This
true story takes place on a Saturday in June, 2007. Our family of five was
getting ready to go on vacation the next day. When I say that, what I really
mean is that my husband and I were doing
all the work getting ready. We had a
seven year old, a three year old, and a two year old at the time. They were not
much help! We had all the windows and
doors open to the house. We were packing inside and cleaning out the car
outside. We were very busy doing everything else under the sun. Accomplishing everything that needed to be
done seemed more hurried due to the fact that we had small children under
foot. So when three year old Adam began
tugging on my leg and saying, “Mama…there’s a kitten outside under the hedge,”
I paid him no attention. “Okay son…” was
my absent-minded reply.
To make matters more hectic, our dog
Abby kept barking out front. She was
barking nonstop. I figured the kids had
her all riled up. Really, I assumed my
husband was rough housing her, and I was annoyed that he obviously had strayed
from his car-cleaning duties. My middle child came to me again. “Mama…there’s a little bitty kitten under the
hedge.”
I thought, “How cute. He has one of his stuffed animal cats outside
playing with it.” Because, you see….we
didn’t have a kitten. “Okay, Adam,” was all I said. He had such a good
imagination! He could entertain himself so well! We had two big adult cats, and
the kids always thought having a kitten would be such fun. I smiled and began
washing some leftover breakfast dishes at this point.
I don’t know why I didn’t pay
attention to what he was saying, but about five minutes or so later, my husband
came in and said to me, “Hey! There’s a tiny kitten under the hedge and Abby keeps
barking at it! Come look!” He was shaking his head in wonder. “Adam came and
told me about it.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise, “Adam
has also been telling me there is a kitten out there, but I didn’t believe
him.” I dried my hands and hurried outside. I’ve been a cat lover all my life
and I wanted to see this kitten!
I walked out front and Abby was
barking like crazy. I moved her out of
the way and sure enough, under the hedge was a tiny gray, black, and white
tabby kitten peering up at us. I, my
husband, Adam, and our other two children stared down at the tiny
creature. The kitten stared back up at
us with huge frightened eyes. I think it
was just afraid of Abby and her incessant barking. I looked at my husband and said, “Pick it
up.”
He reached down and picked the kitten
up and noticed right away that her tail was completely stripped of fur. It was a little bit bloody and the bone was
sticking out at the end. He handed the kitten to me and I held it close. I looked at the kitten’s tail and I knew
right away that it needed medical treatment.
My husband asked, “What do we do?”
I replied, “The vet stays open until
noon on Saturdays. We might be able to make it up there. What time is it?” It was eleven-fifteen. My
husband went and got his cell phone and called up there. Our vet is located only a mile and a half
from our house. They told my husband to
bring the kitten in right away and they would be glad to help us.
Our hectic preparations for our
vacation came to a standstill. My
husband got his car keys and we looked at each other. I asked, “Do you want ME to take the kitten
up there?”
“No,”
he said. “I will.” And then he did something I didn’t expect. He looked over at little Adam and said,
“Adam, do you want to go with me? It’s
your kitten. You found it.” Adam was
overjoyed. I was concerned. I was sure that taking a three year old up to
the vet was a bad idea. Since this was a spur of the moment visit, there would
surely be a long wait. He would probably get bored and act up. Nevertheless, he was going. The two of them got into the car and headed up
the road. I and the other two children
were left to wonder how this would all turn out.
(To
be continued on the weekend of March 29-31)
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