Once upon a time in a land far, far away a mumma cat gave birth to a litter of kittens. This sounds like the start of any fairy tale but alas not every story is a happy one. This mumma cat was not living in a loving cosy home with warmth and shelter to help her through what should be a marvellous natural and wonderful thing, this mumma cat was on the streets with no proper shelter, no comfy bed to nest in and create a nursery, no humans to offer help and kindness should it be needed. The other cats in the clowder helped where they could but it was all down to mumma cat. The little kittens were born onto the street, a difficult place to survive and grow but this was not their choice and they learnt how to survive with mumas help.
The kittens grew and played as best as little street kittens can, their mumma told them that they had to be careful of predators and they must keep up with the rest of the clowder and they should behave and do as they were told. The kittens grew and ate and played and ate and played some more, all except one. One little kitten started to struggle to keep up and wasn’t eating properly, the mumma cat tried to help the kitten but it became poorly. The little kitten did it’s best but as time went on it couldn’t see as well as it had before, it relied more and more on its hearing and smell to cope with life on the street and follow the other cats and keep up with its family. The mumma cat still helped as best she could but she had other kittens to look after too.
The little kitten learnt how to cope living on the streets, it learnt how to sleep lightly, it never slept deeply as it always had to sleep with one ear open to check for danger. The little kitten thought that it wouldn’t grow as big and strong as the other kittens as the mumma cat was always telling them that they needed to sleep to grow into big, strong cats to be able to survive on the streets.
The little kitten learnt how to make the best of its other senses as it’s sight gradually got worse and worse as the infection it had took hold. It learnt how to hold its head upwards to pick up the most accurate sounds, the kitten learnt what were good sounds and what were bad sounds. Bad sounds included any noises that sounded like they came from animals bigger than the kitten was. Any sounds that came from humans weren’t good as humans were mean to the clowder and the kittens. The humans didn’t seem to like the kittens being near them and always made them go away and didn’t help the clowder or kittens or give them any food, shelter or kindness. The other cats told the kittens to be careful of humans as they can be mean to cats, sometimes even hurting them. These were the scary stories that mumma cats told their kittens to make them behave better, I think that humans tell similar scary stories to their babies too.
You learn to be tough if you’re a street cat but if you’re a street kitten who can’t see you need to be smart too, you need to be able to learn quickly and act on your instincts.
The little kitten didn’t play as much as the other kittens, it had to grow up quicker than the others just to be able to keep up. Even when it did play it was never as carefree as the others, it always knew that if something happened or danger came along it was the kitten that was most vulnerable and least able to get away. Sometimes, very rarely the kitten would let go and have a few minutes playing with it’s siblings and it would briefly forget that it was different to the others.
Then one day the mumma cat said to all the kittens that they were going on a journey, she said she didn’t know how long the journey would take but it might be a very long and hard journey. The kittens were all curious and asked where they were going. The mumma cat told them that there were stories that the clowder had heard about two kind humans who were actually nice to street cats and put food out for them. The Queen of the clowder had decided to try to find these humans as the clowder were all so hungry and food was very hard to find. The kittens followed along with the clowder but they got more and more tired as they travelled further and further around the streets day after day. Their little legs were soon worn out and their paws sore from so much walking, the little blind kitten was exhausted from trying to keep up and keep safe as well, it wasn’t used to travelling so far and for such long times. It took so much concentration not to get lost or left behind, there were so many new noises and smells to distract it from the familiar scent of the clowder. All the kittens were scared but the little blind cat was extra scared. Sometimes when they went to sleep their tummy’s grumbled to them as there wasn’t always enough food to satisfy their growing appetites. Then one day they smelt food and humans, had they had actually found the place that the stories had described? As they got closer the kittens were scared but the mumma cat, the Queen and the rest of the clowder went to investigate first, the kittens waited in the distance as they were scared of humans. The mumma cat came back and explained that this place was ok, the humans were kind humans after all and that there was food and lots of it.
The kittens joined the rest of the group and could smell the food the humans put out, their hunger overcame fear and carefully the kittens inched closer. The little blind kitten was much more wary and took longer to feel safe enough to join the others and eat the food that the other cats were eating. Head down to grab a mouthful of food and then head up to listen for danger, always ready to run off if necessary. The crunchy food and cool water that the kind humans put out tasted good and when the clowder settled down for the night the little blind kitten slept extra well for a change with a full tummy.
Over time the clowder kept going back to the place with the kind humans and the kitten learnt to trust them, they were nice to the clowder and talked to them whilst they ate the food that they left. Then one day something different happened and the blind kitten went to eat the food, there was something different about that day and the food was in a different place but the blind kitten trusted the humans and so went and ate the food, then there was a loud noise and it was trapped in what felt like a small cage. The blind kitten was scared, it had trusted the humans and they had betrayed it. What were they going to do to it? Where were they going to take it? The little blind kitten was scared, where was mumma? Where was the rest of the clowder? It meowed loudly for its mumma and the clowder but they didn’t come. The blind kitten felt movement and so it crouched down and made itself as small as possible, the way it’s mumma had taught it if a predator was coming. The blind kitten was put into a noisy machine, it sounded like the human machines that the clowder had tried to avoid when wandering the streets, big machines that went very fast and wizzed past them when they were on their long journey. These machines were dangerous to the cats and so the blind kitten became even more scared, maybe the big noisy machine was going to hurt it. The blind kitten could hear the kind humans in the machine with it and this was confusing, occasionally they would talk to the blind kitten, the sound of their voices was reassuring and made the kitten feel just a little less scared.
After what seemed like a very long time the machine stopped and again the blind kitten felt movement, it could hear the humans footsteps and then a little bump and the movement stopped. The blind kitten could smell some strange and unfamiliar smells, but could also smell the familiar scent of other cats. It could hear their meows, they weren’t meows of scared cats, they were the sounds of happy cats and young cats. The blind kitten relaxed slightly but then there was a clicking noise and then the blind kitten felt something touch it – it was one of the humans, this was something strange to the blind kitten and so it froze and played dead. Maybe then the human would leave it alone but the human did something that the blind kitten didn’t expect, it stroked the blind kitten very gently on the head. The blind kitten was surprised, the touch was gentle and caring and after a short while the blind kitten started to think this was ok.
Over the next few weeks, the blind kitten met some of the other kittens that were staying with the humans and made some new friends, the humans looked after them all but for the little blind kitten they gave it food, water and some horrible medicine which made the kittens sore eyes feel a bit better. Then one day, the blind kitten went for another ride in the noisy machine again, it felt something sharp bite it’s leg – “ow” it meowed but before it could attack the biting thing it felt very sleepy.
The next thing it knew it was waking up but felt different, it couldn’t open it’s eyes, it tried and tried but it’s eye lids didn’t work. The kitten was confused but then it realised that the pain in its eyes it had grown to accept as being normal had gone. It was a relief for the little blind kitten and that relief was so much greater than the fear of the lack of movement of its eyelids. It had been painful for the blind kitten to blink and even though it couldn’t see before it’s eyes still moved when it was looking round and that too was painful. Now though nothing, no pain at all. The kitten washed its face and there was something else different – where had it’s whiskers gone? How could it feel around and not bump into things? The kitten had grown to rely on its whiskers to stop it from bumping into things, then as it moved – bump! The kittens nose found the edge of the cage it found itself in. “It’s ok my sweet baby” said the familiar voice of one of the humans. “You’ll feel better in no time, we’ve had to remove your eyes as they were so badly infected. I’m so sorry we couldn’t save them” she said, “but it’s ok, lots of kittens have this done and they’re fine and once you’re better we’ll find you a nice family and a home to live in.” With this, the kitten was exhausted and drifted back off to sleep.
After a while the blind kitten felt better and the kind humans said to it “well, if were going to find you a home we need to give you a name – what about Jenny?”
That is the story of my birth and the rest as they say is history. As you can see, not all fairy tales start with a happy beginning but they do all have happy endings.
Jenny’s Story 