Someone termed the phrase "God Winks" to indicate highly improbable but happy coincidences. I think this was a God Wink.

Sunday, when I knew that something was desperately wrong with Angel kitty, I went ahead and predug her little grave. I've been putting bricks on some of my deceased critters. Tom cat has a Trimble brick on him because he was a "Trimble Tomcat". Bernice has a Logan brick on her because I got her at the animal shelter in Logan. I found Angel at Ash Cave in Hocking Hills, so I thought a Hocking brick would be nice, but alas, I didn't have a Hocking brick or anything that even came close. None of my other lettered bricks seemed appropriate for her, so I opted for a plain brick. I had two plain bricks to choose from. One is fairly new, with no imperfections, but rather dull. The other one is larger and older and chipped and has rather noticable deformities that it acquired when it was made. The older one is also glazed, at least where it is not chipped off. I thought the uglier, older brick had more character, so I decided to use that one. Then I considered standing it on it's end (instead of laying it flat) to make it more visually interesting. I sprayed it off with the garden hose and set it out by the little grave. On Monday Angel kitty was put to sleep due to having oral cancer. I put her in her little grave, shoveled the dirt partially back in the hole, grabbed the brick, stood it up on it's end, and set it in the hole, and that's when I noticed that the END of the brick was stamped in small letters HOCKING, and then some smaller print I couldn't even read. I never knew they stamped letters in the ends of bricks!

So what were the odds of:
1. choosing the uglier of the two plain bricks
2. deciding to stand it up on it's end instead of laying it flat
3. unknowingly placing the brick so that the "correct end" would be visible, the other end is buried in the dirt
5. and then discoving that the end sticking out of the dirt had the one exact word that I wanted the brick to say, "HOCKING"??? (A one-in-a-million chance?)

So, it went from an "it'll do" brick to "the perfect" brick.

BUT, there's more to this story.

Going back in time to BEFORE I knew I had the perfect brick, and I thought that all I had was an ugly old brick to mark her grave, I decided I needed a little something more. What could I use? Maybe an angel. Her name is Angel, so what could be more appropriate than a little angel statue? By the way, I need to note here that she was named Angel because of the markings on her back. She was black with white "trim". Two strips of white graced her shoulders and resembled angel wings. Anyway, back to the angel statue. All I had were those cheap ones that I knew would not hold up in the weather, when I remembered a glazed ceramic one that I gave to Judi a long time ago. I wonder if she'd mind trading? Nope, she didn't seem to mind much at all, so I traded her for the ceramic angel. When I picked it up I remembered then that it was actually a bell. Good, I can place it on a stick or something and keep it up off of the muddy ground. Later, driving home, I remembered that line from an old movie, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets it's wings." Gee, I wonder if God would consider giving Angel kitty a pair of real wings now that she with Him? So after she was properly buried, I rang the angel bell "tink tink tink tink" hoping she'd get some wings. Wouldn't that be so cool, a kitty with wings? Anyhow, I tried setting the ceramic angel bell on a stick, but it was lopsided. What else could I use. Hmmmm, here's a very short broken metal fence post. I grabbed a metal tool to hammer it in the ground. "BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG!" It sounded just like a church bell. If God didn't hear the "tink tink tink tink" of the angel bell, He certainly heard the "BONG BONG BONG BONG" of the fence post going in the ground. So did Angel kitty get her wings? Sorry, but I won't know the ending of this story until after I'm in heaven, too!