This is one of those tender, straightforward, soldier stories that reminds me how beneficial the domestic cat is to many millions of people. Perhaps we forget it sometimes.
This photo was on Pinterest and embedded here but has been removed from Pinterest. Surprised? Sorry
A decorated American soldier, Staff Sargeant Jesse Knott lost two friends who were blown up in a military convoy by a suicide bomber. The place was the Maiwand District of Afghanistan…
It was one of those moments that can almost irreversibly damage your faith in the human race and cause you to lose hope. Hope is pretty much the base reason for living. You have to have hope to live.
The three most important things to have are faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love…(1 Corinthians 13:13 NIRV)
It is probably hard to love without faith and hope.
Anyway, guess what happened? A tabby cat walked into his life and he was saved.
“Knotts was crying in his office when Koshka came over and crawled in his lap…”
Sgt. Knotts says that he realised that this tabby cat, named Koshka, was not being cared for properly. He also realised he had found his faith and hope again:
He [Koshka] pulled me out of one of my darkest times..
Now they have each other. Sgt. Knotts had aslo found another true friend in an Afghan interpreter who risked all to take Koshka to Kabul from where he was flown to Portland, Oregon, the home of Knott’s parents.
It’s a fine story of loss, renewal and reward and a cat is at the center of it all. Never underestimate the power of the cat, or indeed the companion animal generally.
Me too. It makes me think that animal therapy might be employed more at camps in Afghanistan (i.e. Camp Bastion) as a way of trying to reduce post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers which is very prevalent. It would be trying to nip the problem in the bud so to speak. PTSD causes untold misery to thousands of military veterans in the UK and America.
Nice to see this story. I hope Sgt Knotts and his Afghan interpreter will both stay safe and Knotts can come home to see his cat friend Koshka.