Jumbo's Adventure

 

After a rough day at work, talking with dental insurance companies, having claims denied, dealing with disgruntled patients, I drove home in a sour mood. I felt sorry for myself and shut off the radio. No music could cheer me.

A few blocks from home, I saw a picture tacked to a wooden pole that advertised a lost cat. The sweetest black and white cat stared at me from the photo. Poor little guy. His name said ‘Jumbo.’ It appeared the family was frantic and the closer I got to my house, more and more posters were stuck to poles in the neighborhood.

Well, Lord, I thought, that family has it worse than me. I knew what losing a beloved pet was like. As a little girl our dog Fluffy ran away. Please bless that kitty to find his way home. Bless the family to locate him.

My husband often jokes that I pray for everybody and everything. It was no surprise when I told him about the lost cat and how I’d prayed.

A postcard even came in the mail. Jumbo’s adorable picture looked out at me. There was a typed note stating that Jumbo was possibly in our area and to please look out for him.

Every day on my way to and from work, I found myself saying a prayer for Jumbo and his family. But weeks went by and turned into months. I never heard one way or the other about the outcome. It was a little disappointing to me, but then something happened.

My next door neighbor and I spoke the other day. She said that the lost cat had been coming around her house in the evenings. She had been feeding him, but unable to catch him. Another neighbor’s security camera had been going off the same time every morning as Jumbo stole a quick meal from the wall on his driveway. It was this man who finally caught the kitty and returned him to his frantic owner.

 I wanted to let Jumbo’s owner know how much I had been praying for him. It had touched me in a very special way that he’d been found, and I wanted to hear a little more about him.

She told me that Jumbo had walked several miles in our very busy town, crossed major highways and managed to be spotted in many different neighborhoods. Jumbo’s owner lived about forty minutes away and he had escaped accidentally while going to a veterinary office in my town.

She had frantically searched for him almost every single night after people began calling her to say they’d seen him in their yard. When he ended up on my block, his owner got to know many of the people and their precious pets.

I spoke with her about Jumbo’s big adventure and about how a huge town came together in kindness to help her to get him back.  Jumbo’s angel had been watching over him the whole time.

 (Photo credit: Internet)