Contemplating Compassion

I can now include myself among the millions of people who have had pity on stray animals and adopted them. Having all kinds of animals growing up made it easier for me to adopt two freezing, starving orphaned kittens on my back porch, but this is the first time I’ve actually fed and cared for “stray” animals.

All the animals my family and I have owned have come from people who were looking for a better home for their pets because they couldn’t take care of them. This includes dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs, chinchillas, rabbits, and yes, even leopard geckos and bearded dragons. But this is my first experience with actual strays whose mother has either died or she’d decided they were weaned and were ready to be independent. They’d been mewing on my porch for three days before I decided that their mother must be gone, and yesterday I was finally able to get a glimpse of them.

The largest kitten is mostly white with a few large gray/black mottled spots. The smaller one is solid black and has the most plaintive little cry. When I decided to feed them, all I had was some of Bitsy’s canned dog food which has gravy and chunks of meat, so I had to cut into tiny pieces for them. It was a very cold and windy day, and the wind must have blown the smell of the food right to them, because in only about one minute, I saw the white kitten poke its head around the corner of the garage and smell the air as I watched from the back door.

As it got closer and sniffed the little dish, it was suddenly like a switch was turned on and it started devouring the food as fast as it could. There’s no way of knowing how long they’d gone without eating. That could’ve been their very first meal of solid food as far as I know. After a few seconds, around the corner came the black kitten with its nose up in the air. It ran towards the dish and, to my surprise, the white kitten smacked at the black one so hard that it knocked it over! When the black one came back, the white one bit down hard on the plastic dish and put its ears down and its feet inside the dish.

The black one was so hungry that it didn’t give up, and as they scuffled around, making cute “fighting” noises, the food went everywhere, allowing them to eventually have some space to eat separately. They were a pitiful sight, trying to eat solid food and having a hard time. But it felt so good to know that they wouldn’t die of starvation. As their bellies got full, they slowed down and didn’t fight so hard over the scraps. When they cleaned up everything, they sunned themselves on the concrete despite the cold wind. After they disappeared, I took out some water in a small dish. An hour later I went out and the dish was almost empty! Later that day I took them some tuna and they scarfed it down too.

I’ve named them “Ollie and Ginny” in homage to the two stray cats found in the James Herriot book “Every Living Thing.” In the story, Herriot and his wife adopt two feral cats that never completely trust humans enough to be fully domesticated. But they do eventually allow themselves to be petted and they were even captured to be spayed and neutered. It’s one of my favorite Herriot stories, and I couldn’t help naming the kittens after them. Today I was able to catch Ginny, the little black kitten, and she let me pet her for a few seconds before squirming until I let her go. When they were fed, Ginny got to the dish first and employed the same tactic she’d see Ollie use on her the first day, biting down on the dish and laying back her ears. It was so funny to watch Ollie back down from Ginny who is about half his size!

I think as they get used to eating, they won’t be so territorial over the food. I’ve gotten some actual dry cat food, but they have a hard time chewing it, so I mix it with tuna or chicken until it’s soft and they really love it. They can go in and out of the garage to get out of the wind, but I’m going to try to fix a box with a blanket so they’ll have a warm place to sleep.

It feels good to be compassionate to these little creatures, even though I know they may not stick around. But when I asked myself,”What would Jesus do?” I knew what the answer would be.

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