The happy conjunction of appetite and food is a great blessing, and you know this now in the distress of your poor creature's sickness. The meat is there, but the appetite has fled, and this is a grief to your heart. Yet even as the loathing of food speaks of a body amiss, so the dullness of our spiritual appetite often reveals a soul in need of quickening. You cry out to God in this trial, and that is well, for prayer tastes bitter to none who hunger for Christ. Let this affliction drive you nearer to Him, and you will find even the broken prayers of an anxious hour sweetened by His presence.
You have done what wisdom suggests for the creature's body, and now you betake yourself to prayer. This is humility, and I commend it. But see to it that no self-conceit tears the chariot wheels from your praying. Spread your case before the Most High with the arguments He has given you, not your own fancies, but His promises. Plead with Him, "Remember Your Word unto Your servant," for the Lord delights to be reminded of His own covenant faithfulness. The prayer that prevails is the prayer that holds God to His own Word. Ask that He would fulfill His promises of tender mercy, for He declares that a righteous man regards the life of his beast.
There is a kind of request that goes not out but by prayer and fasting. I do not prescribe to you the meritorious observance of a day without food, but there is a holy habit of setting aside ordinary comforts to press our suit with unusual earnestness. Your desperate cries are known to Him, and such importunity is often the shadow of a coming blessing. Persevere, then, in the daytime and at night, for prayer, mighty prayer, will yet prevail if it has but time. The evil one may whisper, "Give over devotion; it is all a fancy." Spurn the thought. Cry still, both day and night, for the Lord will hear.
Yet examine yourself, for sometimes failure in prayer is connected with sin harbored within. Our greatest sins often cluster around our holiest things. Is there any coldness in your own soul, any deadness in your private devotion, any lack of zeal for Christ in the market-place of your daily life? Unholiness hinders prayer. Seek quickening for yourself, that you may be quickened in family devotion, in reading the Scriptures, in all forms of worship. A right prayer for your cat begins with a right heart before her Maker.
Intercessory prayer is the sweetest God ever hears, for it is the very character of Christ's own pleading at the throne. He prays not for Himself, but for His own. You do not doubt that His prayer is most acceptable; then know that when you plead for another, even for a speechless creature entrusted to your care, you touch the heart of the Great High Priest. This bond of intercession will foster a tender watchfulness in you. Let this trial make you a more hopeful, prayerful steward of all God's mercies.
Remember, too, that the answer may not come in the way you expect. Jacob wrestled and prevailed, but the victory came through a shrunken sinew and a changed name. You pray for a full recovery and for ease of pain; God may grant these. Or He may answer by giving you strength to bear what must be borne, and by teaching you lessons in the shadows that you would never learn in the sun. His refusal to lift the cup is still an answer from a Father's wise love. Trust Him.
Lift up your hands, then, in prayer, and let the Prayer Meeting of the saints be a place where this little life is pleaded before the Throne. Do not desert your post of supplication because the answer tarries. "Yet my prayer shall be in their calamities," David said of those in trouble. Let this be yours. And may the God who quickens the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were, look upon your distress and remember His Word of mercy.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
