Free Kittuns An Essay by Jim Willis

[ashleywong]

Free Kittuns
An Essay by Jim Willis, Copyright 2002 - 2007
From Jim Willis, for About.com

The sign on the mailbox post was hand-lettered on cardboard and read "FREE KITTUNS." It appeared there two or three times a year, sometimes spelled this way, sometimes that, but the message was always the same.

In a corner of the farmhouse back porch was a cardboard box with a dirty towel inside, on which huddled a bouquet of kittens of different colors, mewing and blinking and waiting for their mama to return from hunting in the fields. The mother cat managed to show them enough interest for the first several weeks, but after having two or three litters per year, she was worn out and her milk barely lasted long enough for her babies to survive.

One by one, people showed up over the next several days and each took a kitten. Before they left the woman who lived there always said the same thing, "You make sure you give that one a good home - I've become very attached to that one."

One by one the kittens and their new people drove down the long driveway and past the sign on the mailbox post, "FREE KITTUNS."

The ginger girl kitten was the first to be picked. Her four-year-old owner loved her very much, but the little girl accidentally injured the kitten's shoulder by picking her up the wrong way. She couldn't be blamed really - no adult had shown her the proper way to handle a kitten. She had named the kitten "Ginger" and was very sad a few weeks later when her older brother and his friends were playing in the living room and someone sat on the kitten.

The solid white boy kitten with blue eyes was the next to leave with a couple who announced even before they went down the porch steps that his name would be "Snowy." Unfortunately, he never learned his name and everyone had paid so little attention to him that nobody realized he was deaf. On his first excursion outside he was run over in the driveway by a mail truck.

The pretty gray and white girl kitten went to live on a nearby farm as a "mouser." Her people called her "the cat," and like her mother and grandmother before her she had many, many "free kittuns," but they sapped her energy. She became ill and died before her current litter of kittens was weaned.

Another brother was a beautiful red tabby. His owner loved him so much that she took him around to meet everyone in the family and her friends, and their cats, and everyone agreed that "Erik" was a handsome boy. Except his owner didn't bother to have him vaccinated. It took all the money in her bank account to pay a veterinarian to treat him when he became sick, but the doctor just shook his head one day and said "I'm sorry."

The solid black boy kitten grew up to be a fine example of a tomcat. The man who adopted him moved shortly thereafter and left "Tommy" where he was, roaming the neighborhood, defending his territory, and fathering many kittens until a bully of a dog cornered him.

The black and white girl kitten got a wonderful home. She was named "Pyewacket." She got the best of food, the best of care until she was nearly five years old. Then her owner met a man who didn't like cats, but she married him anyway. Pyewacket was taken to an animal shelter where there were already a hundred cats. Then one day, there were none.

A pretty woman driving a van took the last two kittens, a gray boy and a brown tiger-striped girl. She promised they would always stay together. She sold them for fifteen dollars each to a laboratory. To this day, they are still together...in a jar of alcohol.

For whatever reason - because Heaven is in a different time zone, or because not even cat souls can be trusted to travel in a straight line without meandering - all the young-again kittens arrived at Heaven's gate simultaneously. They batted and licked each other in glee, romped for awhile, and then solemnly marched through the gate, right past a sign lettered in gold:

"YOU ARE FINALLY FREE, KITTENS."

[filinlee]

the story was sad... at first i tot it would be a happy one...

but actually in real life..that is wat actually happens...

[ashleywong]

yes, the essay is sad - it was meant to create awareness on the urgent need to practice spaying.

what he wrote there is nothing but the sad ugly truth

[ashleywong]

that's why went i came across it, i decided to post it here in hope that it would awoke awareness in those who read it to spay/neuter their cats - it doens't take away lives of yet to be conceived kittens but it will help to reduce the suffering of unwanted kittens when they're conceived and born .

[duyung_leo]

Sad story

[filinlee]

yea.. hopefully it create awareness amongst us n others outside petfinder too...

[BabyZee]

well the essay does cover the truth..
basically we need to create awareness on spaying and neutering..
also about what happen to the unwanted cats, the strays and so on..

[blackie007]

It's a sad piece of essay, but that's the stark truth of an animal's life out there, if their owners continued to be ignorant.

I hope through petfinder, more and more pet owners would be educated on being a responsible owner towards their pets.

[June]

Blackie,not only that, I hope forumers themselves will start neuter their pets. showing sympathy is not enough if they don't do something about this.

Originally Posted by blackie007

It's a sad piece of essay, but that's the stark truth of an animal's life out there, if their owners continued to be ignorant.

I hope through petfinder, more and more pet owners would be educated on being a responsible owner towards their pets.

[ashleywong]

June

you're spot on!

i'm surprised that some forummers, even though they participate energetically in discussiong on spaying and neutering and agree on all the pros of neutering, etc, they themselves are guilty of NOT spaying/neutering their pets!

[June]

That's why I post my statement.I'm not being sarcastic but just want to stress on the important of neutering our pets. Even my PR strays are are not spare from being neuter.

Originally Posted by ashleywong

June

you're spot on!

i'm surprised that some forummers, even though they participate energetically in discussiong on spaying and neutering and agree on all the pros of neutering, etc, they themselves are guilty of NOT spaying/neutering their pets!

[sillylupie]

I have read it before, still shed tears reading it again....

[sillylupie]

That was I spayed TOM2 before letting her off for adoption!!
I cannot imagine TOM2 being burdened with kittens if, let say, she escaped one day and got lost!

[firdaruddin]

love the story....n feel sad deep in heart..... :'(