Today I took the cats to the veterinarian for their rabies' shots and checkups. (Both are fine.) The experience caused me to think of the phrase `God moves in mysterious ways'.
After all, from the cats' point of view, the day was terrible: I put them in boxes, took them in a car to a place that smells of many scared and sick animals, and let a stranger poke them. But then I brought them home again and let them out.
In the cats' notion of the world, I acted mysteriously. The cats did not act as if they understood that I was acting for their own good.
There were precursors, if any cat had bothered to pay attention: yesterday, for example, I took the two cat carrying cases out of storage.
Earlier this morning, after brushing them and while they were feeding on treats, I closed the cat door and all the windows. The short haired cat realized this pretty quickly and checked every window, just in case I had left one open. After all, this is summer.
Then I acted forcefully: I put the cats in their carrying cases. The long haired cat did not like this at all. She may well have remembered that the last time I did this, I took her in the car for a rabies' shot. (The cats did not scratch me or anything like that; they simply tried to escape. From my point of view, they are good cats.)
At the veterinarian, the short haired cat was terrified and shed hair. But both behaved quietly and well.
I kept remembering that I was taught very early that `God moves in mysterious ways' and is very powerful. (Later I learned the word `omnipotent'.) From the cats' point of view, was I not similar?
From the point of view of my childhood, the parallel between our treatment of cats and God's treatment of us is obvious and unremarkable. (Adults think more subtly.)
What would be the metaphoric nature of God for a child, if the animal to which he or she related were a large horse or cow rather than a small cat (or sheep or goat, which children often tended)?
In Europe over the past 3000 years or so, did the children of the rich learn to handle horses as soon as they could talk? Put another way, did their relation to horses start as early as mine did to our cats and dogs?
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