Momma Kitty

It was a cold, bleak,snowy, winters eve in New England and cutting through the roar of the wind, we could hear the pleading cries of a kitten. We quickly looked out our back door window and there shivering on our back steps was a cold looking, sad kitten. [is this sounding familiar to anyone yet?] We let her in and she immediately rubbed against our legs and began purring. My wife fixed some food and milk which she devoured immediately. As we watched we quickly realized that she wasn't a kitten but she was a CAT and a PREGNANT one at that. "Throw her out" I shouted. "No" countered my wife. "Dad, how can you do that? She will surely die along with her kittens", said my daughter. Alas, the battle was quickly over. I knew better but no one would listen. I lost and she stayed to have a litter of kittens that evening. You see, I had been there before, done that.

It seems that, when I was in the Navy, I was stationed at a Nuclear Reactor Facility in Windsor Locks CT, but there were no barracks so Uncle Sam gave us money to find housing off base. We chose Southwick MA because four of us could share the rent and live on a large lake, with a good party reputation but that is a whole set of different stories. Dennis [one of the roommates] and myself were home watching TV. It was a cold, bleak, snowy winters eve in New England.......... "Throw her out" I shouted. "No" countered Dennis "you can't do that, she will surely die along with her kittens." I can tell you that our other two roommates were none to pleased with the decision. The consultation in this story is that she chose a box in Dennis closet that contained his Dress Blues [expensive] to have her litter in. They were all quickly named, three toes, 4 toes, 5 toes, 6 toes and 7 toes as they were all missing some or had to many, except one. When they were ready to be weaned, we did what every sailor would do and hauled Momma Kitty to work with us and cut her loose. It was now spring. The kittens grew up and slowly left home. We would occasionaly see them around the lake or at another group of sailors house. But back to my main story.

We had a dog through all of this. Cody was a Rat Terrier and whatever-crawled-under-the-fence mix. Our daughter had brought him home from the Cape on an outing with her Mother. Cody was very tolerant of The Cat and The Kittens. They harassed him constantly. We decided to have Momma Kitty fixed but when she went to the vets we found out she was pregnant again!! We were in the process of getting rid of her kittens to our friends and daughters friends and our daughter comes home with our first Shih Tzu, Mitsie. Cody wouldn't have anything to do with her but Momma Kitty raised her as one of her own. Not feeding her but constantly grooming her. Holding her down with one paw and licking her constantly. Then one day Mitsie barked, startled Cody and they became great friends, leaving Momma Kitty in the dust as they raced about the house constantly. Meanwhile Momma Kitty had her second litter and after she weaned them we proceeded to give them away to our friends and our daughters friends. We took her to be weaned and found out she was pregnant again. A real whore she was! This time, immediately after giving birth, we took her to the vet and she was fixed. After they were weaned we tried to give them away but by this time we had no more friends and our daughter was persona-non-grata at high school. Somehow we managed to find homes for three and we had to keep two. They both became casualties to cars and Momma Kitty left us. She was a street-wise stray when she came and only needed us to take care of her kittens. She left a street wise stray. We have not had a cat in our house since. I don't think anyone wants to go through that again. I hate cats!