A Child's Prayer

 My cat Truman went missing a few days ago. Truman came from the shelter and used to be an outdoor cat. While he transitioned beautifully to living in my home, he always had a tendency to try and escape to the great outdoors. Previously, he had only slipped out of the house and wandered over to the neighbor's house.  On that occasion I found him within 20 minutes. 

     This week I have been fostering an 86 lb Newfoundland puppy.  The pup has to go potty... a lot.  One night, while taking the pup out to do his business one last time, Truman decided to go exploring.  Of course, it was so very dark that I didn't realize what had happened.  When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I knew that something was wrong.  Usually Truman pelts me with his not so amazing acrobatics.  So when I woke up a little later than normal, I knew he was gone.
     I searched and searched for him, but did not find him.  I checked all of his favorite places... his very favorite place being the neighbor's garage.  I searched the garage THREE times, but he wasn't there.  By nightfall I was very worried.  I knocked on neighbor's doors and put up posters.  The next day I reported him missing to animal services.  I prayed to find him, but I just knew that I would never see him again.
     All of my nephews dearly love Truman.  When they heard of his disappearance, they were very upset.  Mason, the oldest, helped me to hang the missing posters in my neighborhood.  He told me to go knock on doors again and again.  He said, "Aunt Jenny, if they say, 'I don't have your cat.' and then they smile at you, you will know that they are lying."
     By Friday evening  Truman had been missing 3 days, and I had all but given up hope.  I had been helping my mom babysit the boys that day.  They left with my dad, their Grandad, at 6:00 to go to the show and I made my way home for more door knocking.  I did knock on a few doors that night, but nothing panned out.  Then, just before dark, I took the dogs out for one last play session.  It must have been about 8:50 or 9:00.   All of the sudden I got the feeling to call Truman's name.  Now I had been doing this EVERY day since he was missing.  But the feeling came to me that I should do this again.  So I did.  I called Truman a couple of times.  To my amazement I heard a very small meow.  It was so soft I thought that I had imagined it.  I quickly put the dogs inside.
     By this time it almost dark, so I grabbed a flashlight.  I raced outside and looked up into all of the trees calling him again and again.  I heard his distinctive meow just once, and I knew I needed to look in the neighbor's garage again.  That's just what I did.  To my amazement, a very happy Truman strolled up to me and rubbed against my legs.  I scooped him up and cried into his fur, so happy to have him back.  After getting him food and water I called my mom to tell her the good news.  She cried with me and then shouted to the boys, who had just gotten back from their movie, that Truman was found.  My dad then told my mom that on the way to the theater my little nephews had felt impressed to pray to Heavenly Father for Truman.  My dad later told me that they were the most beautiful prayers he had every heard either of them utter.  The little boys were very happy to hear of Truman's safe return... but they were not surprised.  Jesus said, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:4 I need to strive to have the same kind of faith that my little nephews had that Friday night.  I'm so very thankful that I didn't have to permanently loose my cat to learn this lesson.