Fort Worth Christian Counseling

How a Tuxedo Cat named “Babe” became my professor

by;

Dr. W. H. Penewit D.Min

One upon a time in the Dr. Penewit household, there was an animal kingdom where 3 unique creatures lived. The first was a cat named Chloe who became the matriarch of the animal kingdom. She determined when and if the other animals ate, slept, drank and played. Next in line was a Miniature Schnauzer we named Howard who usually stayed out or Chloe’s way. The last edition to the animal realm in the Dr. Penewit household (and the only one still with us) is a Tuxedo cat that my wife Linda affectionately named “Babe”.  

When we first met babe, she was living under the pine trees across the road from our house. She would catch mice and whatever else she needed to live.  To make a long story short, the Penewit children eventually smuggled Babe from under the pines into the animal menagerie of our house.  Chloe controlled each food bowl so that Howard and Babe ate when Chloe decided it should be so. Babe patiently sat outside of the room where the food bowl was for the cats each day waiting for Chloe to “allow” her to eat. When it was her turn to eat it was a sight to see. She would come bounding into the room with her teeth chattering as if she were already eating. When she got to that bowl, she would bury her little cat face into the food that was left and gorge herself. It didn’t matter how much food was left, Babe would polish it off until there was nothing left. Her little stomach would puff out so much that when she sat down she looked like a small picnic ham with legs, and to this day, I sometimes still call her “Ham” as I remember those days.

As Babe became the only animal left, we thought that she would slow down in her eating. We thought that since Chloe was gone that Babe wouldn’t need to gorge herself. Things didn’t really change and she continued gorging. I called the pet food manufacturer that made the food that she eats and they told me to find a round rock and place it in her bowl so that she had to scoop out a single kernel of food with her paw.  Babe still remembers her early days under the pines hunting for her food...she never got over that memory so she "needs" that rock.