Okay, cat-lovers, please don’t get mad. I’m a dog-person. I love them; I adore them. And, they seem to feel the same way about me.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I also love cats. I love all animals. But I seem to understand dogs and relate to them. Cats? Not so much.

I’ve been feeding a stray cat over the past few months. I’ve named him or her “Liberty.” Why? What else does a libertarian name just about anything? Plus, he or she is free and seems to like it that way.

So, Liberty, who was at one time skinny and mean-looking, is now getting plump and healthy…and is still mean-looking.

What I can’t figure out is why he or she doesn’t seem to like me. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t feed Liberty for applause, but a dog would be like, “man, you ROCK! Thank you so much for the delicious meals, pillow, dry towels, ‘dog-nip’ and the toys you put out here for me. Would you like to be my human? Huh? Would ya’?”

Liberty eats and then walks away without a glance (on several occasions, however, first stopping off to indulge in some catnip. She seems to get really buzzed from that stuff, yet has thus far not ordered a Pepperoni Pizza and watched reruns of The Twilight Zone).

The other day, as he or she was leaving after what appeared to be a delicious meal, I muttered something under my breath about being unappreciative.

I’m not sure, but I think it gave me the finger!

Earlier in our “would-be-human” and “refuse-to-be-anyone’s-pet” relationship, I tried to trap it. The woman at our local humane society suggested I do that so we could get it spayed/neutered and checked for any diseases Liberty might have. She even told me how to set the trap and loaned me one of those cages.

Unfortunately, Liberty was sort of like the Roadrunner and I most resembled Wile E. Coyote. Couldn’t catch it; kept outsmarting me. Plus, I just didn’t have the heart to trap the poor thing. After all, its name is “Liberty.” How do you trap something named Liberty!?

Depending on what happens, I might post some more about this really strange cat. Just don’t let him or her know; he or she is kind of private and not into publicity.

My amazing and very close friend, Svetlana (Lana) Kim snuck out of Soviet Russia via a ticket she bought on the black market and came to America with exactly $1 (yes, that would be one dollar!) in her pocket and not one word of English in her vocabulary.

Add to that the fact that once she arrived in New York, she discovered that her one contact (whom she didn’t actually personally know) was in California. And, by the time she made her way there, the contact rejected meeting her.

Yet, Lana Kim has achieved success on a level few have experienced (and, fortunately for us all, has documented it in a book entitled, White Pearl And I: A Memoir Of A Political Refugee – motion picture plans currently in development).

Aside from being a major Go-Giver, focusing on adding value to everyone and everything she touches, she also has an amazing attitude.

Nowhere is the embodied more than in her response to an event that took place yesterday.

After taking the train from her home in Washington, D.C. to New York’s Kennedy Airport and meeting up with the group of friends and associates with whom she’d be traveling for Greece, she realized something…she had forgotten her passport.

Yep. Simply forgotten it. As in, “no way was boarding a plane for Greece in three hours.”

Having no one who would be able to find the passport in her home, she knew there was just one thing to do; take the train back to D.C., get the passport, take the train back to fly out the next day.

And, that she did, without a complaint, externally or internally. When she called me this morning on the phone to relate to me her adventure, she was laughing. She told me she made sure to “sleep with my passport last night.” When I congratulated her on her exceptional attitude, she said, “I cannot control the situation but I can control my attitude toward it.” She also said there are lessons to be learned.

Well, the lesson for her might be to remember her passport; but the lesson for me was, “it’s amazing how one’s attitude makes such a difference in terms of problem-solving and peace of mind.”

It would be easy to let a day be ruined by what happened. And, for so many, this would probably be the case, with lots of screaming, shouting, self-blaming, blaming others, etc.

Then again, when someone has had to deal with the adversity that Lana Kim has had to deal with and overcome, it’s very logical that she would see what happened yesterday as an inconvenience as opposed to a tragedy.

Interesting that her attitude for handling this situation summarized her attitude when coming to the U.S. As T. Harv Eker says, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” I would bet that Lana’s positive attitude is a touchstone and foundation for everything she does.

Is it “all in the attitude?” Really, I don’t know. But, I would say that attitude certainly counts for a lot!

{Note from Bob: If you get a chance to read Lana’s book, White Pearl And I, I believe it will make a singficantly positive difference in your life. I know it did in mine!}