on december 23, 2009,
katherine took notice of
a little, black kitten,
which had showed up here on the lane.
she quickly made the assumption
that the kitten was a Christmas present
so, the two of us made a trip
to rural king, bought an outdoor pet igloo,
heated bedding, and kitten food.
milton became part of our family...
almost two years to the day later,
on december 26, 2011,
milton went missing.
we drove around the neighborhood looking for him;
we went to the human society
as well as to a local non-for-profit shelter.
we made fliers, posted on facebook, and even put out a missing pet announcement on craig's list.
he was nowhere to be found
and no sign of a struggle...
he just disappeared.
~@~
after several months of waiting...
hoping he would return,
we decided to rescue another kitten.
~@~
katherine and i went in search of another black kitten.
but what we found were a couple of yellow tabbies,
brothers,
which had never been separated.
katherine fell instantly in love with them,
and once john caved,
we rescued them both and brought them home
to the lane.
we rescued both because it was obvious that one
was completely dependent on the other.
martin and marrett became part of our family...
for a little over three months,
they made their home here on the lane.
then one morning katherine went out to feed them.
martin was gone!
~@~
again, we looked everywhere.
i called the animal shelters to see
if he had turned back up there.
(this time both martin and marrett were chipped.)
he was not...
the person i spoke with asked if i knew of anyone on or around the lane that might have a trap.
i didn't.
the thought that someone was trapping our pets
was sickening.
even worse were the thoughts of what someone may be doing to/with our cats once he caught them...
~@~
as i wrote earlier marrett was totally dependent
on martin; and with martin gone he was pitiful.
he mourned.
several days later, i saw marrett run across the back yard with something in his mouth.
i thought at the time that it was a baby raccoon.
then after running errands that afternoon
i saw him curled up with the small animal in our garage.
when i got closer, the tiny animal scurried.
i was sure it was a raccoon.
~@~
poor marrett had gone out and replaced martin
with a raccoon?
it was sad and funny at the same time.
katherine and i looked around the yard for the baby.
while searching we heard a cry...
a tiny "meow".
it wasn't a raccoon at all.
marrett had brought home a kitten.
he was a different cat:)
he loved her,
he protected her,
he bathed her,
and
he let her eat his food and drink his water.
he thought she was his baby;
for all practical purposes she was.
