Elaine Faber

DOES GOD LOVE CATS? YES, HE DOES!

I love my cat, Truffie. She has added joy to my life for 16 years! Every day, she brings a smile to my face and makes me laugh. She loves me unconditionally even when I’m grumpy or had a bad day. She even loves me when I tease her and tickle her back foot!

When Truffie was very young, one day, she stopped eating. She lost weight. I’d taken her to the vet twice. My credit card charges was over $600. The vet scratched his head. “All the lab tests and x-rays are normal. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Maybe we could−”

“No,” I said. “I can’t afford to spend any more money. Not if we don’t even know what’s wrong.”

Truffie was sick for five days. If something didn’t change soon, I thought she would die. She still wouldn’t eat. She wouldn’t drink water. She had a fever. None of her prescribed medications had helped.

I worried and wondered. Does God even care if Truffie is sick? We know He cares about our health and our finances and foreign affairs and the troops in faraway places. But does God really care if my cat is sick? Does He have time to hear my prayers, considering His busy schedule healing folks, protecting our loved ones, and trying to make our politicians get along? You see, I’ve prayed about all those things for a while, but what about Truffie’s fever? Does He really care? Do I dare pray for God to heal her and expect a miracle?

I asked my pastor, “Do you think God answers our prayers when our animals are sick?” My pastor described a certain day at the Catholic Church, where people bring their animals to be blessed, but he couldn’t think of a verse in the Bible that specifically deals with God healing cats.

I opened the Bible to search for anything to suggest that God cared and would answer our prayers when are animals are sick. I found the following:

(Matthew 10:20 NIV)' 'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your FATHER’S care.’ Humm… Sparrows? Cats? Not quite the same, but if He loves sparrows, maybe He loves cats, too.

We’re all familiar with God’s blessings and promises. God gives us everything we need. Our home. Our loved ones. A job...–well, most of us have a job, or we had one, before the company downsized and now some of us have unemployment. But not many of us are going hungry, so even in our adversity, God supplies our needs. But that didn’t answer my question. Could I really expect Him to hear my prayers for Truffie? I moved on, reading more about prayer and faith.

(Matthew 7:7 NIV) 'Ask and it will be given to you.” Really? Just asking? Was that the key?

(Matthew 17:20 NIV)' 'For truly I say to you. If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible. That sounded promising.

(Matthew 7:11 NIV)' And lastly… 'How much more will the Father in Heaven give good gifts to those (his children) who ask Him.’ Now, we were getting somewhere. Perhaps it was a matter of prayer with faith, not the specifics of what we pray for. What did I have to lose?

So, I prayed for Truffie. “Lord, you know how much I love her. You know how it would grieve me to lose her. I’m calling on Your promise, 'Ask and it will be given…'. I place this little cat in Your loving hands, Lord, and ask You to heal her and raise her up again. I’m asking because You’ve promised if I have faith…”

Now, I’m not going to tell you that a bright light surrounded the house or that Heaven opened and God’s voice rang out, “Truffie. Rise up and walk,” but the next day, Truffie started to eat. Her mood brightened. She purred. She was on her way. She would recover! And she did!

I know that God cares for our cats and dogs and rabbits and horses and all our pets. Not because there’s a verse in the Bible that specifically says so, but because we love them and He loves us enough to want our joy to be complete. He promises that if we ask and have faith, we can move mulberry trees into the sea, or move mountains from here to there, or maybe it’s all about teaching us to take all our cares to the Lord, no matter how big or small. And many times, according to his will, our prayers are answered.

Truffie is living proof.

God gave me the victory. God answered my prayer, and yes, I’m convinced.

God loves cats.

I have 13 published novels and have published short stories in 22 anthologies. I have also written over 20 articles on writing, some of them published here on this website, and others published in Writer’s newsletters and on-line blog posts.,

The Crash

I recently had a major computer crash and lost everything… pictures, email, address book, documents… I had backed up my stories and manuscripts and some writing articles on flash drives and thought that was sufficient, but didn’t consider backing up emails, address book or pictures or all articles.

Restoring the Information

We purchased a new computer and began the process to retrieve my lost material.

I retrieved my stories and some articles from the flash drives and actually found a few email contacts on them as well. The ideas below pertain mostly to retrieving pictures, email addresses and written articles that were lost. Perhaps one will be helpful to someone who has suffered a similar loss.

Ideas to Restore Lost Material

1. If you have saved material on a flash drive, carefully evaluate and download that information into your repaired or new computer. Be sure to establish a ‘back-up’ plan to prevent a repeat disaster, i.e. In the Cloud or other location.
2. If you have a website, check all content to see if anything you previously published pertains to lost material you might want to down load to current computer. Many websites also have pictures on top of your article. If you put a personal picture on that article, you can capture it and return a copy to your new “pictures” file.
3. Check any online location where you established an email directory to download information to friends and family. I found a number of emails on Jackie Lawson Greeting Cards location. You might want to research Facebook or Instagram. Perhaps there is a way to retrieve previously posted photos you might want to retrieve.
4. Most people have I-phones that hold a zillion pictures (which I don’t) that can be recaptured into your computer.
5. Contact any newsletter or blog post where you may have submitted material. They may still have copies in their files that could be sent back to you.
6. Post a note on your Facebook or Instagram page, explain the issue and request friends send you their emails and phone numbers.

I’m sure there are other ways to relocate lost material, but these are the few that have worked for me. I’m still working on it. Good luck. If you have any other ideas, feel free to share.