Long story about my cat Socks
Jul 25, 2015 10:20:00 GMT -5
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unclejoe, Desiree, and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 10:20:00 GMT -5
When we moved into this house our garden was completely overgrown. While cleaning it up, my dad saw a tiny little tabby kitten, but she ran away. Over the next few weeks, my parents noticed the kitten hanging around but every time they went into the garden she'd run off. Fast forward about 9 months and, while playing in the garden, I noticed that in the neighbor's garden there was another tiny kitten. This one was black and white with a little white blotch on his nose. Turns out the tabby kitten had had kittens... Anyway, I did what any child of my age would do: I started leaving food out for them, and hiding to watch them eat it. Sometimes I or my brother/sister/friends would get too excited and chase them, so they never fully trusted us and when they got to about 12 weeks old they left and we never saw them again. But the mother cat kept coming back for food. I learned that I could put out food and sit just a tiny bit closer every day, until eventually she would come and eat with me sitting only about four feet away, as long as I didn't move. It was during this time I noticed she was pregnant again. This time, when she had the litter she all but disappeared. None of us ever really saw that litter except one little tabby. We would see her sometimes but no one else. A few months after this litter left, there she was again with a big, fat, pregnant belly. I was determined that she should have the kittens in our garden. Maybe then we'd have a chance of getting close enough to her to at least get her spayed. So I'd put out the best quality bits of meat and food I could find every morning before school and every evening after school. I was the only one who could get within arm's reach of her and she'd still eat, although she kept one eye on me in case I moved.Then she disappeared again. It was a few weeks before I saw her again, and when I did, her belly was gone. I was so disappointed! I had no clue where she'd hidden the kittens and no way of telling either. We really didn't want her to keep having kittens, but what could we do if we couldn't get near her?One day I was playing on the swingset in our garden and I heard that sound I'd been dying to hear! And suddenly I came to the realisation that she'd had the kittens in a big rubbish pile in a distant neighbor's garden. I ran inside to tell my parents and they went and knocked on their door. The neighbours were surprised and horrified because later they were planning to burn the rubbish, so we had to remove them. For some reason, the mother cat let me get right up to the kittens and actually pick them up. My mum and I sexed them and put them in a basket we'd brought over. Although the cat went into the basket and took a kitten out a few times, she didn't scratch us. We worked out they were 9 days old, three girls and two boys. We had a black boy and a blue boy, a tabby girl, a blue tabby girl and a black and white girl. Now we had to get them all back to our house, so my mum (who's always been a little too brave) picked the cat up and placed her on top of her kittens. She made so much noise! She hissed and growled and yowled, but not once did she scratch us. We got them inside where my dad and little brother and sister were sorting out a nest box in the conservatory attached to our house. My parents gave the kittens one final check, and while they were doing that and putting them in the nest box, I got to do something I never thought I could - pet the mother cat! And she was jumping up to my hand and putting her head into it. She was meowing for her kittens and I knew she was appealing for them, but I have never forgotten that moment. Within a minute we had her in the box with her kittens and we left her to it. So I spent every day for 8 or so weeks getting up, going to the cats, going to school and waiting till I could go back and sit with the cat and her kittens again. Slowly she learned to trust us all, my dad called her Socks, we got her spayed and she has never left us. After about 10 years she started trusting guests too. Lol.We kept two of her kittens - Topaz and Marble, who sadly both got stolen after appearing in a cat magazine when they one best in show and third best in show for the pet/non pedigree group at about five years of age (I don't show any of my animals anymore.) The other three kittens went to live with family members so we had regular contact with them. Socks is 20 now and apart from some macular degeneration and loss of hearing she's in good health. She taught me about patience, love, trust, and loyalty in a way no human ever could. Growing up wasn't great, but one thing I could always count on was Socks. She was always there. After bringing her in we got dogs and ferrets and birds, hedgehogs, hamsters, snakes, fish, and I don't know what else... But she was the start and has always been mother cat to any other animal in the house. I suffer from BPD and one of the major symptoms is a fear of abandonment. It causes a lot of problems in my life and the lives of those around me. I won't go into detail so as to avoid triggers, but one thing I can definitely say is that Socks has been what no human ever could be to me. And without her there while I was growing up, who knows? I owe my life to her, and to my other non-human family members.This is my girl: 
