Missed Opportunity

Tonight I was one of the first people to arrive at a youth group in the park.  I took a piece of pizza and began to eat it while I waited for everyone else to arrive.  Then, a lady got out of her car with a cat on the harness and started walking it around the park.  I thought to myself, "How cute.  I've never seen a cat do that before."

A few minutes later, the cat started pulling her towards me and she told me I could pet him.  I reached down my hand and stroked his long, slightly matted fur and he rolled over on his belly in delight.  After a while, the cat, whose name I found out was Tabby, jumped on the table and tried to push our pizza boxes over.  He wanted to eat them.  The lady remarked how cute she found it, and I told her how one of our cats used to eat our bagels off the counter.  She laughed and eventually they moved on to a different part of the park.

As everyone else arrived, I thought nothing of the incident, until one of my friends asked me why my friend wasn't participating.  I asked, "Which friend?"   She motioned to the cat lady who was standing by her old green car and I told her that I hadn't ever met the girl before: we had just talked briefly earlier.  She shrugged and we continued with our games.

Throughout the night, the girl kept taking Tabby and walking around the park with his harness and some of my friends kept making snide comments about her.  I'm afraid to say I joined in on a few of them.  It grew dark, and I began to grow a little worried about the lady because it seemed like she wasn't going to leave.  It almost seemed like she was spying on us.  I also thought she might be up to some mischief and felt she had no business hanging around in a park after dark anyway.

As I was getting into the car when everything was over, I looked over next to me and saw the green car that was piled high with things in the backseat, the girl and her father sleeping in the front seats, and the cat on top of the luggage.

I should have offered her a piece of pizza.  I should have asked for her name.  I should have at least asked if she wanted something to drink.  Why didn't I?  At first, she seemed like a normal person, but then she talked to me and I could tell she was different.  Then, I poked fun at her behind her back in front of my friends and jumped to conclusions about something I had no right to.  And then to find out she was only a homeless girl with her father and cat who lived out of an old green car...  This just goes to show that we should look at our surroundings and gather what information we can before judging people.  Now there's nothing I can do for her, even though I had an opportunity to help.  It may have made the difference of dinner for her and Tabby if only I had thought to offer her some food.