In a corner of the farmhouse back porch was a
cardboard box with a dirty towel inside, on which huddled a bouquet of kittens
of different colors, mewing and blinking and waiting for their mama to return
from hunting in the fields. The mother cat managed to show them enough interest
for the first several weeks, but after having two or three litters per year,
she was worn out and her milk barely lasted long enough for her babies to
survive.
One by one, people showed up over the next
several days and each took a kitten. Before they left the woman who lived there
always said the same thing, You make sure you give that one a good home I’ve
become very attached to that one.”
One by one the kittens and their new people
drove down the long driveway and past the sign on the mailbox post, “FREE
KITTUNS”.
The ginger girl kitten was the first to be
picked. Her four-year-old owner loved her very much, but the little girl
accidentally injured the kittens shoulder by picking her up the wrong way. She
couldn’t be blamed really no adult had shown her the proper way to handle a
kitten. She had named the kitten Ginger” and was very sad a few weeks later
when her older brother and his friends were playing in the living room and
someone sat on the kitten.
The solid white boy kitten with blue eyes was
the next to leave with a couple who announced even before they went down the
porch steps that his name would be Snowy.” Unfortunately, he never learned his
name and everyone had paid so little attention to him that nobody realized he
was deaf. On his first excursion outside he was run over in the driveway by a
mail truck.
The pretty gray and white girl kitten went to
live on a nearby farm as a mouser.” Her people called her the cat,” and like
her mother and grandmother before her she had many, many “free kittuns”, but
they sapped her energy. She became ill and died before her current litter of
kittens was weaned.
Another brother was a beautiful red tabby. His
owner loved him so much that she took him around to meet everyone in the family
and her friends, and their cats, and everyone agreed that Erik” was a handsome
boy. Except his owner didn’t bother to have him vaccinated. It took all the
money in her bank account to pay a veterinarian to treat him when he became
sick, but the doctor just shook his head one day and said I’m sorry.”
The solid black boy kitten grew up to be a fine
example of a tomcat. The man who adopted him moved shortly thereafter and left
Tommy” where he was, roaming the neighborhood, defending his territory, and
fathering many kittens until a bully of a dog cornered him.
The black and white girl kitten got a wonderful
home. She was named Pyewacket.” She got the best of food, the best of care
until she was nearly five years old. Then her owner met a man who didn’t like
cats, but she married him anyway. Pyewacket was taken to an animal shelter
where there were already a hundred cats. Then one day, there were none.
A pretty woman driving a van took the last two
kittens, a gray boy and a brown tiger-striped girl. She promised they would
always stay together. She sold them for fifteen dollars each to a laboratory. To
this day, they are still together … in a jar of alcohol.
For whatever reason because Heaven is in a
different time zone, or because not even cat souls can be trusted to travel in
a straight line without meandering all the young-again kittens arrived at
Heaven’s gate simultaneously. They batted and licked each other in glee, romped
for a while, and then solemnly marched through the gate, right past a sign
lettered in gold:“YOU ARE FINALLY FREE, KITTENS.”
(Jim Willis, 2002
Author’s note:
“Each year, since I wrote this story, I’m
deluged in the Spring with permission requests to publish it by humane
societies, shelters, and rescues, which I happily grant in hopes it might do
some good to educate the public about the plight of unwanted animals. Each Spring,
we who deal with the tragedy of unwanted animals can only embrace this lovely
season half-heartedly, because we know about the millions of unwanted animals
who are put to death needlessly in this and other “civilized” countries.
Please support your local agencies that help
animals and consider volunteering. Please promote local spay & neuter
efforts and trap-neuter-release programs for cats. Please educate your family
members, neighbors, coworkers, and members of the general public. Please visit
the websites of the national animal-protection organizations, some of which
offer free or low-cost literature to distribute. Or create your own (see the
appendix of my book for more suggestions and resources about what you can do to
help). Of course all animal-efforts welcome your donations, but even the small
investment of your time can help us all make a tremendous difference for these
innocent beings. And please consider breed-specific and other rescues as an
alternative to buying a purebred pet (and never, ever purchase a pet from a pet
shop!).
I hereby grant all not-for-profit uses of this
story. Perhaps you can convince your local newspapers to publish it along with
photos taken at your local shelters, with additional information about
pet-related-resources in your communities.
Please pass this on to everyone, not to hurt
them or make them sad, but it could save maybe, even one, unwanted pet. Remember
… They love UNCONDITIONALLY.”)
*****
I would like to thank Jim Willis for his kind
permission to publish his writings (taken from his book “Pieces of My Heart -
Writings Inspired By Animals and Nature” (http://www.crean.com/jimwillis/)on my blog. It’s possible to order the book here.
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