We have a big, black cat named Doodle. Doodle has yellow eyes, and he’s heavy with muscle. The hair in his coat is short. He does not shed much. He has compact, wide ears on a broad head. His hind legs have two small bald spots on his elbows, and his feet are large with sharp claws.When Doodle was a kitten, he lived in the wild with his mother, who was a grey cat. Doodle had a sibling, and the three of them, mother and kittens, nested in the bushes near our apartment at the time. We had seen the mother coming around looking for food, and we used to feed her. All three of them looked thin, and their coats looked dull. The mother was downright emaciated, and we took pity on them. One day we noticed her with her kittens, and I commented impulsively, “I’d like to have that cat.” I was referring to the black kitten with the yellow eyes; we already had a grey cat that looked identical to its mother, except our grey cat was well fed and looked more healthy. Anyway, one day the black kitten strayed into the house; he must have been looking for his mother and seen our grey cat. I quickly shut all the doors. Our grey cat was named Dixie, and so we named the black cat Doodle.Doodle remained in hiding for weeks. He came out to eat or use the litter box when no-one was near. When he ate, he nearly swallowed his food whole, and he looked around as if something or someone might come along to steal it from him. Gradually, we made him eat from our hands, and he did, but he never lost that wild, scared-to-death look in his eyes. To this day he will run from us if just out in the room. We have to corner him in the hallway, with one of us at one end and the other at the other; then, he senses he’s caught and huddles himself up, bracing to be touched.We actually have five cats. That latest one is a female named George. George is a calico looks like a Picasso painting of orange, black and white. Now, why and how we have five cats is another discussion, but the reason I bring it up is the way Doodle behaves, and the way he started behaving once we brought George into the mix.From the very beginning Doodle bonded with Dixie. They became inseparable. Doodle snuggles up against her, and she bathes him. They often run through the house like a couple of kids, tackling each other and sometimes playing so rough that one, usually Dixie, will scream about it. Doodle will quickly down his food and then go to see if Dixie has any left for him. If we put Dixie outside in a little run, Doodle will hang out at the window, watching for her. The other two cats are largely outdoor cats who come in to bless us with their presence, and they tolerate Doodle and his neediness.Doodle’s neediness, however, has become intrusive. He has grown up to be the biggest cat in terms of body weight, and so if he jumps one of the other cats, they go rolling.When George came into the house, Doodle became belligerent. He hunted George as if George were game on the Serengeti Plain. When he caught George, his claws came out and one day he wounded George deeply in one of her forearms.When Doodle stares at George there is no play in his eyes. He means to do harm. He wants that cat gone. Dixie is his. The food is his. The living room, the kitchen, and even the bedroom are his.I think Doodle is part human. People have such tremendous need and insecurity. There is a wild part in each person that hides from those who only want to love them, and at the same time there is a hungry part that can’t get enough. Often if we love someone, we act as if they belong to us, and then we stalk anyone who might threaten that relationship. We have no play in our eyes. We attempt to control the world in which we move so that what’s ours remains ours.People are more civilised than cats at least some people and most cats. Civilised people don’t crouch in hiding and jump other people attempting to rip muscle from bone. Even the uncivilised among us ride up on bikes and shoot from a distance. Civilised people just steal, lie, use one another for relational security, sex, or to feed some other kind of hunger, and civilised people do it all in, well, acceptable fashion. They do it over drinks at the club. They do it at the business lunch. They do it in church when they give to be seen giving or when they pray to be seen praying. Civilised people are civil. They gain power through garnering influence and leverage; they talk other people into trusting them with their money, their votes, their inner feelings, and their hopes. Civilised people present a sterling veneer. However, civilised people are just as dangerous as a jealous cat.We live in a domesticated jungle. Our cats are not lions, but our civilisation is not far from the thicket. Each one of us has it in us to look at others and become jealous because we think they are favoured. Each one of us has a little murder in our hearts. Not one of us is free from the mark of Cain, who killed his brother because God chose Abel’s offering instead of his own. I see it in my practice of psychotherapy. I see it on the bus ride home. I see it in the community in which I live. I watch it on the news at night, and I repent of it in my own soul.We have a black cat with yellow eyes whose name is Doodle. I think God sent him to us. God could be saying, “I have an ageing man with hazel eyes named Phil; he’s a lot like Doodle”.