Gumbo
I used to have a cat named Gumbo. She wasn't startlingly my cat, however, she eventually achieved this position over an extensive time period of living at my house. Originally, I have no idea where Gumbo came from; my other cat, Spot, just brought her home one day and they became life mates so to speak. e did not think that Gumbo would stay for long because many of Spot's other love endeavors never stayed for long. She didn't really like people either, at first. Nobody was allowed to pet her or hold her and she hissed at anyone who got too close. After a while, after a couple batches of kittens, she opened up to human love.
She began coming inside sometimes and letting her kittens be held. She enjoyed belly rubs sometimes when she was pregnant and laying in the sun. Another funny thing that Gumbo enjoyed was putting her new kittens in interesting places. For example, we used to have a these like big crate type things that we had a garden in. They basically looked like a wooden walkway with every other plank missing. One year, Gumbo decided to put her kittens in this garden for in the winter. I believe the main idea, from her perspective, was to keep her kittens safe from whatever animals lurked in the night. This was not the best spot she could've chosen because it doesn't keep out the old; however, I don't have any memory of animals getting to her kittens when they were here. Nevertheless, she only put her new babies here once.
Another popular place she kept her kittens was in this old trailer we had. She repeatedly brought her new kittens into the world in this trailer because she seemed to deem this place safest. However, Gumbo was not very good at decision making apparently; judging off of where she put her kittens (more examples to follow). The trailer wasn't too bad a place, a lot of her batches that she brought here made it to go off into the woods backing up my house. However, there was this one night that I heard a lot of noises and barking outside, and I asked my mom if we should check it out but she said that it was time for bed. In the morning, all of the kittens were gone :(. Another time, the runt of the group froze to death and I had to take care of that.
My favorite place that Gumbo kept her kittens was in the car tires. At the time, we had a Ford F150 and a Honda minivan. In the mornings, despite our rush to get to school or wherever we were going, I still had to routinely pull kittens out of all the tires and check the engine too; just in case. Even with these precautions, sometimes, not all the kittens were taken out, or my mom just left without looking. Fortunately, these instances lead to interesting stories. For example, there were two times that my mom went to Target, and when she got out, she would notice people pulling kittens out of the tires and taking them home; which she was somewhat happy about. Another time, my dad took his truck to the shop, and when they opened up the engine there was a live kitten in the engine. To this day, we can't fathom how they were able to survive through these experiences. Maybe they got it from their parents, or just used 8 of their lives. However, overall, the moral of the story is to make better decisions on where to put your children.
Epilogue: Gumbo stayed at the house when we moved and I don't know what's going on with her. I can only hope that she's okay and that she's making better choices now.
She began coming inside sometimes and letting her kittens be held. She enjoyed belly rubs sometimes when she was pregnant and laying in the sun. Another funny thing that Gumbo enjoyed was putting her new kittens in interesting places. For example, we used to have a these like big crate type things that we had a garden in. They basically looked like a wooden walkway with every other plank missing. One year, Gumbo decided to put her kittens in this garden for in the winter. I believe the main idea, from her perspective, was to keep her kittens safe from whatever animals lurked in the night. This was not the best spot she could've chosen because it doesn't keep out the old; however, I don't have any memory of animals getting to her kittens when they were here. Nevertheless, she only put her new babies here once.
Another popular place she kept her kittens was in this old trailer we had. She repeatedly brought her new kittens into the world in this trailer because she seemed to deem this place safest. However, Gumbo was not very good at decision making apparently; judging off of where she put her kittens (more examples to follow). The trailer wasn't too bad a place, a lot of her batches that she brought here made it to go off into the woods backing up my house. However, there was this one night that I heard a lot of noises and barking outside, and I asked my mom if we should check it out but she said that it was time for bed. In the morning, all of the kittens were gone :(. Another time, the runt of the group froze to death and I had to take care of that.
My favorite place that Gumbo kept her kittens was in the car tires. At the time, we had a Ford F150 and a Honda minivan. In the mornings, despite our rush to get to school or wherever we were going, I still had to routinely pull kittens out of all the tires and check the engine too; just in case. Even with these precautions, sometimes, not all the kittens were taken out, or my mom just left without looking. Fortunately, these instances lead to interesting stories. For example, there were two times that my mom went to Target, and when she got out, she would notice people pulling kittens out of the tires and taking them home; which she was somewhat happy about. Another time, my dad took his truck to the shop, and when they opened up the engine there was a live kitten in the engine. To this day, we can't fathom how they were able to survive through these experiences. Maybe they got it from their parents, or just used 8 of their lives. However, overall, the moral of the story is to make better decisions on where to put your children.
Epilogue: Gumbo stayed at the house when we moved and I don't know what's going on with her. I can only hope that she's okay and that she's making better choices now.
Please do not judge me, but when I was young, around 9 or 10 years old, I was obsessed with the Warriors books. They were about cats, cats, cats, and sometimes a dog. I loved cats, I wanted a cat. My father felt otherwise, and he was very blunt in his rejection of the notion of getting a cat. He has always disliked pets, and one possible reason is he thinks they might kill us in our sleep. Anyways, I no longer really want a cat because it won't fit well in our family. But my little sister really does.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, Gumbo is an insanely good name for a cat. Also, I know that the whole point of having litters with multiple kittens is because some of them will inevitably die, but your story about the runt freezing to death still made me really sad. I always get kinda worried when I see cats wandering around outside, especially if they're in areas near fast-moving cars or other threats, like dogs and coyotes. Gumbo sounds like she can take care of herself, though. Wherever she is now, I hope she's happy.
ReplyDeleteGumbo seems like a savage. It's so great to think she put her kittens before anyone else. I really hope she's doing well because she seems like a cool cat to have. My mom had a cat who was also very protective of her kittens and wouldn't let anyone touch them. She also hid her kittens in very mysterious places like under the bed (the places were a little bit better than Gumbo's). Also Gumbo is such a cool name!
ReplyDeleteThis post is fascinating. I'm just trying to imagine you pulling out kittens from tires. I wanted to say I knew a decent amount about the behaviors of cats, but this blows all my confidence away. Is putting their kittens in odd places typical behavior?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't you tell this story in art? Wow, I thought I knew them all.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is so interesting. It reminds me of my dog who used to put her puppies in odd places too. We had an old motorhome, and she liked to put them in there to protect them
DeleteAlso I hope Gumbo is doing well too! She seems like such a sweet cat, protecting her kittens like that.