"Spring Must Be Comin', 'Cuz Her Lip is Large"

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Poor Zinnia.

Every Spring, she develops a funny-looking lump on her lower lip, causing her to have a perpetual pout until the first frost.

In her two short years of life thus far, she has known more burdens—and blessings--than any pet we’ve ever owned.

When she was just weeks old, she and her litter mate, Zack, were stuffed in a cardboard box, and left at the door of our local Humane Society.

She was taken in and nurtured by the kind-hearted souls at this establishment, and by God’s providence, she and Zack were adopted by a family that has a soft spot for kitties with a story. That would be us.

Not long after arriving in our home, she and her brother started sneezing. And wheezing. Their eyes began weeping, and globbing, and crusting over. We put them on appropriate antibiotics, and had our neighbor help us put ointment in their eyes several times daily, as none of us could do this well.

But while we were on vacation, Zinnia’s infection worsened, and her eyeball ended up rupturing. Our neighbor, who was taking care of them in our absence, did such a great job of providing the emergency care she needed at the time, and continuing to treat her afterward. Zinnia is now partially blind in one eye…but by God’s grace, it hasn’t slowed her down a bit.

Since then, she has suffered fleas, tapeworms (multiple occasions), “failure to thrive,” and near-cardiac arrest when a gigantic, white canine beast was welcomed into our home. We recently determined that she also suffers Feline Spatial Disorientation Syndrome (FSDS)—a disorder in which cats mistakenly believe that the dinner table is actually a floor, and they walk across it at will.

And now this. A facial embarrassment that causes the paparazzi to push cameras into her face when she’s trying to nap, and wins her unsought publicity on family blogs.

Yet God, in His mercy, cares not only about every sparrow that falls, but also every cat that possibly pushed that sparrow out of the tree. And Zinnia is high on His list of cats to bless. She has graduated from the boot camp of fleas and worms, and has emerged stronger for having endured this pestilence. Despite her infant-sized, six-pound frame, she now chases the White Beast around the house, her tail puffed ominously, letting him know in no uncertain terms that SHE is The Boss and has NO FEAR of him. She is lovingly scooped off the table and cooed over by family members who apparently believe a little cat hair in their food is good protein. And EVERYONE in the family agrees that, large lip or not, she is an absolutely beautiful cat, and we wouldn’t trade her for anything!

What’s more, she is blessed to be the inspiration for a potential country music song, as evidenced by the title of this post. We came up with the song title…anyone interested in writing the lyrics? :-)

Posted by Betsy