Most of our cats were found by a family member as a tiny kitten looking for protection, it has been left somewhere to fend for itself, hungry, crying for someone to help them. Be assured that no mother cat would ever abandon her kittens at such a young age, she would fight to protect them, fight to keep them safe from harm and as long as she had milk make sure they were fed. Your cat is a loving mother have no doubt of that. She is disciplined and very practical, when her kittens are grown enough to get along on their own she will retire from the motherhood gig. Makes sense!

The only conclusion is that someone, some human the mother cat trusted, broke that trust and took her kittens from her, dropped them off far from her to find to fend for themselves. I cannot conceive of the mind-set of anyone that could be so cruel as to do such a thing however it is a fact of life that it is done constantly.

I have tried to put myself in the mind of a tiny kitten put out in the cold world, his mother is not there, he or she is only a few weeks old, it has to be scary. The kitten is taken from his mother one night, probably put in a car and driven to a quiet street and dropped on the curb or put in a empty lot. The car drives away, the kitten is scared, cars may be driving by, a neighborhood dog may sense something going and barking. Our tiny kitten is scared, it has never know anything but love. All it has ever know is mother, mother washed it with her warm tongue, let it snuggle up under her warm fir.

Mother always had some nice warm milk when kitten was hungry. Nothing is as it should be there is no defense for this kitten if attacked, remember we are talking about a tiny kitten you can probably hold in the palm of your hand. It tries to find a spot behind a bush to hide. It is cold there, dark, no warm mother or brothers and sister to curl up with, it is awful hungery and kitty is crying, where is my mom. It is pitiful to hear the crying to a frighten tiny kitten, it is as if a tiny child is crying for your help.

Thank God there are those of us in this world that will respond to their cry for help.

After hours finally a human hears their plea for help, a hand reaches behind the bush and picks the kitten up. Think about that, the fear that ’should’ generate! The hand is far bigger than the kitten, the person is a complete stranger, shouldn’t the kitten be frightened? Amazingly it is not, stroke the kitten’s head with a finger and you will soon get a tiny purr. The kitten tries to burrow into your body for warmth and protection. How can that tiny kitten know instinctively that you will not harm it? That it has found someone to protect it and take care of it?

I have to say it beats the hell out of me how a tiny kitten, of only a few ounces, can not be fearful, by pure instinct and some amazing insight, know it has found a home, this confounds my mind. That kitten has already, by pure instinct, probably unknowingly on its part already began it’s campaign to be not only be a part of your life but likely the very center of your very existence. From then on it is ‘the life of Reilly’ for kitty. For you as its master? You will slowly be coursed into being it’s slave, it’s devoted and loving servant, if not employee for life.

Sometimes you have to wonder at the human race, yes I’m talking about us two legged creatures in contrast to our four legged kitten. Show that kitten kindest and it will return that kindness ten fold, I have never heard of a domestic kitten that would not do that. So why is it that humans can not always respond the same?

To drop a kitten off to fend for itself when it is such a tiny defenseless waif is cruel beyond words.

Another heartless cruelty is that we have had several cats taken from us, stolen by thieves, later I will relate that happening to our beautiful fully grown Siamese cats, Pinky and Blue Boy. Oh I am sure that they eventually wound up in nice homes. Pure bred Blue Point Siamese are valuable animals, they are also truly magnificent to behold, the real cruelty was taking them away from their human family that raised and loved them since they were kittens. They were mourned for months.

Then there are those that will do harm to animals, hurt them, force them into fights and other cruel acts with no concern or feelings for those animals they cause such misery. I will not get into that in this book further I am only bringing up the subject because we as humans should be above that type of behavior.

I know, I know, one of you is going to say that your sweet little kitty if he catches a mouse, rat or other tiny animal may play with that tiny creature before it dies. Isn’t that cruelty? Yes, if you look at it that way it is, especially for the cat that is well fed, it certainly does not need that tiny mouse for food, so playing with it looking at it from that side is cruelty.

We must remember that your family cat is nearer to the basics of nature the killing for food in nature. It is their instinct to kill for food. A family cat therefore has the instinct to kill or hunt for food, just when it is not hungry, their behavior is like a child sitting in a highchair that has a full tummy but has a spoon in his hand and some nice pudding in front of him, it is something to play with.

Before we get into the adventures of our many loved, mostly departed feline family members it may be a good idea for us to learn a little more about this highly independent breed of animals.

Probably the most famous of the cat family is the lion. The nearest to your family cat or a domestic cat that have gone wild would be the Lynx or the Bobcat. Actually the Bobcat is usually smaller than the Lynx and Bobcats have even been known to bred with a domestic cat. The average Bobcat is from 15-35 pounds with a short stub of a tail, the tail tip is black on top and it has fairly large feet. The upper part is pale to reddish brown with black streaks and spots, his underneath belly area is whitish with black spots. They do not like overly populated areas, other than that they can be found most anywhere in forest areas, swamps, deserts or mountains. They prefer scrubbed areas with thickets and broken country to hide and hunt in.

It is interesting that while your family cat is not overly appreciative of water other than to drink, a Bobcat is a excellent swimmer and will often enjoy water. They are night hunters living on small animals, hares and rabbits will do fine thank you for dinners but a mouse, rat, bird or any other animal they can handle, will do also.

Back to our family cat, a overall description of a typical domestic cat is that they typically will have short faces and rather small mostly round ears. They can be quite small say five pound and go all the way up to as high in some unusual cases to 20 pounds. I believe this has something to do with their genetic makeup in part, however I also believe that if they are fed well from tiny kittens that also has a lot to do with it. I will expound more on that theory later when tales of the lives of our beloved felines are unfolded.

Your family cat will have five toes on each paw in front and four on their hind feet. All claws are retractable something I would like to remind you of. Often your family cat if he is laying on you, sitting on you or standing on you and is being petted will be in ecstasy, in this ‘kitty bliss’ kitty will began to push you with his paws, sometimes quite hard, we always call it ‘kitty making bread.’ This can be fun, except when kitty becomes too overly enthusiastic about it all and his claws come out to play.

A gentle reminder to your kitten or full grown cat, whichever it may be, that you are being harmed instead of caressed is appropiate at this time so kitty learns to keep it’s claws retracted. I have had family cats, clearly in this state of blissful ecstasy on my lap or on my top of my tummy if I am laying down having the time of his or her life pumping away and purring to beat the band and causing me pain and discomfort by this unintentionally harmful behavior. I have to admit that a few times I have accepted the pain just because our cat was clearly having so much fun voicing and expressing it’s pleasure in the only way it had to express itself.