As of yesterday, it is official! I am the queen of the island of misfit toys. For those of you that are not familiar with this particular place, it is the land Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer visits when he runs away from the North Pole in the famous Rankin-Bass Christmas Special. (Their adorable first meeting can be seen here.) This has always been my favorite holiday special, but now I truly can see why.
My sweet, loving misfit husband rescued a stray cat on Thursday. She was obviously hurt, and cold, and all she wanted was love. She has some type of deformity where one of her hind legs is lame and her spine is crooked, but our girl is a fighter. A couple of meals, a bath, and some cuddles later and she is already looking a million times better!
This in itself is not enough to make me the queen of the island though. I was looking around my home yesterday while we were caring for our new charge, Maisy. Our hound dog Leon was in a tizzy. On his best day, he has OCD issues and the cat's presence has sent him into overdrive. Luckily, he senses that she is hurt, so he has been super gentle with her, but it still does not make it okay that he is not the baby anymore. Watching my husband and our Zoobilee Zoo warmed my heart, but it also became painfully clear that I have a tendency to attract the "other" in the phrase "which one of these is not like the others?"
Then, I got to thinking. Has it always been like this? And, yes. Yes, it has. So, what does that say about me? Am I incapable of interacting with the "normals"? Do I look for the misfits purposely? I think the bigger question is why did it strike me as something I should be so concerned with?
The answer is this. As I go along on my year, I am trying to get to the real Melissa. I am trying to figure out what makes me tick and what makes me truly happy. As I sat staring at my beautiful neurotic family, my heart grew with joy. The realization that I was indeed the Queen of this island made me sigh because I knew there were easier paths in life, but this is where we are all supposed to be. If Leon came home from doggy boot camp and was the best behaved dog ever tomorrow, I would not know what to do with myself. After all, when we were looking for our pup, we wanted one with a big personality who could be a little naughty at times. And we got that. And then some!
My husband is incredibly smart, handsome, and has a huge heart. He has more than his fair share of neuroses, but that is what helps to fuel his creative fire. Do I wish his path in life was easier? Of course! I would give anything to make life perfect for my loved ones, especially him. Who wouldn't? But, we are who we are because of our life experiences and our dreams. Would we be the same people if our lives were perfect? I would not want to be with a man who would NOT want to save a hurt, deformed cat.
And now Maisy. Hubby is still on the fence about whether or not we should keep her. He wants to nurse her back to health and send her back out to the wild to her cat friends in the neighborhood. But, I see her working her Maisy magic and softening him up. She has made it clear she is not going anywhere if she has her way. She has already started to make her way into my heart and I was firmly against a new indoor addition to the family. She is slowly working her way into the family proving that she can find her place in our home. If she keeps it up, she will be an official member of our misfit island by the end of next week!
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