After reading this, you will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again =)

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things
were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted
to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem
was solved, a new one arose.Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she
placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed
ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out
and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her
daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and
noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg
and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The
daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked “What
does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity:
boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and
unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened
and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected
its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside
became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they
were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain
and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?
Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a breakup, a financial hardship or some
other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same,
but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened
heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the
very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases
the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their
worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is
the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another
level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you
strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they
just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest
future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life
until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling.

May we all be COFFEE.

Xander & Zete de Hunter in their first Mother’s day photo:

Merlin, who appeared in many cat food commercials in his youth, but is now living a quiet life:

Another version goes:

A farmer, annoyed that his barn cat had just given birth to another litter of kittens, decided that his farm had enough mouths to feed. He put the newborn babies in a feed sack, went down to the riverbank and threw the kittens in the water to be rid of them. In the turbulence of the fast moving river, the tie on the sack became loosened which set the kittens adrift. On the riverbank witnessing this horrible sight, the distressed mother cat wept loud and pitifully.

A cluster of willow bushes, along the riverbank downstream, heard her cries and in sympathy held out their branches like mooring lines. This enabled the desperately floundering kittens to grab hold as they drifted by. Now in mythology, when the life we are assigned on earth is doomed but because the spirit is eternal, myth dictates that the spirit can live on but must be in another earthly form. Because the kittens were destined to die, but their spirits were saved, they then became part of the willows which had saved them. Ever since then, in Spring, the willow-without-a-flower decks itself out in gentle velvet buds that feel to the fingers like the silky coat of a small cat. These buds are known today as catkins and remarkably, in every country, these soft willow trees are named after cats.

Above Legend shared by http://www.moggies.co.uk

During his youth, Xander “The Kamikaze” gained fame in Catamundo’s kickboxing tournaments. He came to the notice of Catamundo’s elite when he vanquished two Dobermans harassing a lovely Chocolate Persian. Instead of doing nothing, he leaped to the fair lady’s defense, shredding noses and clawing eyes until the owner turned on the hose, then carted his bleeding dogs to the vet. After they returned, the Dobernams showed all cats the respect they so richly deserved.

The lovely lady turned out to be Ms. Fluffy Morgan, daughter of Sir Isaac Morgan, Catamondo’s Secatary of Cultural Affairs and Dame Miranda Morgan, renowned for her series of novels, Mouse Hunt. Shortly after Xander’s gallant defense of Ms Fluffy, Sir Isaac nominated Xander for Purrtector of their region. By age 5, Xander organized techno-savvy cats and created the first Catamundo website. Which was a reowsing success with those who understood it. For the next two years, he organized and coordinated classes for techno-dunce cats, to learn to utilize modern technology. Xander had risen to US Southeaster District Purrtector and rumor had it that at the next election, he would become North America’s Continental Purrtector.

But mere days before the election, Rom’s family drugged him with catnip, popped his comatose body into a carrier, then they moved aboard sailing vessel, Whispurring Winds, a Gemini 105MC catamaran. The humans cast off the lines, then headed for the Caribbean… Catamondo’s Council held an impromptu emergency session where they created a new office: Purrtector of the Seven Seas and immediately voted – unanimously – for Xander to be the first Sea Purrtector. Thus The Kamikaze organized his new position utilizing all the advanced technology available aboard: single side-band radio; satellite phones, marine radio and of course, the Internet, which he’d become skilled at.

In his official capacity, Kamikaze Xander assists cats whatever he advises his humans to anchor.

What is the speed of dark?

When you’re sending someone Styrofoam, what do you pack it in?

If women wear a pair of pants, a pair of glasses, and a pair of earrings, why don’t they wear a pair of bras?

How come you never hear about gruntled employees?

What is a “free” gift? Aren’t all gifts free?

After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water?

If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?

What’s another word for synonym?

If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?

When sign makers go on strike, what is written on their picket signs?

Where do forest rangers go to “get away from it all”?

Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why are builders afraid to have a 13th floor but book publishers aren’t afraid of Chapter 11?

How can there be self-help groups?

Why do you need a driver’s license to buy liquor when you can’t drink and drive?

Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?
If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?

Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?

Why is it that when you transport something by car, its called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, its called cargo?

Why do we play in recitals and recite in plays?

Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?

Where are Preparations A through G?

Are there seeing eye humans for blind dogs?

If knees were backwards, what would chairs look like?

When you open a new bag of cotton balls, are you supposed to throw the top one away?

When your pet bird sees you reading the newspaper, does he wonder why you’re just sitting there, staring at carpeting?

What happened to the first 6 “ups”?

If an orange is orange, why isn’t a lime called a green or a lemon called a yellow?

Why does your nose run, and your feet smell?

If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?

My school colors were “clear”.

Hermits have no peer pressure.

Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories…

There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot..

How much deeper would the ocean be if sponges didn’t live there?

“Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer.” –Bruce Graham

“There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast.” –Unknown

“Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” –Anonymous

“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through the snow.” –Jeff Valdez

“In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.”
–English proverb

“As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.”
–Ellen Perry Berkeley

“One cat just leads to another.” –Ernest Hemmingway

“Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.” –-Mary Bly

“Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.”
–Joseph Wood Krutch

“People that hate cats, will come back as mice in their next life.”
–Faith Resnick

“There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.” –-Anonymous

“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” –Hippolyte Taine

“No heaven will not ever Heaven be; Unless my cats are there to welcome me.” –Unknown

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” –Albert Schweitzer

“The cat has too much spirit to have no heart.”
–Ernest Menaul

“Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God.” –Unknown

“Time spent with cats is never wasted.” –Colette

“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.” –Missy Dizick

“You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.” –Colonial American proverb

“Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.” –Joseph Wood Krutch

“I got rid of my husband. The cat was allergic” –Unknown

“My husband said it was either him or the cat … I
miss him sometimes.” –Unknown

The rule for today
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow.

Grace personified.
I leap into the window.
I meant to do that.

Blur of motion, then-
silence, me, a paper bag.
What is so funny?

You’re always typing.
Well, let’s see you ignore my
sitting on your hands.

My small cardboard box.
You cannot see me if I
can just hide my head.

Terrible battle.
I fought for hours. Come and see!
What’s a ‘term paper’?

Small brave carnivores
Kill pinecones and mosquitoes
Fear vacuum cleaner

I want to be close
to you. Can I fit my head
inside your armpit?

Want to go outside.
Oh, darn! Help! I got outside!
Let me back inside!

Oh no! Big One
has been trapped by newspaper!
Cat to the rescue!

Humans are so strange.
Mine lies still in bed, then screams
My claws are not that sharp.

Cats meow out of angst
“Thumbs! If only we had thumbs!
We could break so much!”

The Big Ones snore now
Every room is dark and cold
Time for “Cup Hockey”

I lie belly-up
In the sunshine, happier than
You ever will be

I sound the alarm!
Paper boy-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Garbage man-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

How do I love thee?
The ways are numberless as
My hairs on the rug.

I Hate my choke chain-
Look, world, they strangle me! Ask
Ask Ask Ask Ask Ask!

Sleeping here, my chin
On your foot -no greater bliss-well,
Maybe catching rats

Look in my eyes and
Deny it. No human could
Love you as much I do

I am your best friend,
Now, always, and especially
When you are eating.