Katie Remembers

Feller Joins Us
One May evening in 1981 my husband and I were reading. The windows were open and I heard this crying sound. It sounded something like a baby, so I went out on the front porch and then realized it was a kitten crying. I went out in the yard and saw this tiny black and white kitten coming down the driveway. He came right to me and was soon followed by his sister. I looked for a car that had maybe dropped them off, but saw none. They were very small and I figure they were about four or five weeks old. They didn't know how to drink from a bowl. After several unsuccessful tries at various types of nipples, I let them lick warm milk off my fingers. Finally they began to lap it from the bowl.

The next day we tried to find where the kittens had come from. No luck. Then my husband came home and said there was a nursing cat that had been killed down the road. So we figured it was the kittens' mother.
Months later my neighbor across the road admitted to me that the kittens had come from her barn and it was their mother who had been killed on the road. Before this, she denied all knowledge of them. She said she know I would give them back if I knew they came from her place but if she kept quiet, I would give them a good home. My neighbor also solved another mystery I had been wondering about. The kittens had obviously been socialized to people and feral kittens wouldn't be. It turned out my neighbor had been handling the kittens and leaving food for their mother.

I named the male cat Feller and the female Missy. A year later I gave Missy to my daughter in Pennsylvania. Both cats had many mishaps and used up their nine lives, plus some. Each of them died at the age of 19. They must have had good genes. I have many good memories.