Tonight I called my mother in Utah and learned of an event that she can only describe as miraculous. I have her permission to share it here.

This year she became ill with a curable kidney problem. When I saw her in September, I was quite concerned. Her legs were terribly bloated from water due to the kidney problem. It made it hard to walk, caused discomfort in many other ways, and really looked bad. She had gained about 40 pounds of water. We were very worried. The doctors put her on a group of medications and told her it could take a year or longer to get the bloating down. Many have been praying for her, and my father gave her a reassuring priesthood blessing a couple weeks ago. But there seemed to be almost no progress. The medications were having little detectable effect.

About a week ago, one of her gentle cats did something most unusual. Out of the blue, for no obvious reason, it went over to her while she was seated and scratched her leg. She looked at the scratch and wasn’t worried. It was pink, but there was no bleeding. Later she noticed a little water was oozing from the wound. And then came more, and it kept oozing and dripping out of her leg. She called a nurse who said this could be serious, and asked her to check in to the emergency ward. A doctor checked her out and said she was OK, and if the scratched helped get rid of water, then let it be.

Over the course of the past six days, she has lost 31 pounds of fluid. The bloating is largely gone, and people tell her she looks 20 years younger. It amazes me.

Sometimes, when the Lord in his mercy decides, for whatever reason, to intervene and work a miracle, He often sends someone else to help. Sometimes it’s an angel, a visiting teacher, or a bishop. And now I know of at least one case where it seems that He sent a cat.