Chapter
Eleven
Kitten
– My First Cat
When
I was nine years old I used to attend church almost every Sunday with
my family, with the rare exception if we were too sick to attend. At
this time of my life we were attending Jefferson Prairie Lutheran
Church that was in the country a few miles south of where my house
is. One morning the whole family was climbing into the minivan to
leave to church when I somehow noticed a sound coming from underneath
the minivan. It sounded raspy and I don’t know how else to
describe it even yet today, it was unusual. When I looked underneath
the minivan I saw a tiny gray kitten. It was curled up near the
front tire and might have been killed if I hadn’t looked under in
time to get it out. When I picked it up I asked if I could keep it
and they told me they would think about it and let me put it inside
until we came home from church and had more time to discuss it.
After coming home from church I was so excited to just be home to
play with the little kitty. Funny part is, that’s what I named
her, Kitty. We had her taken to the vet to have all her immunization
shots done and to make sure she was an all around healthy cat. She
ended up being one of the most interesting cats I’ve ever seen. We
had her front claws removed for the sake of our furniture, but that
didn’t bother her a bit. She got so good at defending herself with
her back claws. She would get right in the middle of a pile of dogs
and go to sleep, and would even dare our Rottweiler to chase her
around the house. She never got caught, and even if she had been,
they always got along great. There were never any serious scuffles
between any of them in the many years that passed. She was intended
to be a family cat from the start, but like most occasions when we’ve
gotten a pet for someone in particular, she ended up favoring me.
Most times that I wasn’t around she would make her nest at the very
top of my dad’s recliner behind his head. The times that I was
around though, she would always be right there to try to make a bed
out of my lap. She was supposed to be an indoor only cat because I
was always told, “She can’t defend herself without any front
claws.” Well, I beg to differ. She was damn good with those claws
when she wanted to be. On occasion she would sneak out the back door
unnoticed when someone was going through it, but she wasn’t out to
get into any trouble. She would wander around in the yard and
explore. She never went anywhere outside of the yard and when she
got the grass she usually just flipped over onto her back to roll
around in the little bit of nature that she had around her. She had
one unique trait about her that I never saw with any other cat. She
was almost completely mute. She could barely rasp out an almost
meow. I could tell it was her because I was so used to it, but she
hardly ever made a sound other than that. Unfortunately little Kitty
wouldn’t live forever, but it almost seemed like she was going to.
After having her around for almost eighteen years, she started having
more issues with bladder infections and digestive issues, so we
thought it was the most humane thing for us to let her move onto the
afterlife. It was a hard decision for me to make since it was left
primarily up to me, but I couldn’t stand to see her suffer anymore,
and she wasn’t getting any better. I still miss her. R.I.P.
Kitty…
