When you live in the country....

Our little family experienced a miracle this weekend that may not seem big to anyone else. But receiving a clear answer to prayer is such an uplifting thing, that I thought I'd share it.

 We are all close to our cat, Max. Our kitten has grown up, and this spring Max discovered the great outdoors.  Now he spends part of each day out hunting and prowling.

Three days ago, I realized I hadn't seen him for a full day. He hadn't been around at all - not even to eat - so we started to worry.  The last few days we've had some torrential rains, and he doesn't go out in the rain.  I kept praying and hoping, but really, I thought he must have been killed by a wild animal. (John saw a bear with a cub recently, and the neighbors said there are coyotes in the area.) But I kept thinking, "If he's not dead, is he suffering somewhere? Maybe trapped and cold and wet - and starving?" The kids would say, "I'm worried about Max, aren't you?" all the time.  I went walking around the edge of our property in the rain yesterday morning.  John and Eli had been out the day before.  And we kept praying.  Last night, John went out again.  He felt prompted to go farther this time, and stopped by the neighbors' house down the hill a ways.  The lady said she had heard a cat, but the meowing stopped when she went to look, so she figured it had run off.  She and her family went out looking with John and they found Max in the woods surrounding their house, fifty feet up in a tree!  It was nearly dusk by then, so there wasn't much they could do but mark a path from the road so John could find him again.

I called a tree service person at 8:00 this morning, but he was groggy and said he'd call me back later.  (Obviously not an animal lover.)  In the meantime, we visited Max a couple of times.  He just meowed loudly.  More so as we'd leave.  I went back and forth with the guy but he finally came in the afternoon.  (He said that often when you try to get cats out of trees, they go up higher.  They can also be violent when they're scared.  But we convinced him to try, I guess.)  The neighbors came out with us and we had a chance to get to know them better.  They are really sweet.

So Chris, the tree guy, climbed up the tree and then threw down a rope.  John attached the cat carrier and Chris pulled it up.  He talked softly to Max for a while and was able to get him in it.  We were down so far it was hard to tell what was happening.  Max had a bumpy ride down, but he was safe!

Here is the tree guy making his way up.  Max was in a fork in the tree covered by the leaves.

Still trying to get a good shot.

I zoomed in as much as I could, and you can kind of see him there.

He ate a lot and has been sleeping since.  I have thought more than once how it could have ended much differently, for him and for us.  I am so grateful for this tender mercy.