The lesson of six little motherless kittens
I found them on a rainy March evening. They were deep inside some tangled, wet bushes and my husband and I had to chop our way in to them. As he started to pull them out, one by one, I counted, "One, two, three, four, five -- and, oh my god, six!" They were about two to three weeks old, as close as I could figure. They were all screaming for food. We had found their mother dead, poisoned, we thought, a few days earlier.
I had started my search for the kittens the day I had found the mother dead. She was a feral cat that my husband and I had been feeding for a year or so. I had an idea of where she had hidden her kittens: a huge, 30-year-old bunch of junipers 50 feet long, 10 feet wide and three feet deep, but I wasn't exactly sure where they were in the tangled mess. I continuously beat those bushes calling, "Kitty, kitty!" but heard nothing.
I was terribly depressed by the third day and had resigned myself to the idea that they had either starved or frozen to death in the night. After all, I knew kittens had to be kept warm and it had been a cold and rainy March.
That evening I told my husband I was going to search one more time. As I walked along calling and beating the bushes with a stick, I heard it. A tiny meow. I called louder and hit the bushes again. The meows got louder and louder.
I knew nothing about caring for kittens. I'd always had cats -- I had five adult cats already -- but never kittens and none this young.
I tried to feed them. They wouldn't eat. The next morning I called the Cat People, the SPCA and my regular vet.
The Cat People called me back several days later with the phone number of someone who "might" foster them. These were three-week old babies who needed help now!
I was about to give up when I decided to call Dr. Johnson at Serenity Cat Hospital. She dropped everything and said, "Bring them in." She helped me learn how to feed small kittens and taught me everything else you need to know about caring for them. She spent several hours instructing me.
Many people asked me why I saved them. "What are you going to do with them?" "How are you going to work and take care of these kittens?" were common questions. My answer was always, "If not me, then who?" My plan was to raise them until they were old enough to go to new homes, but sometimes your plans just don't work out.
The kittens came down with a severe respiratory infection at about seven weeks of age. You know it's funny, but when the kittens were little, people were ringing our doorbell off wanting to see them, hold them, and begging to have one. But after their illness was cleared up, which took about a month, they were 12 weeks old. Not really soft, cuddly kittens any more. Interest in the kittens dried up.
We decided to keep Bootsy, Wookie, Li'l Spot, Pooh Bear, Teddy Bear and Angel, who looks exactly like her mother. They live out in our cat-fenced backyard with the other five rescues.
I've learned much in the last year about cats, people and myself. I think the most important lesson I've learned is that people can make a difference in the lives of abandoned animals, but only if they choose to. I chose to make a difference.
Penny Byrd has taught in the Bakersfield City School District for the last 13 years. She tries to foster awareness about abandonded and abused animals in her students and the public.
