Rascal, the Survivor, Proves Murphy’s Law is Wrong. Things Can Go Right.

Published September 17, 2010

On Tuesday, August 3, our dear friend and board member, Carol Gaul, lost her kitties and her home in a fire. The only cat to survive this disaster was Carol’s foster, Little Rascal, who was in the adoption center at PetSmart at the time.

On Wednesday, August 4, the day after the fire, I had the following email about Rascal:

“I’m extremely interested in adopting Little Rascal… but I’m not in the area yet. I’m military, currently deployed. I’ve got about a month left out here before I get to the Dayton, OH area in September. Can you send me more information on this cute cat, please, and let me know if it’s possible to hold him until I arrive in person?”

Up until that day, we had had no interest in Rascal at all. Not at PetSmart. Not on Petfinder. Then strangely, the day after the fire, someone wanted our boy.

I wrote back and told Jeny, the potential adopter, about Carol and the fire and how lucky Rascal was to have been at PetSmart. She was stunned and saddened. But she also recounted her own tale of living with Murphy’s Law over the past year.

“How sad! I hope everything works out for Carol. My condolences to her for the loss of her home and the loss of her feline family members. I know how horribly crushing it is to suffer the loss of four-legged children and there’s nothing that really heals except time.

“Yeah, I would say that Little Rascal is one lucky cat. I’ve had a rather difficult year myself. I got divorced prior to coming on this one year deployment. I had orders to Germany with my son, but halfway through my tour, my ex filed for custody and I had to fight it. In the end, I had to cancel my orders to Germany and am instead coming to Ohio, but I retained custody of my son. Our move to Ohio is the start of a new life for us and we can’t wait!

“I had three cats when I filed for divorce last year, and had to leave my kitties in the care of my ex-husband. One by one, he ‘lost’ track of my babies and hasn’t seen them since. I had my kitties since 2003, and I am still crushed at not being able to see my cats.

“After our very, very long and trying year, my son and I said we should get an all black cat and name it Murphy since Murphy’s Law follows us around. At least, this way we’d have a Murphy we can more easily forgive (lol). I’ll admit, I didn’t look too long online today (just a brief search that lasted 15 minutes tops). I saw a picture of Little Rascal and thought he looked just perfect! I feel that everything happens for a reason and I’m all the more interested in adopting Little Rascal so he can be our Murphy, because one of the lessons we’ve learned over the past year is that while sometimes everything that can go wrong does… sometimes every little coincidence leads to the beginning of something beautifully meant to be.”

After reading Jeny’s email about the awful year she had had and her way of beating Murphy’s Law, I knew that all of this had to be happening according to some larger plan. It just seemed so strange how things were working for our boy.

Rascal, aka Murphy, came to stay with me once we knew Jeny wanted to adopt him. He left PetSmart and spent a month and a half in my spare bedroom where he became the nicest cat you’d ever want to meet. He was a bit shy at first. His coat was a bit ragged. He was too thin. But within a few weeks, he had a shiny coat, was greeting me at the door, playing with the other cats, crying when he wanted attention, and sitting contentedly beside me while I brushed him (he loved to be brushed–I could do it for hours and he would accommodate me). He had become a cat who seemed to know how truly blessed he was.

Rascal and Carol were reunited for the Blessing of the Animals celebration that honored the Gaul kitties–those that had perished and Rascal. For that brief ceremony, Carol was surrounded by all of her cats once again.
Carol also met Jeny and her son when they drove over an hour to visit Rascal earlier this week. Carol was thrilled that her surviving baby was getting the kind of home he deserved.
On Thursday, September 16, Murphy went home with his family. It was bittersweet, but it was also our way of disproving Murphy’s Law. Sometimes things do go the way they should.

Posted in Our Kitties that Found Forever Homes

Rascal, the Survivor, Proves Murphy’s Law is Wrong. Things Can Go Right.

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