A Kitten’s View of the World

BOOM! There it was again. That loud noise that shook the earth came with a big bright light in the sky this time. Thankfully they were cuddled up close to Mama with their heads covered by this large box. A lot of water was falling from the sky outside the box, but they weren’t getting too wet under here.

She didn’t like getting her head wet, but she liked the water. When they all walked around when water wasn’t falling from the sky, Mama always brought them to pools of water so they could have a drink.

Mama didn’t like getting her head wet, either. It was nice to have her nearby during the storm, but she knew that when it was over, Mama would venture out to find some food. Sometimes she came back with something to share with them, like a mouse or a bird. But even if she did bring something back, she would still let them suckle on her. This made her feel all warm and happy.

There were three of them, plus Mama. There had been four of them, but their other sister had gotten lost one night. That was when Mama moved the three of them to this new place. She had picked them up in her mouth one by one and carried them in the dark. Here they had found this box where they could hide underneath when the water was falling, and sometimes Mama took them there at night while she went hunting.

Mama wanted them to stay put when she was gone, but it was getting harder and harder. They were hungry a lot of the time, plus, there were so many fun things to explore! Next to the big box, they found some big pieces of wood that they could climb and scratch with their claws. It was so much fun to play and nap on the pile of wood.

The three of them mostly stuck together when Mama was gone. Her brother had the hardest time when Mama left—he wanted to always be next to Mama. When she wasn’t there, he stayed close to me or my sister. Her sister was the bravest of them all! At night she remained close by, but when they all were walking around during the day, she would always stray off to explore something. One day she walked right up to the man who lived in the big box next to ours and meowed at him! That was so scary that she ran away and caught back up to the three of us.

They sometimes met other animals, either when they were under the box or just walking around with Mama. Mama was good at making them go away by just making a hissing sound, which was impressive since some of them were bigger than her. There was the black and white one who smelled funny and the big fat furry one with the funny black face and paws. They only saw them at night.

Then there was the orange one. He was the same kind of animal as them, but Mama didn’t like him very much. Whenever he came near us, Mama made a lot of angry noises and he backed away.

One day, Mama was gone for an extra long time. We didn’t know what to do, so we stayed close to the box and the woodpile. We were so hungry. Then a human from the big box put some food next to the wood. This was different from what Mama always brought us. It was small pieces of crunchy food—it was tasty. There was also water to drink. Where is Mama?

There were voices nearby from two humans. They spoke softly but we stayed away from them, hiding behind our big box. Mama always kept us away from the people we saw when we were walking around with her. We weren’t sure if they were nice or not, but they sure are big! It's best to just hide together until they go away.

When they left, there was a new box thing near our woodpile. It was strange looking and was made of something different from our hiding place box. We sniffed around it, unsure of what it was. There was food inside! It had a strong smell, and we were so hungry. My sister, always the bold one, walked right into the box to check it out. My brother was right behind her; he had been sticking close to her while Mama was gone.

As soon as he went into the box after my sister, there was a big SNAP! The box opening where they had gone in had closed and now my sister and brother were inside the box, and I was outside. The loud noise was so scary that I jumped away from the box. I went back to our hiding spot behind our safe box. What was I going to do without Mama and my brother and sister?

A woman came back and took the box away with my brother and sister inside. Then she put out a new box, just like the one before. But I was too scared to go near it, so I stayed in my safe spot. Eventually, I heard her take the box away and put out some more of the crunchy food and water. I spent that night alone under the large box, hoping that Mama would come back. Luckily, no other animals came by, and it stayed dry all night. But I couldn’t sleep. I was so scared.

The next day, the woman came back. I was feeling a little braver today. I was so hungry, so maybe if they saw me, they would leave some more food. I sat on top of our woodpile, making myself as big as I could. The human looked at me but didn’t try to come close. She set up the same box as yesterday with the food inside, but the box was bigger today and there was a blanket over it. From under the blanket, I could hear my sister and brother! They were meowing at me!

I had to get to them. When I walked around to the opening of the box, I could smell the food and I could see my brother and sister. I walked into the box—boy, that food smelled good! Just as I got to the food, I heard that SNAP! I jumped and hit the side of the box. Ow! It was hard.

The next thing I knew, the woman had picked up the box with me in it and carried it into a large, dark room. Then she put the box with my sister and brother in it next to me and opened the boxes so I could be with them. She put more of the crunchy food and water into the box with us. When she went away, we ate the food. It was so good!

I was so happy to be back with my sister and brother! For the next day or two, we kept moving from one box to another. First, it was a big box with food, water, and some stuff that we could dig around in to pee and poop, the way Mama had taught us. Then the woman moved all three of us into a much smaller box with a soft blanket inside and took us inside another box. But this box moved!

Everything was shaking underneath us and sometimes we were tossed around inside our smaller box. But at least I was with my sister and brother. We could see the woman in the box with us. She made funny noises at us, which made things a little less scary.

When the movement stopped, the woman brought us to a large room with strange smells. There were different humans there who pulled us out of our box with their hands. We had never been touched by humans before! We all tried hissing and scratching like Mama taught us, but that didn’t scare them. They were so much bigger than us. They poked and prodded and even stuck me with a sharp thing (OUCH!), but it was over quickly. They did the same to my brother and sister, and then they put us back into our small box. It was cozy here, and it was so nice to be together. So much had happened today, that we fell asleep curled up together.

When we woke up, the woman who had brought us here peeked into the box and looked at us. Then she picked up our box and put us back in the other box that moved. We really didn’t like this, but she made her noises again and I just curled up close to my sister and brother. When we stopped moving, the woman carried our box into a new place and opened it so we could walk around.

We were in a bright room where the ground was soft under our paws. The woman was in the room with us, but we stayed away from her. There were lots of new things to explore! There were toys, blankets, boxes to hide in, food, water, and a place to pee and poop. We all ate and explored everything in this new room, but then we all started to fall asleep. The woman left us alone in the room, but when she left, she took the food with her.

We stayed in this room for a long time. The woman came in to see us a few times a day, and a man came, too. They always brought food with them, so they must be nice. They played with us with strings, and my sister got close enough to let them touch her! I missed the touches we used to get from Mama—it just wasn’t the same from my sister and brother. I wonder if the touches from the humans would feel as good.

Somehow the people kept getting closer and closer to us. Soon they were touching us while we ate! We weren’t sure about this, but the touches felt nice. And they always came with yummy food. The humans always came down to the ground to sit with us—they were a lot less scary this way. Their touches felt so nice that we all started to go close to them to get more. When they touched us, we made the rumbling sounds that we used to make when we would suckle on Mama or when we ate the crunchy food.

One day, the humans came in with a new food that smelled so good. It was very soft and wet, and they put it on their paws. Of course, my sister was the first one to get up close to the humans and eat the new food from their paws. She was making that rumbling sound like crazy, so I went forward next. OH! This food was so yummy, and the humans seemed to like having us crawl over them. The last one to come over was my brother, but then he took all the food! We ate so much that we all got sleepy. When the humans left, we all curled up together, with full bellies and feeling very content.

Usually, it was the same man and woman who came to visit us. But as we got more comfortable with them, other humans came to play with us. Some were big humans like the man and woman, but there were also smaller humans. They were all nice to us, giving us lots of touches and playing with our toys.

But one of these women came and when she left, she took my sister with her. Did she go to be with Mama? I was happy to stay in the nice room with my brother. He is still a little timid with humans, so I think he needs me.

By now, we had explored every inch of our room. Sometimes we heard other cats outside the door. We made noises at them through the door and sometimes put our paws under the door to touch them. Suddenly, the door was left open by the humans, and we could peek out. No one was there to stop us, so we walked out of our room. Wow, there was so much more to explore! There were more rooms, lots of soft places to sleep, and big steps to run up and down. We met two big cats who lived in the house. They didn’t seem very happy to see us, especially the male cat, but we were having so much fun exploring that we ignored him.

My brother and I got so tired walking around this entire place that we fell asleep together in a nice soft bed that seemed perfectly made for the two of us. We could explore more when we woke up.

Every day there was more to discover, including lots of warm, soft places to sleep. When it got dark at night, everyone in the house, including the humans and the cats, all went into one room to sleep. They all piled onto this big bed. It was warm next to the humans, so we tried to find a spot to sleep. The big male cat got mad at us if we got too close to the woman, but we found a spot together on the bed where we could share the warmth. This was fun.

Life was good in this big place. It was nice to always be warm and dry, to have humans to give pets, and there was always plenty of food to eat. My brother and I discovered that we could sometimes sleep on the two humans. When they sat down, they made a nice soft bed where we could both curl up, especially when they put a blanket down first.

Sometimes, I could hear water hitting the outside wall. But I didn’t have to worry about getting wet anymore.

BOOM! There was that noise again! But now I was inside this nice place where I was warm and dry and my belly was full. I curled up on the soft bed next to my brother and went back to sleep.