--MYSTERIOUS WAYS ~~ WILL JAX BE HOME IN THE MORNING?

"Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning." -

--Wednesday night, 11 P.M. Before I went to bed, I took one last look out my back door toward the woods at the edge of my yard and called, "JAX!, Where are you?"

I have four cats. One was a housecat, but the other three, including JAX, had been born feral. They weren't happy staying inside all of the time, so I would let them wander freely during the day, then call them into the house at night to give them a warm and safe place to rest.

JAX was my biggest wanderer and tended to return later than the others did. A few days earlier, when he'd come home with a scratched face, I started to worry about him. Now there was no sign of him, and this was the latest he'd ever been out. What if he'd gotten into it with a wild animal? What if he didn't come home at all?

"JAX!" I called out into the darkness one more time. I waited. Nothing. I couldn't leave the door open because my other cats might wander back outside. I had to go to sleep. I closed and locked the door.

I got in bed and set my alarm for 2 A.M., so that I could check and see if he'd come back and was waiting to be let in. Then I said a quick prayer: 'God, please protect JAX and bring him home safely.' I drifted off to sleep.

RIIIIINGGG! RIIIIINGG! My cell phone jolted me awake. I flailed my arm around in the dark and picked it up. "Hello?" I said, groggily. No response.
Was it my alarm? I checked the time. No, it was only 1:10 A.M.

I had a feeling that I should go check the back door again, so I did. There was JAX, waiting for me! Had I not woken up when I did, no doubt he would've gotten bored and returned to the woods, where who knows what lurked at night. I let him in. He brushed against my leg before sauntering off to the food bowl.

With JAX back inside and my wits about me, I began to wonder: What exactly had woken me up?

I checked my phone and noticed something odd. My call history showed that my phone had called itself--on its own. That had never happened before. Nor has it ever happened again. Since that night, all four of my cats have come home safely before I've gone to bed. And I have never needed another middle-of-the-night "wake-up call."

--Guideposts/LS ~---"Morning Has Broken" / Cat Stevens / <https://youtu.be/we-n-Zmglt0>