We had quite the troubling morning. From my perspective...Cecilia startled me awake at 5:30 that there was something wrong with Sisko (our older cat) I ran downstairs to find that Valerie had already been trying to help...but was bloody for her effort. She ended up trying to go to work...but had to get a ride from Justin back home after getting the scratches and deep bites cleaned up. We are praying for no infections. 
So after seeing briefly her injuries, I went out to find Sisko had his tail quite tangled in several rolls of the serpentine wire, and amongst Valerie's blood was some of his. I could see his tail was not looking good...I could see skin, blood, blood under his nails, and his breathing not good. He was moaning, and by this time had fought, hung, scratched, climbed and made quite a mess.
I was at a loss as to what to do...but quickly realized that hanging off the ladder trying to help...I had to balance freaking out at seeing an animal struggling (an animal I said I did not even care about) and not falling off, risking exposure to bites, scratches, or pokes/scratches/stabs from the wire itself. Clearly pulling him out was not going to work, the wire was working quite well like a fish hook...like it was designed to do.
The kids were sad/crying, trying to get ready for school. The cat was wore out...but occasionally freaking out, and Valerie was on the floor trying not to faint. I was still at a loss as to what to do. I got my work gloves and the wire cutter I had. What you should know is that this serpentine wire is not supposed to be easy to cut, and it was not. I managed to dangle the other end off, and free the five or skills lasso rolls in which his tail was ensnared after quite a bit of effort, and avoiding that he attacked me. I realized though that to get him down...without further freakouts, would have been pretty dangerous and not likely. Plus then I would still have to get the wire out from his tail, and had no clue how to do this.
At some point in this stressful, scary, and helplessness inducing affair...I remembered to stop and pray. I was supposed to be able to take care of these sorts of things, and I could not, and had no clue what to do.
So as I came back inside the house to figure out how to get the kids to school and if Valerie was going to be able to get vertical (over an hour later that seemed like ten minutes)...asking Justin via text for bolt cutters (would I be able to cut the wire...or facing that I would have to cut the end of his tail off...could I even do that?) and wondering what was going to happen?... I see through the curtain a shadow on the window sill outside.
I went out the back door, incredulously...what was I really seeing? There was Sisko, no massive bundle of wire hanging from his tail, not freaking out, and still with his tail (minus quite a bit of skin and hair) wanting to come in to lick his wounds.
I am here to tell you that God answers prayer. I saw the tail...I saw the metal. I saw the situation, and saw no rational way it would be easily fixed. And then, with him sitting on the very metal that was poking him for lack of place to go or way out...there he was sitting on the sill. I cried because I knew that He was the only way that could happen.
I share all this though as I had a bit of an epiphany as well standing up on that ladder, hanging off to the side, with the known metal and unknown of an injured cat staring me in the face. I saw my life in the struggle. Not that it is that hard or bad...but the struggle of life. We run around getting into trouble (in this case walking through serpentine wire for no apparent reason, but sometimes through no obvious cause) and we see no way out. This can be big things or just trying to work very hard to get everything done, to tackle a never decreasing pile of work, etc. When do we invite God into the situation? When do we turn it over to Him to fix?
I have been off Facebook almost completely for over three months. I have emails that I have not answered, I have things that need done that are not getting done. I feel like in the past I kept winding myself up in the serpentine wire of life, and was not getting free. More work, more effort, more paperwork does not solve the big stuff. (Duh, right?) And although obviously I have no answer how all of those things, nor higher level answers for the mission will be found...I am a little more at peace leaving things I cannot do undone for someone else to tackle...or be left undone until God brings it to pass.
All that said...after this relatively minor major problem in the grand scheme of things... I am still shaking a bit of the whole thing...Valerie is on the couch trying to still not pass out or think too much about the whole thing, and deal with the physical pain, and I am sure the kids are having a hard time concentrating at school. May God give us peace, answers, grace... and some more peace.
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