What? You can't have pets?!

This is an exclamation I hear frequently from young women discerning our Community. I can understand this. I know the healing power that having a pet provides. Dogs have a lot to teach us about unconditional love and loyalty. Cats, well...they are entertaining at least. So I get it and I empathize.

The next question that usually follows is, "But aren't you Franciscan? Didn't Saint Francis have a love for animals?" Yes and yes. Actually, it's our love for animals that keeps us from having them as pets. With our schedule of being gone most of the summers, and we never know when we as individual Sisters will move from one mission to the next, it is not fair to the animals to have so many frequent changes in their lives. Stability is a basic need.

It can be sad at times. I had a student last year who had a litter of puppies and offered me one. He knew the convent would be a good safe home for one of them. I had to decline. However, God cannot be outdone in generosity! He finds a way to meet our needs, both great and small. Going back to cats. Our neighbors' cats have adopted us. They probably think that we feed them mice. We find our feline friends all over our yard and garage and occasionally they try to get inside our home.

I wrote about one of the cats in a previous entry: The Queen of the Cul-de-sac. Tonight I had another visit from one of the cats....

I decided it would be fun to plant a pineapple. We heard from a friend of ours that it isn't necessary to put the pineapple in water for the roots to form, but the scientist in me wanted to see what pineapple roots looked like.

I planted the pineapple next to the one Sister Verone had planted. While I was working, this cat came right up to me, totally unafraid. She was curious about what I was doing. Finally she went behind some plants to watch. It was amazing how comfortable she was with me!

Here's hoping! They say it takes a good two years for pineapples to grow. They grow from the ground. I'm not sure that they'll survive the dry summer, but we could be in for a nice surprise come this time next year.