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Everything I needed to know about perseverance I learned from my cat, Cain. His littermate Abel died too young and broke my heart in the process. We were living in an old Craftsman-style home at the time, in the north end of Halifax. Craftsman houses are typified by heavy, warm, usually dark-stained woodwork. It is the spirit of the carpenter, paying true homage to his materials. In the winter (which is cold and snowy here in Halifax) the little birds who inexplicably stay, will cluster around chimneys for warmth. Sometimes they are overcome with the fumes, succumb and tumble down the chase into the house/fireplace below.

Cain could hear them, chirping and cooing and cheeping. Gurgling sounds magnified by the emptiness of the cavernous shoot that led to the sky above. So he sat, on the hearth, and made those little hypnotic luring sounds that cats make when they're trying to mesmerize their prey. I laughed at him, while I was whisking by. Silly cat, thinks a bird is going to fall into his mouth, like a cartoon.

Went into the adjacent room and started working at something quietly. An hour passed, then, the din. Never in my life has the word "din" described something so perfectly. There was smashing and crashing and shrieking and flailing and I ran back into the room to find Cain frantically chasing a bird around the living room. Momentary disbelief gave way to reflexive action. Grab cat, throw out of room. Shut doors. Get gloves. Capture bird (this took a long time). Release outside. Bird saved, problem solved. Cat readmitted to room. Much laughing and amazement and great storytelling follows.

But the cat, Cain, went straight back to the hearth and waited. While in my mind, a one-in-a-million fluke of nature/miracle would never repeat itself, in his mind, if it could happen once, it could happen again. He waited for days. When he wasn't eating or sleeping, he was sitting at that hearth. I pitied him. Not laughing now, I more tried to coax him out of his delusion.

But would you believe (and I'm sure you can guess the rest, now) ... that against all odds ... a few days later ... it

actually

happened

again.

Anothe r poor feathered creature fell down the chimney. And we repeated the entire Rescue 911 Animal Edition episode all over.

Poor Cain still didn't score his reward, but taught me a quality life lesson in the process: If you believe, if you don't give up, it can happen. And if it can happen once, it can even happen again.

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