INSPIRING STORY OF THE WEEK – FRICK, FRACK AND SPARKY GQ by Phyllis-Terri Gold, Ph.D.
INSPIRING STORY OF THE WEEK
FRICK, FRACK AND SPARKY GQ
by Phyllis-Terri Gold, Ph.D.
Two strangers looking for a home
This inspiring story began nearly fifteen years ago, but it was a night Phyllis-Terri says she will never forget. Her husband Paul called out, “Come quick. Look outside the kitchen doors.” Two stray cats were standing there peering into their dining area. They had no identification on them, but seemed to be looking for a home. They decided to adopt them, naming the grey female Frick, and the tiger striped male Frack.
The inspiring story of a most unusual friendship
Despite their best efforts to have the strays join them inside, they refused. So Phyllis-Terri and Paul bought a dog house and placed it on the patio just outside their sliding glass doors. Frick took to the idea immediately and climbed right in. But Frick gave Frack a powerful slap each time he poked his nose inside in an attempt to join her. They watched in disbelief as she practical knocked him to the ground.
How this inspiring story unfolds
What should they do? Naturally they bought a second dog house. Their patio became the talk of the neighborhood, now sporting both a his and a hers doghouse. As the winter progressed, she and Paul tried to entice their furry friends to join them inside, without much luck. They worried about them outside in the frigid cold. So then purchased two electric heater beds to warm the inside of each of the dog houses. When the nights grew particularly cold, they plugged the electric cords into an outdoor outlet to warm their beds.
Frick became very cuddly. She would come inside for fifteen minute intervals, but then would meow at the door, asking to go back outside to join Frack. He was a different story. Once in a while he allowed them to cuddle him, but on his terms, and always outside. They walked together and and were always together, but Frick was the boss and apparently Frack liked it that way. She constantly slapped Frack across the face, but Frack, like any hen pecked husband, just back off!
Household changes
Paul died in 2007. Three years later Phyllis-Terri was living in the same house, but now with her fiancé Steve. One night Frick did not return to her outdoor house, while Frack was ceaselessly crying. Steve went looking and found Frick lying on a window ledge in terrible shape, torn apart and no longer breathing. Worse yet, Frack cried at the door throughout the night. He was simply inconsolable.
A new inspiring story unfolds
Several days later they went to the local shelter to get a grown cat that could live outside with Frack. But when they got there, they couldn’t find an older cat that appealed to them. One of the workers said, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to find your cat. Your cat will find you.” Animal lovers though they were, they thought she was nuts!
Then, just as they were getting ready to leave, they heard meowing sounds coming from a nearby room. When the worker let that meowing kitten out of its cage, he stretched his paws toward Steve, then went right into his outstretched arms and began to purr very loudly. They adopted him, and gave him the name, Sparky GQ (for Gentleman’s Quarterly). And that’s where their most inspiring story begins.
Sparky GQ makes himself at home
This story is now published in Tales2Inspire ~ The Garnet Collection
and also in he double header,
Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection – Series III
