened today.
Which also means it's not that legendary yet, but if we pass the story along and add some embellishments, it could be one of the greatest epics of our time.
Story 1: What to do with a pregnant stray cat
Dallin and I were concluding an evening walk with our dog Ahsoka when Dallin spotted a very fat gray cat in our shared backyard space. He went over to say hi and we noticed that she had some scarring on her lips and walked with a pitiful limp on her back leg. She seemed pretty dirty and had many burrs stuck in her fur as well.We made two assumptions from this image:
1. She was a stray.
2. She was very pregnant.
Dallin spent the next hour sitting outside with the very-pregnant-cat, hoping that she wasn't carrying any sort of ear mites or other bug. We weren't sure what to do and were especially worried because it seemed like a very-pregnant-cat shouldn't just be going out for an evening stroll in such a state AND it was supposed to rain soon.
Dallin called the emergency animal control line since the Bloomington humane society and animal shelter were both closed, but they said a limp and some facial scarring didn't warrant an emergency pickup so we should try to care for the very-pregnant-cat for the night and bring her in tomorrow.
Except we have a puppy who was all too interested in that very-pregnant-cat and we were also worried that the very-pregnant-cat might pass on some kind of bug to Ahsoka. We considered trying to build barriers to keep the very-pregnant-cat on our deck for the night, but decided to ask someone from our church if they could house a very-pregnant-cat for the night and we'd take her to a shelter in the morning.
After we found someone generous enough to take her, Dallin went back outside to find the very-pregnant-cat snuggled up against someone else's deck.
"Oh sorry, we've just been keeping an eye on this cat. We think it's a stray," Dallin said to the woman on her deck.
"Um yeah that's my cat. He likes being outside," replied the woman on her deck.
"Oh. Yes, right. Good. Glad. We just didn't know. Cool. Okay bye."Story 2: The bookshelf that was too big
I found a $10 bookshelf on IU's furniture exchange site and message the seller to see if it was still available and find out how tall it was. She replied saying it was available and that it was 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide.
I got pretty excited about the idea of having this beautiful tall bookshelf in our front room where guests could learn about us by looking at the types of books we read, so I said we'd take it.
I asked my brother and sister-in-law if we could borrow their car because I thought 7 feet was too tall to fit in my car, so we got their car to go pick up our giant bookshelf.
When we arrived, our seller's boyfriend carried out this significantly smaller than 7 foot tall bookshelf. Being pretty flustered because it was raining and the whole thing felt a little bit like an alley drug exchange, we took it and drove off. Dallin thought we'd been cheated (rightly so) until I went back to read the email about the bookshelf.Turns out the seller did not actually claim it was a 7 foot tall bookshelf. It was a 2 foot 7 inches tall bookshelf.
Golly were we glad we had borrowed a bigger car to pick it up.
And here is the moral from these two stories.
Sometimes we see something or someone and we make assumptions.
For example, sometimes we see a fat, male cat with a loving home and we see a very pregnant, homeless female cat in dire need of shelter.
OR we think we're getting a 7 foot tall bookshelf for our home and as it turns out we're only getting a 2 foot 7 inch tall bookshelf to match our other stubby bookcases.
We are all imperfect perceivers. We may have the best intentions for the pregnant cats or the tall bookshelves we come across, but sometimes what we think we see simply isn't the actual truth of the circumstances.
At that point we have to admit we were wrong.
And laugh at ourselves.
Especially if we've gone to a lot of trouble to accommodate for a very-pregnant-cat or tall bookshelf.
I love to build stories and understand how others experience the world. I like feeling like I have an insider look at many lives, but oftentimes I have trouble even understanding my own life. Do I sometimes think I'm a 7 foot bookshelf when I don't even hit 3 feet? Do I worry about myself as a stray when in reality I'm doing okay?
So the moral of these two different stories is something like, it's hard to see others clearly and it's hard to see ourselves clearly. Sometimes we need help from others to find out we're not looking at a very-pregnant-cat and in some cases, well, we'll just never know what we are seeing.
But we should do our best to be kind to others in their attempts to understand the world and do our best to take time to perceive before making judgments about just how pregnant the cat is or tall the bookshelf is supposed to be.
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