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Doing the right thing for our injured stray cat would take courage-and faith. She needed a name and I really needed to unite my team. I told my compassionate but frightened staff that our struggling patient would be named Faith. Pets can be powerful teachers. Each of them has a spirit. Most are more pure and uncluttered than ours. They share our lives to help us learn the real meaning of being. The next morning with bright lights, a magnifying loop, and our tiniest instruments, I carefully re-repaired Faith’s jaw fractures. I did the first of three skin grafts on her lower lip. She and I became close in the weeks that followed-but so did everybody in our group. Faith got well and became our staff’s pet for the rest of her life. She was a happy, shiny, beautiful cat. She would proudly saunter through the hospital reminding us that…

Without warning our homeless cat went crashing, mouth wide open, into the cage door. She clamped her freshly operated jaws around the bars and howled. It was horrible. In the blink of an eye, she had not only completely undone the surgery; she had created yet one more jaw fracture. Veterinary hospitals are staffed by good people with generous hearts. But tragedy can be frightening. I untangled our painful, agitated, and delirious patient from the cage door. Doing my best to comfort her, I looked up at what seemed like a hundred glares. Our attempts at helping this injured homeless cat had gone badly. I championed her cause and I was being held responsible for the failure. Later that afternoon, aided by more pain medicine and sedation, our kitty slept-but she looked worse than ever. Among the young and passionate members of our nursing staff was Bruce. A natural leader,…