Having Kittens

Kate Gordon

She was small and black, and had lived outside for years, producing litter after litter of kittens of which only the fittest survived.

Being feral she was wary of people, and, only when she was sure she was alone, did she approach to eat the food that my Mother regularly put out for her.

One cold winter day Mother went outside for something and left the door open.

When she returned to the house she was amazed to find the little cat sitting by the fire.

What a sorry sight she was, thin and ill looking, and with big bald patches all over her coat. My Mother made her a little bed out of a cardboard box and lined it with an old woollen jumper. She put the cat in the box and placed it in a corner of the dining room.

For about three days the cat slept, only venturing from the box to eat and drink and only when all humans were in bed.

We puzzled as to what had brought about this turn of events and concluded that she had chosen our house as a place to die.

But die she didn't and, thanks to my mother's excellent nursing she began to improve.

With regular feeding, and extras, like cod liver oil, her hair began to grow again and she put on some weight.

We fully expected her to disappear now that she was feeling better, but she showed no signs of wanting to return to her old life.

The family decided that she would have to have a name and the privilege of choosing what to call her was given to my two little nieces who were regular visitors and who were delighted that she was staying.

The name chosen was Serafina. I think they got it from a James Bond movie, but wherever it came from we had to accept it.

The next step was to take Serafina to the Vet and have her examined properly. On the way there I reminded my Mother that the first thing the Vet would ask would be the cat's name. She replied that she would "think of something."

Well, Serafina was duly examined and the Vet confirmed what we had suspected. Serafina was carrying kittens.

We took her home and continued to care for her and she soon became one of the family. She was still apprehensive if a stranger came into the house and was certainly not a cat for cuddling.

The day that will remain in my memory is the day the kittens arrived.

I returned from work that evening and after eating I settled on the sofa to relax.

To my surprise, Serafina jumped on to my knee and snuggled in. Soon we were both asleep.

Meanwhile my Mother had gone to visit an Aunt who lived at the other side of the village.

When I awoke Serafina was in her box in the dining room. My Father was looking worried and said he was glad I was awake as Serafina seemed to be acting strangely.

She was, of course, in labour.

Father was of the generation that panicked when faced with what they considered to be women's business, so I lied and said that the cat was fine. Serafina was more than capable of delivering her offspring and I left her to it, just checking every so often on the progress.

I think kitten number three was coming into the world when the lights went out.

Unfortunately, the other thing that panicked Father was any one of the family "messing about with electricity." This was as a result of a bad experience in his youth when he worked with an electrician and went to a house one day to a job and found the householder electrocuted I couldn't cope with keeping Father calm, checking on Serafina, and mending a fuse all at the same time, so I telephoned my mother and asked her to come home.

By the time she arrived, Father was on the verge of a heart attack and if he had known that there was a bit of birthing going on in the dining room there's no telling what might have happened.

He was glad to see Mother, as was I. We got him settled and set about mending the fuse. I was holding a candle while Mother had her head in the fuse box. We had one of those macramé arrangements hanging in the hall with a plant in it. I leaned a bit too near and, yes, you've guessed it, I set the plant holder alight.

Having beaten out the flames with an umbrella from the hall stand we both collapsed on the floor with laughter. How we changed that fuse I will never know. I went to put on the kettle for a much needed cup of tea and when I switched on the kitchen light the bulb blew. By this time Mother and myself were becoming hysterical with laughter. The final straw was when she fell off the ladder trying to change the light bulb.

Luckily she was unhurt but Father was angry with both of us as he could not find anything funny about the situation. The more annoyed he got, the more we laughed.

When we were able to compose ourselves, we went to see how Serafina was doing.

During all the mayhem she had delivered four beautiful kittens and was lying in her bed purring like we had never heard her before.

Serafina adored those kittens and proved to be a wonderful mother to the one kitten we allowed her to keep. For the first time in her life she had given birth in a warm and secure environment. If cats are capable of remembering, I'm sure it was a memorable day for her.

It certainly was for me.

P.S. The Vet did ask her name and, without a blush my Mother said "We just call her Puss."