A little kitten is on his own in the pouring rain and cries in despair. An ominous, towering stranger approaches him and first impressions don’t exactly go perfectly. Will this figure teach him a lesson? Maybe not in the way that’d be expected….

This is my first short film since college graduation and boy, it’s been a long time in the making. The past 2 years have been full of seasons of various busy circumstances but I finally committed to this past January to buckle down and finish this project. This features Shay, the same character previously shown in The Highest Fence, now a stray and on his own. Lord willing, this little movie is a preview of what will hopefully come on the big screen someday. Since it was an extended production time, I set out to make improvements on my characters’ movement and physicality, as well as effects, namely with the rain.

The dog’s name is Simon, which in Hebrew means “he has heard”. As is revealed at the end, the old dog is blind and demonstrates this throughout his interactions with Shay: he hears the crying in the distance, but has to feel around and touch it to figure out what exactly the source is (“A kitten”). He has to rely on his other senses throughout the story. Originally there wasn’t going to be any dialogue, but towards the end of completion, I became concerned that his interactions with the cat wouldn’t make sense if his reveal of blindness at the end wasn’t clear enough. This explains why all of his lines occur off-screen since it wasn’t animated with the original intent to have talking characters. *Special shoutout to my kind coworker who provided last minute voiceover:) His character’s theme is James 1:19- “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everybody should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry”. Instead of filling with rage after Shay scratches him, he has compassion and takes him in. Like Shay, when we don’t understand what is happening in our lives, we often lash out at God questioning his motives and being filled with fear when things seem overpowering. But if we allow the Lord to work in our lives, if we are willing to receive His love, He will always provide.