Meet Scamper – the newest member of the Jensen household. We always assumed we’d get a cat once we moved to Cambodia, but until this year we really didn’t see a need for one. Unfortunately, we have rats/mice and traps just don’t seem to do the trick. Thankfully, our friends the Farmers had some kitten that were trying to find homes for and they gave us Scamper – a very friendly and already litter-trained cat.
We brought Scamper home on the 5th of July and he’s been great. He must be the world’s friendliest cat. He sleeps in our beds (if he can’t get under the mosquito net he just settles down on top of it), follows us around, and goes outside with us when we play. He’s great with the kids and allows them to carry him all over. He even lets Clara walk around holding him (once I saw her pulling him by the ear).
It’s been fun to watch our kids love having such a friendly cat. For me it’s living out something that I always wanted as a child. I was supposed to get a kitten. When I was 6 my parents agreed. We spent weeks studying cats and cat care. We had a cat bed made and I put together a cat-care notebook as a school project. Everything was all set for us to pick up a kitten from the animal shelter one Saturday morning. I was so excited. Then early that morning my dad received the call that my grandfather had ended his life. Rightly so, the kitten was completely forgotten and I never got one. It’s all a memory. As I watched our children so excited about our new kitten and Anna dance around with delight, I got all choked up thinking this would have been me. And though I don’t usually put much stock in emotional healing, I wondered as Scamper curled up on my lap that night if this wasn’t some small part of some emotional healing that the little girl of 6 inside of me had been waiting for. Yes, I finally have my cat and now I can share him with our sweet children and watch their delight too. A sweet unexpected blessing from our Father.
