Beautiful Prayer

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood,
as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that
we are pardoned;

It is in dying that we are born
to Eternal life.
- Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Adventures in Cat Bathing

My cats are flea-ridden. Perhaps it was when Ticca decided to have her little adventure underneath the house, at least that is my guess. So I thought I was going to be humane and not bathe them in the cold weather, although the urge to clean their nasty little bodies consumed me last night. I would wait, I thought, til morning and get to the vet and get some kitty frontline. Apon waking I called the Vet, and they are closed til MONDAY due to the weather! Stupid snow! Trapping me in with flea bags! A-bathing we will go! I called my duplex mate Peggy and asked her for help. She came over and I picked the most difficult one to bathe of the bunch: Ticca. Now Alfonzo and Symphony Squirrelly have been getting bathes for quite a while. It is a process with them but they have learned that being still is the quickest way to get it over with. Not Ticca. With her incredibly long limbs she turns in to a very large spider with legs shooting out again and again searching for an escape. This is why I enlisted the help of Peggy. This time with help I was able to keep her in the bathtub the whole time. A great feat, I assure you. After kitty gets bath, kitty gets wrapped up in towel and held like a baby. This is all the cats favorite part: to be out of the tub.
I was going to go down the line in order of difficulty, which would make Alfonzo next. But he mysteriously disappeared. My bet for him was that he would come out as soon as Ticca was finished to help her groom, they are best friends after all.
So Symphony was next. And although she protests vocally she is my bestest kitty in the bathtub. However, the hose on my showerhead broke in the middle of her bath. Still usable for cat washing but as far as my ability to take showers? For the time being, no longer.
Lastly, Alfonzo. Still nowhere in sight. I asked Peggy if he got out when she came in, she said no. So we looked everywhere, the closets were closed though. Not under the bed. We looked behind everything twice, and on the third look in my back room I saw his bulky figure hiding deep under my sewing table. It appears Alfonzo is more intelligent then I had previously give him credit.
This all happening yesterday. Apon waking this morning I discovered the problem was by no means fixed, as I felt a flea land on my wrist, and hop quickly away before I had a time to kill. Symphony got up for breakfast, and underneath her the evidence of a flea city still inhabiting her fur was there.
The whole cat cleaning affair proved pointless.