The Cat and the Sofa on a Full Moon

A simple story with a time-tested lesson.

Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com.

Our cat, Max, enjoying catmint in Melissa’s garden. Photo by Melissa Olson.

Part I

A few years ago, Melissa and I had the rare occasion to get away for a few days. Upon returning, our pet sitter informed us that our six-year-old cat, Max, had urinated on our two-year-old sofa. Ouch! We didn't see that coming. Max had never done anything like that before.

I was bummed about the urine-soaked sofa but glad I’d purchased the extra warranty when we bought the sofa. The salesman touted the warranty as covering everything from drink stains to claw marks and holes. He said he once accidentally poked his leather chair with a screwdriver in his back pocket, which was covered by the warranty. Great story, Sales Guy! I was sold.

It was time to test the warranty out for myself. I called the number on the warranty certificate and waited two weeks for the company to send an upholstery service from an hour away. I made sure to stay home so they could bring in the shampoo machine, steam cleaner, or flame thrower. Nope, a guy named Jeff showed up with a spray bottle and a rag.

Huh? I grabbed a magic marker to draw a giant “L” on my forehead for being a loser and falling for the sales pitch.

Jeff told us, "You'll probably think I'm a nut, but we got slammed with calls for urine-sprayed sofas two weeks ago after the full moon."

I smiled at Melissa thinking, If he only knew what we did for work.

Then he asked, "When did your cat have his accident?"

"Two weeks ago!"

Ten minutes later, Jeff had sprayed down our cushions and was walking out the door. Thirty minutes after he’d left, I couldn't smell urine on the sofa. I gambled my life by taking a real close whiff, but still no smell. Jeff's super enzyme solution worked!

Melissa said to me, "There's something to be said for simplicity," and her words hit me like they just came from Gandhi, Buddha, or The Dalai Lama.

5-year warranty: $125. Life lesson: priceless.

Part II

Despite Jeff’s enzyme solution removing the cat urine odor from our relatively new sofa, I decided to change the foam inside the cushions just to be sure. It sounded simple enough. The foam store was just forty-five minutes away. I took our foam cushions to the store to replace them.

"Sorry," they said. "We only keep five-inch-wide foam in the store and yours are five and a half inches. You're going to have to make a special order. It'll take a week."

Since we'd waited two weeks already for a guy to spray the covers with an enzyme, I figured, "What's another week?" I gave them our foam and they said the new cushions would be ready the following Friday.

Come Friday, I called ahead and they said, "Sorry, everyone else's foam arrived but yours. It might arrive tomorrow.

It didn’t.

A week later, I called them back. Still no foam marked “Olson.”

“Is it possible our foam got lost?" I asked.

"That's a good question. We'll look into it," they told me.

Half a week later, they called back, "Your foam will arrive today."

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music.

We were so ready to have a sofa again.

A few hours later, the phone rang, "Sorry, someone shot at our truck with a BB gun, and the truck's no longer coming. The police are doing an investigation."

My response was, "Someone shot at your truck? How awful." When I hung up the phone, I thought, Wait, a BB gun? How would you even know? Rocks and acorns hit my truck all the time and I just keep on driving. Oh well, I waited patiently to hear from them.

Another half week went by, "Good news, your foam cushions arrived. Come get 'em."

I jumped into my pickup truck and drove forty-five minutes to pick them up, then drove forty-five minutes back home with anticipation of watching a movie or taking a nap on our sofa. As I stepped into the door, Melissa took one look at them and said, "Those are the wrong width. They're only five inches wide. We’ll have to bring them back."

That’s when I realized that I hadn’t taken Melissa’s lesson of “There’s something to be said for simplicity” to heart. The urine smell was gone thanks to Jeff’s enzyme, but I complicated it by wanting new foam. Now we had waited two weeks for Jeff and three weeks for new foam and we still didn’t have a sofa to sit on. I let the lesson sink in overnight and decided to see if I could get our old foam back the next day.

When I arrived at the store, they realized they’d given me someone else’s order. Our new foam was sitting in a corner. I could imagine the Universe influencing the foam store employee to give me the wrong foam so I would have more time to absorb the lesson.

Jeff’s enzyme solution was simple and easy. It also solved the problem. If I had left the matter alone at this point, the story would have ended with Melissa’s sensible comment about simplicity. I’d have had my sofa back and wouldn’t have caused myself three extra weeks of strife.

This has led me to pay attention to the areas where my life is flowing freely. I guess it’s a lesson of being present to the flow rather than pushing through life using willpower. Living with the belief that we are guided by a higher power is a magical way of going through life. Following the breadcrumbs that this guidance lays in our path always makes life easier.

The first thing I did when I returned home with our new cushions was take a nap on the sofa. Our cat curled up on my chest to join me. As we drifted off to sleep, I thought about my lesson on keeping things simple. I was certain that I’d complicate my life again one day, but I was hopeful that I’d catch myself by remembering this lesson before I did. Before I knew it, my snoring was harmonizing with Max’s purring. It was just me, my cat, and my lovely sofa. Life in that moment was as good as it can get.

With love and blessings,
Bob

Max taking a nap.

Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His newest venture is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.

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