Reader Melissa in El Cajon, in an email to me, commented that her vet said that “orange cats make the best pets”. I remember thinking that was funny-odd in that most of the vet clinic cats … in my experience, have been calicos. And then I had to laugh as I was thinking that I have been, with Bob (my orange cat), in a LOT of vet clinics… And this led further to the remembrance of our – Bob and my – “many clinic” experiences between Iowa and Montana in the summer of 2006 and how that changed Bob, Karl’s and my life.

Martha Beck, in a her book “Steering by Starlight (How to live your best destiny, no matter what)” has a chapter with an exercise on “telling your life story backwards”. Simplified, it entails looking at an event or outcome that you consider wonderful and working backwards over the events that led you to this wonderfulness which often begins with a “Supposedly bad event that eventually supported my favorite thing”.

It is an interesting exercise.

One of my stories involves my orange cat, Bob.

One of my favorite things: my little house on its 8 plus acres of woods on a foothill of the Continental Divide

The supposedly “bad” event that eventually supported my favorite thing: Bob became very ill in Iowa

2006…Iowa, in the motorhome, wending my way back to Montana after a 6 month cruise cross country and back. It was mid-July. I had stayed in the mid-west to attend the wedding of my best friend’s son. Right after the wedding, I pointed the beast west. I stopped in Iowa to attend to some motorhome problems – Iowa is home to Winnebago as well as to many things RV related. I landed at a wonderful rural RV park: Colony Country Campground , in Iowa City, Iowa. I based here for 7 days – getting the RV maintenance done and then just as I was set to leave, Bob became ill.

As a side note, the extra time spent in Iowa was instrumental in the beginning of a wonderful friendship with the daughter of the campground owners – she manages the campground. I stayed at Colony Country again in Spring of 2008 as I returned to Montana from Florida. A wonderful spot and I’m grateful to have found the spot and started the friendship.

Bob was lethargic, not using the litter box, and had a temperature…the fact that he allowed me take his temperature was very telling. He spent the night at the clinic, which is a teaching clinic and staffed 24/7. The owner/vet phoned me at 11:30 p.m. to tell me that he was very worried about Bob as he was not eating. I had a mostly sleepless night. But when I got up at 5 a.m. I did a bit of a doubletake – he was not eating???? Well, he wouldn’t – not his dish, not his food. I was at the clinic at 6 a.m. with Bob’s dish and some tuna fish. He ate, he had used the litter box. I returned after 8 and picked him up over the objections of the clinic…but with antibiotics. We stayed in Iowa a few more days – all was normal with Bob and he was tolerating the antibiotics. We proceeded west.

Backing up a bit…while in the mid-West, awaiting the wedding date, we were in northern Michigan – Traverse City – near where my family vacationed when I was growing up. I have a great-Aunt who lived there at the time. I enjoyed visiting, was working, and also was extremely homesick for Montana. I perused the internet for Montana property. I found the listing for the place I now call home. It was listed at a price above my range. I asked my friend Kris to look at it for me and let me know what she thought. She looked. She phoned me after and said: “Ann, this place is you!”. I was on the internet, making air reservations to fly back, but it all felt wrong – leaving the pets, disrupting my work schedule, the cost… I called her and said that I couldn’t do it. I said that if it was right, it would be there when I returned.

Fast forward to Spearfish, SD. Spearfish was a place that I had liked on a previous car trip east. I wanted to take some time to look around. I also wanted to look at the Red Lodge, MT area.

But Bob became ill again in Spearfish. The Spearfish vet did extensive blood testing and came up with some disturbing results which pointed to a condition that would require long term treatment. I made the decision to head immediately for “home” and for my home vet.

We saw our home vet upon arrival in the Flathead Valley. Bob seemed fine. The home vet blood work showed no abnormalities. They ran it twice to be sure. Bob continued to seem fine and normal. $1000 in vet bills later and I had a well cat with no explanation.

Back in the Flathead Valley, I felt at home and started looking for a place -not on wheels – to call home.

The first thing I did was to look at the place that I saw on the internet from Michigan. The price had been reduced. I decided not to buy it. I could see the work that would be involved. I had been a bit overwhelmed at my last house which had 2 ½ acres of yard to be mowed and trimmed. My handyman from there walked this house and property and we talked about the driveway (good news privacy, bad news maintenance and snow removal), the flat roof, the woods…

I looked at a lot of “subdivision” places – more $$, less work … kept coming back to this place in my head. It was my birthday, I was looking at yet another house and suddenly said to the realtor – “I’m going to take Karl to La Brant and just spend some time”..it had been empty for months. I walked around the woods with Karl, sat in the back of the open Jeep and just took in the stillness and made up my mind that I wanted this. I made an offer in my price range…

So, the supposedly “bad” event that lead me to getting the “good” thing, was Bob becoming ill. After getting settled in the house, I found 2 mostly healed wounds on Bob – large wounds on either side as if an owl had tried to pick him up. This probably happened in Ohio, when I was parked at my friend’s, as this was the only place he was out early or late. Bob’s illness sent me straight back to Montana in perfect time to get this place, which is perfect for me.

Looking backward. The more experience I have at the way supposedly “bad” events turn “good”, the better equiped I am to deal with and in fact be grateful for the “bad” events, even while enduring them. In the midst of a challenging or difficult time, there is that knowledge that somehow, somewhen, something wonderful is likely to happen or be learned.