My Christmas gift to you is a tale that traveled many channels to get here. I heard about it through a friend who heard about it through a friend who had a friend who told the story. I have three people to thank for providing this gift: my friend Ginny Powell, who first relayed the story to me; Jackie Seal, who spent the better part of this year urging the tale's originator to write it down for this blog; and the story teller herself, Marcia McCall. Marcia must be an amazing woman because this is an amazing tale.
"This is the story of Moses….but before I can begin the story of Moses, I must tell the story of Seamus. Seamus is a unique fellow, one who knows what he wants at all times and is not afraid to either pursue it or enlist the support of anyone who can help him obtain his heart’s desire. His became self-sufficient at a very early age, and one would suspect from his youthful behaviors that his independence was not so much from choice, but necessity. He was extremely wary and untrusting, but not afraid of much. He preferred to avoid relationships, keeping a safe distance in both time and space until he could be sure his trust and safety would not be compromised.
When I first saw Seamus, he was very young, perhaps no more than 8 or 10 weeks old, a wee ginger tabby kitten, trying to make himself invisible in the grass near my front steps. He made it quite clear that he was merely observing the environment and the situation, but was not yet ready to be more involved with it! (He has never revealed to me just how he came to be there or why he was all alone, he just miraculously appeared one day.) A few days later, I saw him again, looking leaner, so thin his sides were nearly touching each other. I set bowls of food and water out—he ran off the moment I came near. I watched from behind a curtained window, but he would not return to eat while I was watching. Half an hour later, the bowl of food would be completely empty! This was the pattern for a few weeks, until one day, he came up to me, and rubbed around my ankles and purred! I was elated! In my joy, I stooped to pet him, but that was NOT the right thing to do…..yet! Getting to the petting stage took another week or more! We began with a few wary pats on the head, and then moved on to a full stroke of his body! He sniffed, looked me in the eye, and watched my every move, as if analyzing my motives! He was indeed a very suspicious fellow! It took a few days, but by then petting before food gradually became part of our routine and before long, the petting became an important part of our feeding rituals! Still, he would not allow himself to be picked up or snuggled, as I longed to do to this poor little waif of a kitten. That stage of our relationship took a few weeks more! By this time, Seamus was several months old, no longer a kitten but not quite a full grown cat. Finally, he trusted me! He snuggled his head into my neck and purred pure contentment! He then decided that a permanent relationship with me might not be so bad and he really wanted to be my cat! I told him he would have to get his shots and be neutered before he could live in my house, and he agreed to submit! So Seamus became my full fledged cat when he was about six months old, in October of 2006!
We became fast friends. Seamus always joined me for my first cup of morning coffee out on the back porch. He seemed to enjoy sitting with me every day and I really enjoyed him. Sometimes he would become rather vocal, as if he was talking to me! We would have conversations….about nothing! He was rather a chatty cat. At that point, I decided he must have kissed the blarney stone, so hence I named him Seamus! A red haired, story-telling Irish cat!!!! After he had eaten his breakfast he would go exploring in the nearly half acre back yard that ran all the way down to the Hillsborough River. When he tired of his adventures, he napped in the basket by the window. At night, he shared my bed with me. He decided he rather liked domestic life after all! We settled into a pleasant, long term relationship!
Fast forward seven months. Seamus and I were enjoying morning coffee on the back porch at about 5:30 or so in the morning on Memorial Day, 2007. It was still dark out, and I was not yet dressed for the day. As we were slowly waking up, the frantic cries of some animal in terrible danger startled us wide awake! The cries were coming closer, they seemed to be coming from down by the river. Seamus looked at me as if to say “Are you just going to sit there? We have to do something! Come on, hurry up, let’s go find out what has happened to this creature!” So off we went, in the dark, down the hill,
through the vine dense underbrush, with me in just a nightgown and flip flops! I thought that if I should fall and break something, no one would know where to find me, or worse, some alligator from the river might find me first! Was I mad????
The cries were ever more desperate, we HAD to find who or what was making these awful sounding cries of fear and danger. We reached the river’s edge, and the water level was lower than usual, creating a drop in the bank. We saw a small critter bouncing up and down, running in the edge of the water. Seamus immediately went into the river bed, walked into the water and coaxed the small, dark bouncing creature to come to him. Wading through the edge of the dark river water, Seamus nudged the little creature on and brought him straight to me. When they were close enough for me to finally see clearly, I saw it was a very small puppy….very young, maybe 6 weeks old, maybe less. As I scooped the trembling creature into my hands, it looked at me with huge, shiny eyes. It was very, very scared! A baby, in the river! I thought of how the Pharaoh’s daughter had found the baby Moses in the River Nile, and I said “you must be another Moses”! And so he became my Moses!
He was wet and muddy, but cute as a little teddy bear! Seamus watched as I cleaned him up and put him in a basket with a clean towel. Seamus immediately hopped into the basket and began licking and purring to the puppy. They snuggled together that whole day! Moses was too exhausted to move around much, he would wake up, take a few steps and fall right back to sleep! He was even too tired to eat. Seamus stayed by him the whole time. Not sure if he was yet weaned, I tried feeding him with a pet nursing bottle….Ah well, it didn’t work. It was Seamus who led Moses to the bowl and waited while Moses ate everything in sight! He was weaned and he was HUNGRY!!! And he was so cute and so cuddly, and I was so in love!
As they say, the rest is history…Moses is now 19 months old; Seamus is still his guardian, playmate and best buddy! We all pile into bed together every night, happy to be together, sharing love and contentment. As the Moses of the Old Testament led the people of Israel to the Promised Land, my Moses has led me to a place in my life of more promise and love than I ever could have known without him.
When I first saw Seamus, he was very young, perhaps no more than 8 or 10 weeks old, a wee ginger tabby kitten, trying to make himself invisible in the grass near my front steps. He made it quite clear that he was merely observing the environment and the situation, but was not yet ready to be more involved with it! (He has never revealed to me just how he came to be there or why he was all alone, he just miraculously appeared one day.) A few days later, I saw him again, looking leaner, so thin his sides were nearly touching each other. I set bowls of food and water out—he ran off the moment I came near. I watched from behind a curtained window, but he would not return to eat while I was watching. Half an hour later, the bowl of food would be completely empty! This was the pattern for a few weeks, until one day, he came up to me, and rubbed around my ankles and purred! I was elated! In my joy, I stooped to pet him, but that was NOT the right thing to do…..yet! Getting to the petting stage took another week or more! We began with a few wary pats on the head, and then moved on to a full stroke of his body! He sniffed, looked me in the eye, and watched my every move, as if analyzing my motives! He was indeed a very suspicious fellow! It took a few days, but by then petting before food gradually became part of our routine and before long, the petting became an important part of our feeding rituals! Still, he would not allow himself to be picked up or snuggled, as I longed to do to this poor little waif of a kitten. That stage of our relationship took a few weeks more! By this time, Seamus was several months old, no longer a kitten but not quite a full grown cat. Finally, he trusted me! He snuggled his head into my neck and purred pure contentment! He then decided that a permanent relationship with me might not be so bad and he really wanted to be my cat! I told him he would have to get his shots and be neutered before he could live in my house, and he agreed to submit! So Seamus became my full fledged cat when he was about six months old, in October of 2006!
We became fast friends. Seamus always joined me for my first cup of morning coffee out on the back porch. He seemed to enjoy sitting with me every day and I really enjoyed him. Sometimes he would become rather vocal, as if he was talking to me! We would have conversations….about nothing! He was rather a chatty cat. At that point, I decided he must have kissed the blarney stone, so hence I named him Seamus! A red haired, story-telling Irish cat!!!! After he had eaten his breakfast he would go exploring in the nearly half acre back yard that ran all the way down to the Hillsborough River. When he tired of his adventures, he napped in the basket by the window. At night, he shared my bed with me. He decided he rather liked domestic life after all! We settled into a pleasant, long term relationship!
Fast forward seven months. Seamus and I were enjoying morning coffee on the back porch at about 5:30 or so in the morning on Memorial Day, 2007. It was still dark out, and I was not yet dressed for the day. As we were slowly waking up, the frantic cries of some animal in terrible danger startled us wide awake! The cries were coming closer, they seemed to be coming from down by the river. Seamus looked at me as if to say “Are you just going to sit there? We have to do something! Come on, hurry up, let’s go find out what has happened to this creature!” So off we went, in the dark, down the hill,
through the vine dense underbrush, with me in just a nightgown and flip flops! I thought that if I should fall and break something, no one would know where to find me, or worse, some alligator from the river might find me first! Was I mad????The cries were ever more desperate, we HAD to find who or what was making these awful sounding cries of fear and danger. We reached the river’s edge, and the water level was lower than usual, creating a drop in the bank. We saw a small critter bouncing up and down, running in the edge of the water. Seamus immediately went into the river bed, walked into the water and coaxed the small, dark bouncing creature to come to him. Wading through the edge of the dark river water, Seamus nudged the little creature on and brought him straight to me. When they were close enough for me to finally see clearly, I saw it was a very small puppy….very young, maybe 6 weeks old, maybe less. As I scooped the trembling creature into my hands, it looked at me with huge, shiny eyes. It was very, very scared! A baby, in the river! I thought of how the Pharaoh’s daughter had found the baby Moses in the River Nile, and I said “you must be another Moses”! And so he became my Moses!
He was wet and muddy, but cute as a little teddy bear! Seamus watched as I cleaned him up and put him in a basket with a clean towel. Seamus immediately hopped into the basket and began licking and purring to the puppy. They snuggled together that whole day! Moses was too exhausted to move around much, he would wake up, take a few steps and fall right back to sleep! He was even too tired to eat. Seamus stayed by him the whole time. Not sure if he was yet weaned, I tried feeding him with a pet nursing bottle….Ah well, it didn’t work. It was Seamus who led Moses to the bowl and waited while Moses ate everything in sight! He was weaned and he was HUNGRY!!! And he was so cute and so cuddly, and I was so in love!
As they say, the rest is history…Moses is now 19 months old; Seamus is still his guardian, playmate and best buddy! We all pile into bed together every night, happy to be together, sharing love and contentment. As the Moses of the Old Testament led the people of Israel to the Promised Land, my Moses has led me to a place in my life of more promise and love than I ever could have known without him.
