The Roadside Artist

If one needs to depend on the kindness of strangers, they may be out of luck. Particularly if you are a feral cat. This one sometimes visits the McDonalds in Tillamook. Since I am there once a week or so, too, it’s gotten to know me. I feed him or her.

McFeral Cat

There is too much cruelty in the world, and too little kindness. The little one-eyed kitty probably can’t hunt and most people chase it away. I can’t do that.

I know there is no good outcome here. I want to think everything will be okay, but a lifetime of hardship has taught me otherwise. There is little I can do, for sure. But I will NOT make things worse if I can avoid it.

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This is the message of Pope John Paul II. Listen to him. The Holy Father had a dream … this story is a parable, and few will understand its true meaning, I suppose. Yet it must be told. John Paul had this dream a long time ago, and it impacted him deeply, to the point where he felt compelled to share it years later.

There is great significance in the fact that the Pope wanted to share this story with the world. We’re talking about a man who lived through Nazi occupation of his home country. The horrors he saw were many, yet it was a dream that moved him, and gave him a special message for the world … a dream about an ordinary, homeless cat.

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The Pope was touring Canada and about to make his first visit to New York. As the reporter asked him about his experiences in Canada and his upcoming visit to New York, His Holiness interrupted…

“I had a strange dream…”

It wasn’t a dream about the beauty of Canada. I suddenly found myself in a different city, and it was no longer summer, but winter, and snow covered the ground. It was a truly severe winter. Everyone was warmly dressed. I was happy I could walk on top of the snow, on avenues of white.

All my physical effort was spent on walking. To this day, the pictures of huge apartment houses on both sides of the avenue are burned in my mind, along with the doormen quickly closing and opening doors as though trying to prevent humanity and warmth from escaping.

Suddenly, walking through the snow, I noticed a brown cat emerge from a side street. I looked closer and to my surprise, I saw six small brown and white kittens were following this scrawny cat, hopping through the snow and struggling to keep in line behind her.
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