WOW: Caring for Animals
Although we don’t have any pets of our own, we’ve been compassionately caring for animals in their hour of need for our whole married life.
It was 1992 when the first black cat showed up on our doorstep during a thunderstorm. She was pregnant and pitiful, so we gave her a warm basket and a saucer of milk, then awoke the next morning to find she had delivered a litter of kittens on our welcome mat.
The kits and their mama lived on the porch of our little apartment until they were ready to wean, then we found good homes for all of them, and mama cat went on her merry way.
I don’t know if word spreads fast among homeless felines or if that first cat left some sort of hobo sign on our step before she left, but this scene repeated itself two more time in the years that followed.
Always black. Always ready to deliver. Always in the middle of a thunderstorm. The cats came.
And, unless that first one followed us ninety-nine miles east of Dallas when we moved, they weren’t all the same cat.
Soon we started branching out and taking in motherless birds, as well. Sometimes we even cared for homeless kittens and baby birds at the same time, but they got along surprisingly well:
The first squab fell into our fireplace on Easter Sunday. We named her Ash and fed her until she got her feathers, learned how to fly, and could fend for herself.
She stayed with us until Christmas, living in a ligustrum on our back patio and pecking at the back door whenever she wanted to come inside. She enjoyed perching on Dad’s shoulder as he read aloud to the children every evening.
Thereafter, two more squabs were deposited on our hearth each spring.
Before we moved, we screened in the top of the flue so that pigeons could no longer nest there. (We weren’t sure the future homemakers would appreciate having an extra mouth to feed as much as we did.)
The Bible tells us,
“A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, but even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10)
We don’t really have any animals of our own (unless you count two goldfish). But we do try to compassionately care for animals in need who come our way. Do you think that counts?
This week’s verse can be found in the sixth set of our Scripture Memory Flashcards:
And for extra practice, I’ve made more handwriting printables, as well:
Plus, in case you missed them, here are links to the first five sets of flashcards and practice sheets, too:
- Scripture Memory Cards – Set 1
- Scripture Memory Cards – Set 2
- Scripture Memory Cards – Set 3
- Scripture Memory Cards – Set 4
- Scripture Memory Cards – Set 5
- Memory Verse Copywork – Set 1
- Memory Verse Copywork – Set 2
- Memory Verse Copywork – Set 3
- Memory Verse Copywork – Set 4
- Memory Verse Copywork – Set 5
And I’ve also uploaded a progress chart to help you keep track of which verses your child has already memorized (some of the verses listed are from sets of flashcards that will be published in the future).
May God honor your efforts to hide His Word in your heart!
