Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Cry (or Meow) for Help

I have 2 cats, both are extremely vocal. I think Thomas has one of the largest vocabularies of any cat I have every met. He loves to communicate with us and gives us a play by play of what he is doing. Going to jump on bed - meow a. Going to jump off the bed - meow b. Going downstairs - yet another meow, and so on. Besides being very talkative is VERY loud. He does an excellent imitation of a fire truck. If he is in the basement and you are on the 2nd floor and he wants you to hear him, trust me you will.

Last night as I climbed into bed I thought it a little odd that Thomas did not come and announce he was coming to bed and then get in bed with us. I figured he must be snacking downstairs. This morning I woke and while getting dressed I heard these faint cries. I called to Thomas to get him to come in the room and he didn't. A couple minutes later as I started heading downstairs I heard these faint cries again. A light went off in my head and I realized where the cries were coming from - the closed door to the guest room. Last night he snuck into the guest room (which they are not allowed in.) He proceeded to get locked in that room for the duration of the evening.

I am sure in the beginning he thought it was a great thing he accomplished - getting into the room he is not allowed in. At some point I am sure he realized he was stuck but yet did not cry for help. Why would an extremely vocal cat not let us know he is stuck. I started thinking about this and realized this is not far off from what we "smarter" humans do all the time. We get ourselves in a situation. We don't realize that this situation can only lead us to a place of being stuck. Once we realize it, we don't ask for help. We give small signs that we need help and hope someone passing by will notice. We don't cry out and make it know - I'M STUCK - HELP ME! How much quicker could we become unstuck if we spoke out, if we put our pride to the side and asked for help.

A little boy was having difficulty lifting a heavy stone.
His father came along just then.

Noting the boy's failure, he asked, "Are you using all your strength?"

"Yes, I am," the little boy said impatiently.

"No, you are not," the father answered. "I am right here just waiting, and you haven't asked me to help you."

~author unknown

No comments:

Post a Comment