An Injured Paw

Dear friend,

Oh dear. It’s been a tricky day.

It started off okay—just pottering around, shoring up the plants for the heat with water. Front and back gardens dry as a bone. Then, still a little bit on the sleepy side, I went next door to check on our neighbour’s kittens, who I’m looking after for a few days.

It’s bin day too, so I wheeled the bins back into place. On entering next door, it looked as if the kittens were already out on the prowl, making the most of the cooler early hours of daylight.

I opened the kitchen door to call the cats, but what I hadn’t realised was that Maisie—the littlest of the two—was padding silently behind me. By a stroke of misfortune, she made for the cat flap just as I opened the door, and somehow she twisted her paw.

I didn’t notice at first, busy scooping food into their bowls. But when I came outside to pet them, I saw Maisie was holding her front right paw off the ground.

I can’t be sure she wasn’t already limping before I blundered onto the scene, but it seems most likely I played my part in injuring a tiny creature I love. I still feel terrible. My heart like an injured bird fluttering in my chest.

We’re big creatures, and our actions have consequences. Just the size of me compared to Maisie.

I hung out for an hour or so, messaged Flora and Malik, and tried to focus on something. I was able to do my work, but a cloud hung over what turned into a blazing hot July day.

Maisie started to use her paw a little more as time wore on, and I’m hoping it’s no worse than a sprain—but a cat’s wrist is a delicate thing. A few hours later, when I went back to check on her, she was lying in the grass, purring, but still tentative. She forgot about it long enough to chase a grasshopper, who she caught but left intact. I rescued him and dropped him over the fence into our garden.

I guess it’s a healthy sign to feel so bad about it. It’s part of compassion—to feel the suffering of another.

If only every human being suffered this way, perhaps we’d see less suffering in the world. You have to separate your being from the being of another to hurt or disadvantage them and think of it as “winning.”

The ones who enrich themselves at the cost of others are not winning, no matter how hard and long they try to convince themselves otherwise. It can never be true.

And they are powerful only for a time.
True power is eternal—and grounded in kindness and unity.

Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey