House Suddenly Lonely When Kittens Move Out ©
Chicago Sun-Times
by Rita Emmett
Notes from the diary of a cat owner:I was going to have our cat, Gagoots, spayed this week, but both
teenagers are lobbying to let her have kittens.
* * * * *
Well, the kids won. We’re going to be a kitten family. For a week
now, everyone has been debating over which of the tomcats on our
block would make the most worthy husband for Gagoots.
Meanwhile, she seems to have
ideas of her own. Yesterday she sneaked out of the house for the
first time in her life. No "arranged marriage" for her – Gagoots is
a ‘90’s woman.
* * * * *
Gagoots is getting fat, sleeps
all day, and would you believe, she even has morning sickness. Took
her to the vet today and, yes, we have a fat, healthy, pregnant cat.
* * * * *
I went to work and when I came
home for lunch, Gagoots was giving birth to her kittens – two solid
black and two solid white ones.
* * * * *
The beautiful kittens are two
weeks old today. Their eyes are open and they’re starting to move
around. We’ve decided the white ones look like girls and the black
ones look like boys, so we’ve finally settled on names. The white are Helen Rose and
Squeaky. And the blacks are Rocky (because he sleeps stretched out
like a flying squirrel) and Cha Cha (much too long a story to go
into now).
* * * * *
I’ve fallen in love with the
adorable kittens. Every morning when we turn on the light, they
greet us just like babies standing up in a crib … there are four
little sets of paws perched on the edge of their box and four little
faces peering at us. It’s funny how, when they nurse, they always
line up black, white, black, white. They look like piano keys.
* * * * *
The rambunctious kittens are four
weeks old and they’ve started walking—also bouncing, tumbling,
falling, sliding, and climbing.
They are into everything and
there’s truth in this business about "curiosity killed the cat."
* * * * *
The kittens seem to be
multiplying all over the house. We wake up in the morning and step
over them. Pass them sleeping on the stairs. There are kittens in
the tub. Kittens in the planter. They’re in the cabinets. Every time
someone sits down, they have to move a kitten.
* * * * *
Can’t believe the capabilities of
a 6-week-old kitten. They chew everything. They dig into everything.
They climb half way up the drapes and either dangle there hollering
at the top of their lungs to be rescued, or they slide all the way
down with their sharp little claws. You can’t spank four ounces of
fluff.
* * * * *
They’re gone. Everyone who was
adopting kittens came to pick them up this week. The house is so
quiet. They were so lovable.
* * * * *
I was going to have Gagoots
spayed this week, but you’ll never guess what these teenagers are
lobbying to do again …..
