Four little kittens have lost their mittens

It's always delighted me that animals have always seemed to be a big part of my life. They either come to me to be part of my family or they belong to friends and neighbours and are daily or weekly visitors. I seem to find them or they find me wherever I go.

These four little kittens were given to me by a friend who said please keep the one you want and find homes for the rest. Well, what a silly thing to say to me. As if I could give up one of them. (I think my friend knew that.)

The four stayed with me even when my second husband and I split up and he wanted to take two with him. He was never home and I didn't want my babies to be stuck in an apartment all day and night with no one to take care of them. I was working too, but I was home at night, and they at least had each other and their dog friends. There were three dogs and a couple of my sons cats as companions for a short time as well... In retrospect I probably wasn't fair to my husband cause he loved the kittens as much as I did... but break-ups do that don't they? Make you take sides.

Anyway, these four were called (from left) Tansy - she grew up to be a great grey long-haired fluffy cat - quite fey, shy and standoffish - a real loner; Bessie - named by my younger son's partner at the time because she had cow-like markings; Machu Pichu - because originally her eyes slanted a bit and I thought she looked like she came from somewhere else; and Samuel P. Whiskers or Sammy, just because. They had great adventures.

Bessie took a liking to my next door neighbour and spent most of her time there, Sammy wandered the backyards of the city street where we lived and everyone thought he was their cat... two little boys brought him too me one day telling me he was there cat and didn't he look wonderful? And I saw him on the back door step of a house three doors away. When I called him he looked at me lazily and then went back to snoozing in the sun, ignoring me completely, impudent little cuss. Tansy? she spent a lot of time hunting in the bushes of our long narrow city back yard. Machu lived with me the longest and was 20 something when she finally told me it was time to go cause she was just too old to enjoy life any more. That was about three years ago.

Funny about cats and kittens - like all creatures they each have their own personalities and traits. It takes time to get to know them because they can be pretty inscrutable if they want.
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By the way, there is a lot being said and/or done about feral cats these days. Please spay or neuter your cat, and please encourage your friends to do the same even if they are indoor cats.. .you'd be surprised at how quickly they can "escape" and find adventures that result in unwanted kittens.

There are so many rescue organizations simply because there are too many unwanted cats and kittens and some people just drop the kittens into a farmer's field or city ravine expecting them to care for themselves, not knowing how difficult that is. I support a couple of these organizations, one collects Canadian Tire money to help pay for food and litter...the organizer takes care of more than 100 unwanted cats. She finds homes for many.... but.

A friend reminded me the other day to let you know that if you email me or put a comment on my blog I'll tell you how to get this money to the organization.

To my friends around the world who read my blog - please consider supporting a local animal shelter or spay-neuter clinic in your area... every penny counts! With so many disasters around the world (Australia's floods, fires, hurricanes, tidal waves, earthquakes) people usually come first and the animals are forgotten - they need help too if we're going to help the world recover.

Oh - and thanks for reading this far and helping out any way you can!