Feline Friday: All the Cats I've Loved

When I was growing up, we had a mama kitty who delivered two litters of kittens reliably each year. We always found good homes for them, as we lived in a small town with no shortage of people who wanted at least one cat. One year, our Peanut tragically lost her entire litter of kittens to a hawk or owl which swooped into our garage and plucked them out of the nest. It was a traumatic event for everyone -- especially me, and my parents soon found a kitten for me with hopes that it would ease my pain.

Enter Mittens, a calico kitten we adopted from another family in town. She wasn't well-socialized but she was certainly beautiful and I loved her immediately. As with all of our cats at the time, Mittens was an indoor-outdoor cat. As she got older, she spent more and more time indoors. 

Mittens wasn't a friendly kitty and I soon became the only one who could really handle her -- as one would say, she was a one-purr-son cat. As you can see in this picture, Mittens had a spectacular coat and an especially sweet face. Unfortunately, her long fur was prone to matting and she was difficult to groom, so she soon became known as "mat cat".

 

In spite of her somewhat surly personality, Mittens let me feed her from a bottle and even dress her in doll clothes from time to time. 

She was keenly interested in all kinds of "people food". I distinctly remember one year when she ruined Thanksgiving (at least in my mom's eyes) by eating the centers out of two of her famous pumpkin pies as they cooled on the counter. I was the only one who found that little event quite hilarious.

In spite of spending so much time outside, Mittens lived a good long life -- to at least age 22. As such, she was a big part of my growing up years. In fact, I can barely remember a time when we didn't have her with us.

Like all the kitties I've loved, Mittens left a paw-print on my heart!