A Purrfect Miracle by Serena Haneline

I never used to think of myself as a cat lover. The few experiences I’d had with cats were not good ones. However, one little orange kitty changed all that about seven years ago. A close friend of mine moved and couldn’t take her cat with her, so I offered, like a good friend should, to keep her cat “temporarily.”

Well, I didn’t like this cat that much at first. He got on my nerves and was just too needy. But then I started enjoying having another creature around as company. So after awhile, I offered to unofficially “adopt” Opie (named after the character on Andy Griffith because of his orange hair). I’ve been his “mommy” for almost nearly a decade now.

Opie has also been a very healthy cat over the years. That is, until last year around October. I noticed his eating and drinking habits change and finally had to take him to the vet. I was shocked when I heard his diagnosis. Diabetes. Yeah, cats can get a feline version of diabetes.

So for the next three months I had to give him an insulin shot twice a day. I watched a video about giving insulin shots to cats and those people said their cats got used to it. Well, Opie never did. In fact, it seemed like it was getting harder and harder to give it to him without him moving. I stuck myself more than once!

But ever since that first day in the vet’s office, when the vet shared the heartbreaking news of Opie’s condition, I held onto a small sliver of hope. She told me then that sometimes cats can get over diabetes. Of course she followed that comment with, “More often they have to live with the condition for the rest of their lives.”

Well, Opie is like my child, so I was willing to do whatever to keep him alive and healthy. I didn’t know then that it was going to cost me so much (I think I spent nearly $500 those first months on vet bills, medicine, and food). Of course, I would do it again though!

Then a few weeks ago, I started feeling like I really needed to pray for healing for Opie. But I never seemed to have “enough” faith to say a prayer, believing that God would actually heal him from this disease. I mean, who’s heard of God healing cats? Finally, one night, when I felt like I had just a tiny bit of faith and belief, I laid my hands on Opie, while he was (trying) to take a nap on my bed, and prayed for God to take the diabetes away.

About a week later, I was running out of syringes for his insulin. As I was leaving the parking lot of the pharmacy, I had this feeling that I had bought them for nothing. Two days later I took him back to the vet (I hadn’t been in two months because the vet bill was so high).

I had to leave him all day so that his glucose levels could be checked and insulin given throughout the day. When I picked him up at 5:00 that day, his vet came out to talk to me. I didn’t know whether this was good news or bad. She sat down beside me on a bench and said she had to come out and tell me herself that Opie’s glucose levels were normal and she didn’t have to give him any insulin at all that day. In other words, my sweet kitty was HEALED! I told her that I had been praying for healing for him. She said that whatever I did, it worked and that this was a very rare situation!

On the way home that day, I cried for joy and thanked God for reaching down and healing a cat—my cat, who I love dearly now. I think about how sometimes it’s so hard for me to have faith because I think that God doesn’t care about the little things in my life, like a sick cat, for example. But His Word tells us differently: “Every animal in the forest belongs to me, and so do the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds in the mountains, and every wild creature is in my care. If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, because I own the world and everything in it” (Psalm 50:10-12) and “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God” (Luke 12:6).

This miracle not only proves that God loves cats (ha!); it also proves that God does care about the things we care about. He showed me through Opie’s miracle that He is more than willing to show his love for us in the most surprising and unexpected ways.