A Kitten:Part III ( The Final Chapter)

God? Are You listening? ...Memories of Moorhead, Minnesota 1983 A Kitten : Part III (Final Chapter)

Apparently he was, I walked the neighborhood looking for a mama cat looking for a kitten. I never found her. However, after talking with the next door neighbor, her daughter had a mama cat that had a litter of three week old kittens. I spoke with Tammy on the phone. We developed a plan. I would bring out the orphaned kitten, she would meet me outside and rub one of her kittens all over our kitten. I would wait outside. Success! The mama cat took the kitten as her own, she nursed it and gave it a proper cleaning. Tammy assured me that once it was accepted..things should go well. They did for about ten days. Tammy called saying I should come and get our kitten, she had diarrhea and the mama cat was weaning the rest of the litter anyway, she was concerned that our kitten was ill. We found out from Tammy who was a "cat person" that it was indeed a little girl kitten..all Calico Cats are female.

I drove out to Mapleton, ND and picked up our kitten. On the way back home I stopped by the Humane Society and a Veterinarian's Office...I told them I needed milk replacer and a bottle. They all advised that the kitten be euthanized. Well that absolutely infuriated me. I went home...more determined than ever to prove them wrong.

I mixed my own formula, milk, egg yolk and a little Karo syrup. I had watched my Grandmother mix this up in her kitchen, she said it would do the trick for babies. I was praying that it would do the trick with this kitten. Now for a bottle, I needed something with a little nipple or it was back to the eye dropper. I took apart the eyedropper and punched a hole in the end of the squeezy part, and found a travel size whiskey bottle with a neck in Far Guys bottle collection. I slipped this makeshift black nipple over the bottle and gave it a whirl, with some fine tuning..it worked..yes I tried it myself! Now would the kitten take it? She did!! The girls were happy to have the kitten back in the house, they helped to feed her, they made her go potty, they exclaimed very loudly "She is pooping" so I would know that things were still moving. After a couple of days her diarrhea cleared up..and she started to really grow. The girls argued and argued about a name. Jennifer who was in second grade wanted to name her "Whiskers " after a cat in her Weekly Reader. It seemed like a wonderful name to me!

Whiskers ate and ate..and grew!

Jennifer and Whiskers (3 weeks old)

Trica and Jennifer were so good about helping with Whiskers, they did all the after school feedings, Far Guy did 10pm , I feed her at 1am when I returned from work, Far Guy fed her at 6am, then I took over again during the day. It was a family effort. The girls never complained, they shouldered their part in Whiskers survival with a love and tenderness that they still show to all animals. Eventually Whiskers was litter box trained when she was about four weeks old. What a relief! She ate real cat food moistened when she was about five weeks old. I took her into our hometown Veterinarian when she was six weeks old and introduced her to him. He was surprised to see her, but was more than happy to check her out and declare her in perfect health. He could hardly believe it..well frankly neither could I.

Whiskers was a special kitten, she terrorized our old dog "Snuffer" she sharpened her claws on all the furniture, she ran up the drapes, she ran through the house ninety miles an hour. She stole our hearts..even Far Guys!

The down side was that she imprinted on just the four of us and Snuffer. She did not know she was a kitten. She thought she was part human/part dog/part tiger. As she grew older she rejected everyone but us. She stood guard at the front door ready to terrorize and hiss at anyone who entered. She wouldn't allow anyone in or out of the bathroom. She hid in the Peonies and would pretend she was a tiger in a jungle of leaves.

I am convinced that Whiskers was sent to us for a reason, she lived for a reason. Two little girls willed her to live, God allowed her to live. She helped us to recover from Snuffers death in 1985. She gave a little girl companionship when she needed it the most when we moved from the city to the country and away from all her friends. She became an inspiration for that little girl to pour out her heart into poetry and write about her feelings.

Whiskers gave us all courage to face situations that others would call hopeless. She was a fighter, from the day the girls found her in the gutter until the day she died in 1989. She lived with us six years. She died in the rocking chair at home very peacefully while I stroked her soft fur. She lived a good life, her mission must have been complete. I still have that rocking chair, I will never get rid of it, when I look at it I no longer remember a dying cat..but a spunky kitten that would hide under it and attack peoples feet as they walk by:) THE END My Daughter Jen has published the poem that she wrote about Whiskers it can be found here.