The kitten that became family one summer day
About 30 years ago, our family had a cat. It all started one summer morning when I heard a kitten mewing weakly in the staircase of a nearby apartment house. Without a second thought, I gathered up the tiny kitten whose eyes had not yet opened and brought it home. My elder sister and I fed milk and other soft food to the pathetically tiny, wobbly kitten who now had a home. Its tiny size made “Chibi” a natural choice for a name and the name stuck.
Before this we had never had a pet in the house and certainly not a recently born kitten. Completely inexperienced and not knowing what to do, we worried whether he would survive. Contrary to our fears, however, he grew and grew. In the daytime, he was alone with mother and started following her around the house. He became deeply attached to her.
However, Chibi had a will of his own. When Chibi became older he started wanting to go out. He would mew “let me out” in the direction of the glass door facing the engawa, the narrow wooden ledge running along the outside of a Japanese house. As soon as the door opened, he would be gone. A few hours later, he would be back and scratch the glass door to be let back in. As we felt sure he would come back, we decided to allow him to go out. So it became his work to patrol the garden. It seemed Chibi wanted to “protect” our garden. Whenever another cat came into our garden, he would dash into the garden, confront the intruder and tell it to “get lost.” He would show a lot of spunk, but he was not very good when it came to fighting. He would usually take a punch. Even so, he would triumphantly come back as if to say “I chased him off, didn’t I.” Then I would bring antiseptic to dress his wounds.
As Chibi was about to enter adulthood, mother passed away. During the two days of the wake and the funeral, which were held in our home, Chibi could not be found in the house or in the garden. He returned the night after the funeral. Life continued for the three of us – dad, me and Chibi, who would now house-sit alone in the daytime. Not so long after this, my elder sister gave birth to a son and Chibi started to act like his elder brother. My sister’s son could touch Chibi’s ears without angering him. And at mealtimes, Chibi would station himself close by. When he played in the garden, Chibi would sit sphinx-like watching over him. It looked like he was guarding him.
As I reminisce about Chibi, it seems like all of us treated him like a person, as a member of the family. Chibi could not speak, but his gestures and actions were eloquent enough. We interpreted Chibi’s feelings in our own way, we were happy with him, laughed with him and were sad with him.
Chibi lived with us as a member of our family, I think. Life with Chibi has taught me a lot that I would not have experienced otherwise. We had fun. We were happy. I am sure Chibi was happy, too.
Note: If you search the Internet using the search words “cat” and “milk,” you will be told that cats should not be fed cow’s milk because they cannot digest it properly and may get an upset stomach, cramps and diarrhea. This is true, but some cats can drink milk without ill effect because they are lactose tolerant. Cats who are not lactose tolerant will refuse to drink it or get sick. Kittens should only drink their mother’s milk or kitten milk replacer, because cow’s milk lack the nutrition they need. Kitten milk replacer is expensive, but you can make your own. Recipes for making kitten milk replacer can be found on the Internet.
