Should Cats be Encouraged to Break Dance?

An important philosophical question struck me as I maneuvered the string for Mr. Fuzzy (a.k.a. Fuzzy) to attack as though it were something more than a plain length of string. Should cats be encouraged to breakdance?

Fuzzy does some awesome break dancing when he plays with the string. His movements are particularly impressive for a creature who looks like he could be a white-furry Star Wars Yoda wearing a grey cape. Our “rescued” cat looks far from light on his feet. But, he does flips, and rolls, and spins that rival the best breakdancers. He even, somehow, manages to simultaneously get some altitude and do a 360-degree horizontal spin while in the air.

The string play is important enough to Fuzzy that he sometimes will hang out near where the string is draped on a door handle. He hopes to beseech, with a plaintive meow, anyone who comes close enough to hear his plea. “Play? Play?” How can anyone not respond by being the animation behind the string? How can anyone not encourage a cat to breakdance?

Our other indoor cat, Sassy, doesn’t necessarily agree. She doesn’t know that she is a cat, having been around only humans since she was just old enough to be adopted. That is until we rescued Fuzzy from outdoors. She is smaller than Fuzzy and her black with white coat matches her more subtle behavior. While Fuzzy does his break dancing, she hides behind the nearest piece of furniture watching him with a look of bemusement. Occasionally, she will dash out and take a quick swipe at the string and then continues to dash past the dance floor. “Ooops, I almost acted like a cat.”

Fuzzy and Sassy play differently. Though they each express how to be a cat differently, they both have it right. They are each who God created them to be.

In vowing our Baptismal Covenant, we promise God that we will “seek and serve Christ in all people” and that we will “respect the dignity of every human being.” It is a challenge for most humans to be faithful to that without fail.

We want what is best for some people, though it often may be just what we think is best. For others, what we want for them is more obviously really what we want for ourselves. Many of us sometimes do better managing the lives of others than we do our own. There are many other people who we may find it difficult to find time or energy to encourage. Or we may just be uncomfortable being concerned about them at all. It is all part of our broken human nature.

Yes, we need to encourage cats to breakdance. It is part of our stewardship of all creation to do that, not just for cats, but for all creation. God knows the purpose He has in mind for everything and every being He has created. Our stewardship, since God gave humankind dominion over His creation, is to ensure that every bit of His creation fulfills its intended purpose.

Encouraging cats to breakdance is easy, even fun. The human stuff is more of a challenge. Pray that God graces each of us the strength and wisdom to encourage everyone we encounter to be fully who God intended them to be.