Compassion

 compassion [kəmˈpæʃən]n

a feeling of distress and pity for the suffering or misfortune of another, often including the desire to alleviate it

[from Old French, from Late Latin compassiō fellow feeling, from compatī to suffer with, from Latin com- with + patī to bear, suffer]

 

Today I am sad, I lost my cat.  He disappeared a week ago. He was a little kitten when we first moved in to the house about 2 years ago. He was a feral cat and I earned his trust little by little. What a great treat it was the moment when he finally let him pet him for the first time.  From then on he resided on the balcony. He had his cat house filled with blankets to keep him warm. He came inside when he felt like it and in the winter months he stayed in for hours next to the radiator. When summer came he only came inside to eat and if the food wasn't of his liking he sniffed it and went away without a second glance. I chased him with another can of pet food, of a different flavor to satisfy his whim.That was our everyday routine.

Last week I found a poor kitten. It was sick and I felt compelled to bring it in and take care of it. The cat didn't like that. He felt threatened and refused to come in to eat. The last time I saw him he jumped out of the kitchen window just to get away. The days pasted and there was no sign of him. I called and called but he never came. I searched the neighborhood, put up posters and cried my eyes out every night. 

Finally a neighbor who had seen me searching, called and told me that she saw somebody with a pet carrier pick a cat looking like mine and taking it away... at first I thought it wasn't him, he wasn't a cat easily caught. Then I panicked at the thought that someone took him to harm him, or maybe he was injured.

But yesterday it all came to me. The neighbor (who lives on a busy street) must have seen what happened to the cat and so thought it was "compassionate" to let me believe that somebody took him in and that he is still alive.But it actually isn't, it made me think a million negative thoughts, made me feeling sick and made me cry some more. I think compassion should be matched with truth.