Until cats learn to speak Human we will never know the whole story of what a cat's life was like before it was abandoned or lost but it is possible to learn a little about them by observing their actions.

A little over a year ago a starving pregnant female cat came to my house looking for food. The first thing I noticed was a light blue flea collar around her neck and instantly I knew she was a female cat and not some old Tom cat. The best thing her previous owners did for her was to put that collar on her.

Any cat or dog that ends up out here this far from town had to have been dumped and just before she showed up there were a lot of layoffs in the Oil Fields. Every time there are layoffs, dogs and cats are abandoned in this area.

She came around off and on for a couple of weeks until she decided to stay here for good.

During that time someone had tied a nylon cord to her collar and tried to keep her but she got away.

I never tried to restrain her and always gave her food and affection.

She seemed to not be skinny so I thought she had been getting enough food from where ever she had been. Then I noticed her stomach was getting a lot bigger and realized she was pregnant.

I gave her all the food she could eat and her kittens were born healthy and happy and are now almost a year old.

I don't think her previous owners gave her much affection and I know they never let her on the furniture or bed because when I would set her down on them she would almost break her neck trying to get off.

She would always go and lay in the bathroom and watch everything.

I don't think anyone ever held her and told her she's a good cat.

When she had kittens that was luck because they showed her she can climb on the furniture and run across the bed and it's all right with me.

Now she is a big sweet cat and looks so happy playing and running all over the house with her kittens that you can just tell she's happy.

She lays on the floor on her back and puts her claws in the couch and pulls herself around the couch with a big giant smile on her face.

She lays in the chair on her back and looks so sweet and Happy.

She snuggles and sleeps with her babies any where she wants.

She and her kitties have made a play ground of the entire house.

Some times when I wake in the morning she is sleeping next to me with her paw resting on my arm.

I'm sure she knows this is her home now and there will always be food and affection and a gentile voice and tender caress from her Human.

She knows the sound of my truck and before I pull in the drive she is already running for my parking spot and jumps in when I open the door.

She and her three remaining kittens make my truck their observation post and play ground. They love to climb trees.

Edith is a little fat to be as agile as the kittens but she gives it a good try.

Her favorite kitten is the little black Persian looking one that brings her mama the biggest rodents.

Edith isn't always sure what to do with her gifts of rodents. She doesn't have the hunting skills of her kittens and the rodents often get away without being eaten.

The little Persian kitty I've named Fuzzy Girl weighs almost nothing but she is the best hunter of them all. She was chasing a rabbit the other day that was bigger than she is. Some day she'll catch one.

I think Edith was probably given away at a very early age and never had the chance to learn how to be a cat until now.

I wish her previous owners would drive by some day and see that she's healthy and happy but I would never let them take her back.

Copyright © Robert Greenwood
September 4, 2002