Callie was an agile, medium sized cat. Barney was a LARGE 18 pounder all bone and muscle and very clumsy. Barney would try and keep up with Callie. I think Callie deliberately lured Barney into places he could not get out of easily. Callie would get on the fence and jump onto the roof. Barney would follow her. Callie would jump down from the fence. Barney would be stuck.
There were a number of times I had to pull Barney off of the roof. I finally decided that Barney had to learn how to get off the roof himself. If he was going to climb up there he could get down just like Callie did. There were a couple of times that Barney came into the house limping after jumping down and I would pull out the hot pad and he would lay his sore back legs on it.
Callie would also jump up on the fireplace mantle walking in and out of the objects up there. Sometimes Barney would follow her and either knock stuff over or manage to fall off himself.
Barney finally came to terms with what he could and could not do. He realized that there were some things that he just could not do.
The lesson from Barney is that we often have to come to terms about our limits. Why do we keep trying to do things that we are not good at when there are many things we are good at. Barney was a great people cat. He loved meeting people and people loved him. Barney exuded personality. If he were a person I would give him a job in public relations or entertainment.
What are your strengths? Are you spending too much time in an area for which you have no natural ability?
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