Sometimes angels give the wrong answer.
That is what happened to a cat named Tiki.
She is a 20-year-old cat from northern Massachusetts, near my birthplace (which has recently been named to the federal register of Yorkie birthplaces.)
Even more remarkable than Tiki’s advanced age is that she is a part-time outdoor cat who explores the area around the Nabnasset Lake in Westford MA.
For years Tiki was respected by the other animals who inhabited the riverbank as the toughest cat around. But recently she had slowed down, and the animals she used to dominate were stronger. Tiki also showed her age at home. She had unexpectedly peed outside her box, and her yaks were becoming more frequent.
In her early life, Tiki had a cat brother named Tocky who was five years older than Tiki and had passed ten years earlier. Tiki began to feel like she was out living her time and told Tocky, who said in Eskimo culture, when a soul feels they have outlived their usefulness they get on the ice flow and slip out to sea.
And that is what Tiki decided to do.
This week Tiki climbed on a floating piece of ice and began to float away.
Almost immediately Tiki realized she had made a terrible mistake. There must have been a way to shed off her mortal remains that were not so cold and wet.
Having had a change of heart Tiki prayed, mentioning she wanted any other angel than Tocky.
It being an emergency, and me having an outstanding save record, I was assigned the case.
I went down to Tiki and told her there were a lot of people around who would be willing to save her, and to sit still and that I would figure out a way to get a human’s attention. I got a squirrel to break a twig, causing a human woman to look in Tiki’s direction, and she saw Tiki floating away.
Success!
Then Tiki fell off the ice flow.
Disaster!
Tiki, shocked by the cold, was more determined than ever to survive, but keeping her head above the icy water was taxing.
The frightened woman called the first responders and animal control officers. She also got the attention of two construction workers at a nearby house. They got in a rowboat and stroked towards the kitty, using a shovel to break apart the ice.
Tiki was losing hope when she was plucked from the ice. She was rushed into a house, wrapped in blankets, and then brought to the emergency vet where his temperature was taken.
He barely registered one.
But, thanks to the vet, he was warmed up, and soon brought home, into the warm arms of his parents.
I visited Tiki that night in her dreams. She was cold, but thankful, and asked me to make sure Tocky knew he was forgiven.
I even spoke up for Tokey at the Angel review. He tried to do good but needed to tell the souls who prayed to him the opposite of the opposite of what his instincts said.
As for Tiki, the brave cat may have spent her last day outside, having learned to appreciate life on the couch, which everyone does.
But some of us need a near-death experience to appreciate the co=uch.
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