This morning when I woke up, I realized that once again, I was running low on cat food. Thankfully a donation had recently arrived, so I went over to the store to buy what I could to keep the kitties going until payday.

There was an elderly gentleman by the cat food. he was picking up individual cans of cat food, examining them and putting them down while shaking his head. He looked so perplexed, I asked him if I could help him with anything?

Turns out he just had a stray show up and he wasn’t sure which food would work for this boy. I went over to where he was standing, picked up several different kinds of canned food. Told him that the best thing to do is to feed him a little bit at a time out of a can until the cat lets him know what kind he likes.

I explained to him that he would be wise to stay away from beef of any kind. Not feed consistently fish, but mix it up a bit with chicken and fish. He told me I sounded so knowledgeable and asked me why I knew so much? I told him what I do for a living and how many cats we had in the sanctuaries. I showed him some pictures of the rescues, then turned my attention turn back to trying to find a case of cat food that I could actually afford. The prices locally around here are totally out of control.

I was looking at the selections, the prices, and mumbling to myself. I picked up a case, but found I didn’t have quite enough to cover it so I put it back and started putting individual cans into the cart. He  questioned why if I had so many cats, why didn’t I buy the cases? I explained to him that since Covid hit donations have dwindled. Most of the cat food that I buy now comes out of my check.  I just have to be careful because at the end of the day there isn’t enough money to go around..

He gave me an encouraging smile. As he walked away passing my cart, his hand passed over my purse which was sitting on top of the cart. Then he just left.

Curious, I went over to and I looked inside the side pocket that was opened. There was $100 bill inside! I ran after him, (I confess I was crying). I asked him if I could give him a hug. I gave him a great big hug and I told him he has no idea what he just did for me and my cats. He just smiled, hugged me again. Then he just left.

Today is our wedding anniversary. Still not easy to get through some of these anniversaries. It was a somber morning for me when I woke up, until this guardian angel, this kindly old man, reached out and touched me deeply.