CAT TALES – Family Ties – The Gadsden County Times

I watched Momau as a feral cat, who was starving, take loving care of her 5 kittens born in the wild.

Momau was a mess, no hair, eyes matted almost closed, and skinny as a rail.

Yet, she tried to protect those kittens every way she could. She washed them and nursed them and

played with them.

When they were old enough to eat food, she would try to carry it to them across three streets, often dropping it on the way.

Other times, she would try to carry them across those streets to the food, even though they were getting big and hard to handle.

When she carried food to them, she would drop it in front of them and when they didn’t eat, she would eat it herself.

This was not a selfish act on her part.

She was teaching them that this new substance was to eat. As I carried food to them twice a day for almost a year, I marveled at her perseverance.

Only 1 disappeared, presumably killed, during this whole time.

The others were either adopted or taken to a cat sanctuary, and she came to live with me.

Having told you what a wonderful mother Momau was, you will understand why I was so appalled by her actions the other day.

My next door neighbor adopted 2 of her kittens and they occasionally come into our yard looking for any leftovers I save for the scavenging turtles.

Those now grown cats have nothing to do with me but somewhere in their cat memory they must associate me with food, because they will sit in front of my front door. If I take some food out they will run away, but later when I am invisible they will come back and eat it.

The other day, Momau saw them when I opened the door, and she flew out and chased them off the property.

I was appalled.

I had never seen Momau aggressive before, despite having moved in with that big bruiser of a cat named Beebe, and then a small dog, who moved in with his owner.

Momau took all this in stride accepting all as roommates, never batting an eye.

Why, oh why, did she now act so aggressively against her own children?

I must be a horrible human cat mother. I was upset. I was depressed.

Nurse Judy, my totally unhelpful alter ego, decided to put in her 2 cents. “Don’t blame Momau,” she said. “Sometimes I think this place is getting a little crowded myself. Sometimes I’d like to chase some of these critters out.”

“Then why don’t you just move out?” I ask, knowing full well that that isn’t an option.

She is tied to me forever.

“That’s absurd,” she says. “Why don’t you have some of these critters move out?”

I am horrified.

“That’s impossible,” I say. “They are all part of our family, and one doesn’t treat family members that way. That’s why I can’t understand Momau treating her very own kittens that way.”

“It may just be a cat thing,” she says. “Did you look it up in the Cat Encyclopedia?”

“Now you’re being absurd,” I say, stalking off, but as soon as I’m out of her sight, I get that encyclopedia.

‘Cats don’t recognize cats or people by sight,’ it said. ‘They recognize by smell. After being separated for a while, they no longer recognize those cats, who have the smell of their new environment.’

I’m a little embarrassed.

Momau is not a monster.

She really doesn’t know that those were her kittens.

She was just protecting our territory.

I don’t pass this new knowledge on to Nurse Judy, because I know she’ll just say ‘Told you so.’

I have taken the precaution of making sure Momau cannot get out when I see those neighbor cats.

I am feeling good about the solution.

After a day or two, I wonder if the smell test is the same for alter egos.

I wait for a chance to creep up on her and take a big whiff.

She’s too smart for me. She’s been into my most precious and expensive perfume and smells just like me.

I guess there’s no way I can ignore her or chase her away.

More later, Judy and the cats

CAT TALES – Family Ties

Gadsden County Times – Legals – 7/20

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