If you’ve ever wondered what nuns and priests do in their free time, well, one answer is they post on Facebook about their love for cats.
At least 3,000 religious leaders do so in the Facebook group named Clergy with Cats. They’re so feline-frenzied that the group organized a road trip for members to transport a rescue kitten from Oklahoma to its new home in Cincinnati.
The international group includes clergy of all types and denominations – such as ordained ministers, Jewish rabbis or hospice caretakers – who have cats or have had cats. The Facebook group doesn’t just feature posts about the members’ cats, it also includes posts written from the cats’ points of view.
“We’re kind of crazy, we have decided that our cats talk to each other,” says Sister Diana Doncaster, sister superior of the Community of the Transfiguration in Glendale. “So our cats post almost as much as we do.”
Members even created a dictionary of made-up words they use in posts from their cats’ perspectives, says Pastor Teri Lynn Stackhouse, an interim minister at St. Peter and St. Paul United Church of Christ in Westwood. Posts mention “hoos” (humans), “hoomoms and hoodads” (the cats’ owners), “murder mittens” (claws) and “schnoogles” (snuggles).
Group members also share struggles in their personal or work lives. “It’s become a very close-knit, mutually supportive group. We’re there to listen, to support, to encourage, to pray,” says Doncaster.
“It’s just mutual love and mutual care. Plus lots and lots of adorable cat pictures.”
This love has been strengthened through the group’s newest addition, Baby Motka.
Baby Motka’s road trip
Jeannie McMahan, a retired pastor for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Okemah, Oklahoma, found Baby Motka all alone about three weeks ago.
The kitten, whose name means “God’s gift” in Russian, has “cattitude,” says McMahan. She is “very feisty” and “very cuddly,” the retired pastor adds.
McMahan couldn’t keep the seven-week-old kitten and asked if anyone in Clergy with Cats could take her in.
At the same time, Melissa Toedtman in Cincinnati was grieving the loss of her dog and thinking about adopting a cat. Toedtman, a musician at the worship center affiliated with Doncaster’s convent, saw the post about Baby Motka on Doncaster’s phone.
It was love at first sight. Toedtman said she wanted Baby Motka.
Stackhouse believes this is all a part of what she calls “the cat distribution system,” a heavenly thing where cats find owners. “They find the person they feel in their little kitty heart will be good for them.”
Baby Motka now had a home. Getting her there became a whole other issue.
‘A gift of grace’
The community members rallied to transport the kitten roughly 800 miles. They raised over $1,700 for supplies and coordinated a route for last weekend.
McMahan drove the kitten from Okemah to Tulsa. Another member drove the kitten from Tulsa to Miami, Oklahoma. A third member drove the kitten to Cincinnati. They stopped at other members’ homes on the way. Community members eagerly watched for updates online and members from Kentucky to Taiwan created maps of her route.
“The very best part about this,” says Doncaster “is countless people are saying ‘I’m so encouraged by this, I’ve been so down and so exhausted and so drained, and this story of Baby Motka is giving me a boost I really needed.”
“I fully believe God is using this tiny, thrown-away kitten as a gift of grace to countless people, people I will never meet,” she says. A gift “for love, for encouragement, for reminders of, in spite of what you hear, there’s a lot of good in this world.”
Baby Motka is now home safe with Toedtman, her forever “hoomom.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: There’s a Facebook page where clergy talk like cats. It’s everything