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The small tabby cat never thought twice about it. She’d heard the hens clucking and carrying on, and she saw the brown feathers, the color of Henny Penny, floating around the barnyard, and knew what they said was true. When Henny didn’t return, Kitty curled up on the three little brown eggs she knew where Henny’s and purred to them. She’d seen Henny raise a few broods in the last year and knew she would sit for about three weeks, and when Henny didn’t return, she knew that is what she had to do.
Kitty had always known she wanted to be a Mother. She remembered even before she could see, when her Momma was licking her face that she wanted to be just like her. Momma was always there for them. She taught them how to catch mice and where to stand to get the most milk when the farmer was milking Bessie and all about life. Momma had even told her not to get involved with Bocephus, the neighborhood Tom Cat, but she hadn’t listened to her then.
Kitty had known she was pregnant, and told Bocephus, and she never saw him again. She cried, but the only one who came was Momma. Momma consoled her and licked her face like when she was a kitten, and told her about having babies, about the best place to put them while they couldn’t see, and about what to do when they cried. She told Kitty she was going to be a good Momma and she was sorry Bocephus had run off, but that she would be there for her.
Kitty found a place to have her babies. It was warm and secluded and Momma approved so Kitty started shaping it, and preparing it for her family. The day finally came and she was frightened. She knew what Momma had told her but she also knew her family was way too early. Her first baby came and she licked it and pushed it to her to keep it warm, but the baby only moved a little and then not at all, the same with her next two. Kitty cried and cried. Momma came, and consoled her. She said God had reasons for things he did, though she didn’t understand either. She grieved with Kitty over her grandkittens, and they carried them one by one and buried them in the soft dirt in the farmers Family Cemetery. Kitty continued to cry and mope around watching the barnyard babies playing until the day she saw Henny’s feathers flying. She knew what she was supposed to do.
Kitty sat for three days without moving, and she knew she had to get something to eat, then she felt it—one of the eggs moved, then another. Kitty stood up and watched as her babies poked their beaks out and then their heads, and then shook off their shells. Kitty licked them all as Momma had shown her. She knew they had to eat, and she had no milk, but she had seen where Henny brought her babies, and started meowing for the chicks to follow. They followed her and bounced off her paws this way and that. Kitty brought them to the feeder as she had seen Henny do and they began to peck and scratch. Kitty was glad they did as she wasn’t quite sure how to do it. She’d tried the stuff they pecked at out of curiosity, but spit it right back out. As the chicks pecked, she watched, and other chickens came with their broods. Kitty heard them clucking and talking about her, and how those chicks looked like Henny Penny, and they had to be, but how. She heard ‘Wow’ more than once from the big Rooster as he was the Dad and something about a Cat for a wife, and more wows, and strutting around. Kitty watched her baby chicks, in wonder at how now she had a family, an odd looking family for a cat, but she had one and she was happy. Kitty meowed at her chicks and walked back to the nest. Her babies peeped and followed, randomly running around her legs and bumping into her as they walked. She took them to the nest where they curled up with her for a nap and she licked them one by one, and closed her eyes.
Kitty slept well, and awoke to her babies peeping, and the memory of her Momma saying “God has his reasons.”
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