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Laura Thieme

Bizresearch President – 10 years - 2007

Fisher College of Business Lecturer on Search Marketing

OSU Russian Studies Grad – 1993

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5th February 2008

St. Francis Acts Through Maxim in 2005

As promised last week, I wanted to repeat a portion of the story about Max and how he helped me to learn about St. Francis, which I blogged about in 2005 on the Bizresearch site.  BY the way -  Tornados are moving into the area tonight so I might have to put this post on hold.   My cat Max died on 1/31/08, and I’ve been blogging about the good times since then, which you can read about in the category dedicated to my 4-legged kids.

Max Sleeping
Max Sleeping on 1/30/08, the night
before he died

Max, Misha and Monroe Resting Together
Max, Misha & Monroe
resting together

In December 2005, I was getting ready for a Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago - I had three speaking engagements that conference, and possibly a fourth session that I was moderating.  Needless to say, when you run a company, have a personal life, and prepare for conference speaking engagements every three months it gets overwhelming.  I was doing too much without a doubt.

Max, Misha (my two cats) and St. Francis of Assisi had a nice lesson in store for me as to what mattered most - and it wasn’t my speaking engagement at all.  Looking back, I do not remember the speaking engagements one bit - I only remember losing my cat Misha for ten days.  I was packing suitcases in my car in the garage, and doing so in a feverish pace.  I said a quick goodbye to the animals - fretting about missing my plane.  I remember fighting with my then-boyfriend about my staying at his place the night before - I didn’t want to do so because I’d be gone for a week from my pets.  I felt guilty about leaving them.  He was jealous to say the least.  A balancing act indeed. 

On that cold evening in December, 2005, I arrived in Chicago and received an urgent message from my pet sitter.  She indicated that my cat Misha was nowhere to be found.   You can read the details of that blog entry by clicking on the link above. 

If it had not been for Max getting an eye infection one day (which went away the very next day), my getting the eye infection the same day that Max’s infection went away (which also went away a day later) - I would have never gone to the eye doctor and listened to a great experience that my eye doctor had with St. Francis, nor would have learned the importance of praying to St. Francis if you’ve lost a pet.  Max was a messenger of St. Francis - and I believe God acted through Max’s eyes and then my own, to help me learn about the value of prayer and St. Francis. 

The night I learned about St. Francis, and began to pray along with others who prayed to him on behalf of Misha - Misha came home.  He is still with me today, over two years later.  He is a very, very loyal cat and has suffered much to be with me everyday.  He has outlived ten days in severe winter weather without water or food, frostbite, near kidney failure a year ago, and now pancreatitis.  Yet every day he runs to jump onto my pillows and sit in my lap, and he sleeps beside me every night.  I owe Max and St. Francis for the joy I have today with Misha.

If you read the Wiki entry above, it makes some reference to St. Francis suffering from an eye infection in his last days.   Further investigation shows some relationship to St. Clare of Assisi, who miraculously was able to see at one point in time, and yet another entry referencing St. Clare as one of the three fertility saints introduced in the Philippines. 

Isn’t this bizarre - is there a spiritual link between fertility, the environment and animals?  St. Francis was the saint of animals, birds and the environment (the latter of which I did not know).  St. Clare is the oldest patron saint of Obando, and was very loyal to St. Francis.   There are numerous Catholic references to the Patron of Poor Sight and St. Clare, but I don’t yet see any specific reference to what was wrong with her eyes. 

My mom taught me love for rescuing cats at an early age.  If it were not for her, I would probably not have this much compassion for a stray cat. All of us kids have grown up with an affection for animals - typically having multiple pets in our lives - across multiple species (rabbits, dogs, fish, cats, and yes, even a ferret or two). 

From early childhood, there was biblical reference to cats.  Martha and Moses, our first cats, came to our family at the age of 5, after a “frog-choker” of a rain storm.  They were found underneath a bush, with a cat that Mom called Salomi (unsure of spelling) - and then Moses and Martha were named after what was believed to be Salomi’s children I think.  We soon learned that Martha, Moses’ sister, was not in fact supposed to be named Martha, but Miriam.  But Martha - well, she just looked like a “martha”.  Kinda flaky but what a loving, loving cat of 17 years. 

I put Martha to sleep when she was 17 years old, after a year or two of health issues.  I dealt with that horrible anguish by going straight to the animal shelter so I could rescue another cat, determined to get two.  That is the only time my Mom has ever lied for me, that I’m aware of, so that I could take those cats home to my apartment that very weekend and not have to wait for landlord approval on Monday morning.  Misha, a six week old kitten, picked me out as I walked by, and was adopted along with his brother Max that very weekend.  34 years of cat rescue has brought me the love of two sets of animals - not bad, right?  Martha (and Moses for 11 or so?) for 17 years, and Max and Misha for 17 - a total of 34 years  and two generations of cats.  Not bad at all.  And Misha continues to survive.

Back to St. Francis and Max - Perhaps there was more of a connection of St. Francis acting through Max’s eyes than I ever knew?  The eye infection miraculously appearing and disappearing, then my getting it - just enough to send me to my eye doctor for a message beyond a dose of medicine, which was Pray to St. Francis.  So I did - and ever since then I’ve been praying to St. Francis whenever my cats or dogs are sick or missing, or whenever any cat sign goes up saying, “Lost Cat”.  Interesting to note that both my mom and I suffer from poor eye sight.  In fact all of us do, except my Dad.  I never knew the connection between St. Francis and eye sight however.

Most importantly, I thank God and St. Francis for my pets and the love my pets have given me over the years.  I’m newly fascinated by the latest readings on St. Francis, which has led me to learn about his eye disease in part, and then St. Clare - also with eye disease.  Both lived humble lives (uh - oh that might be difficult).  St. Francis revered animals, birds and the environment - and if you’ve followed my blog entries - you’ll see I’ve rescued cats, dogs and even robins during last year’s winter in Columbus, and talked about the importance of the environment.  The three leadings topics on this blog are environment, animals and most recently I’ve unearthed the topic of fertility, which is something I’m just beginning to blog about all though I’ve struggled with this issue for many years, perhaps dating back to when I was 21.  These three topics are really the core of my being, beyond the day to day life I lead.

Perhaps Max’s death is to bring me another message.  As I dreaded his impending expiration date on 1/31/08, and reflected on Max as representing my spiritual messenger late in his life, and dreaded his passing into the spiritual world, I wondered what animal would act as my spiritual messenger now?  I pondered Lucky - the new rescue dog - as she has a very keen sense of sight and smell.  I wondered if she would shed light on something wise for me.  But as I picked Lucky up at the vet tonight, the vet tech and I both agreed that Lucky has not yet likely reached the spiritual realm of the world.  We’re not quite sure what world Lucky is in - but is indeed a very happy, seemingly oblivious one in general. 

Lucky dog
Lucky Dog

One postscript on Lucky - I had a wierd feeling about her spay today - perhaps because of Max’s passing last week.  It turns out that Lucky was anesthetized today, administered pain meds, only to find out right before they opened her up that she had a tiny spay scar and in fact had been spayed after all.  So, Lucky was saved from being opened up today.  May mean nothing, but who knows?

In order to receive a message, we must be willing to listen and to quiet ourselves enough to listen, and of course, we must be open to the message and its meaning.  That part is the hardest, isn’t it, and often the most difficult part to interpret.

Pictures of the 4-Legged Kids on Flickr

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