by Brenda Nelson

Created on: April 22, 2009   Last Updated: April 23, 2009

For most people, the cat that changed their lives is one that they owned. For me, it was all the cats who never had owners. These cats were the ones who set my life path to what it is today, and made a real impact on me. They changed my life forever.

The scene was me and mom doing dishes, she was washing, I was drying. I was young, but I do not even have a feel for my age. I do not remember how, or why, the conversation started. I cannot even guess, but at some point my mother told me the most horrific thing I had ever heard in my life.

Mom was born and raised in the country, she hated it. I was born and raised in the city, I hated it. There is something known as a "farm mentality", basically some farmers have what might be termed as a "colder view on life and suffering". Moms tale revolved around this mentality.

Mom informed me that many farmers, when burdened with too many kittens, would put the kittens into a bag and toss it on to the road, or into a river. Although I accused her of lying and told myself that she must have been lying, I have since learned that what she told me was very true, and it changed my life forever. I began to have a bigger love of animals, and a smaller respect for people.

We had a family cat, and that cat was well loved. My parents were good pet owners, our cat was vaccinated, dewormed, and most important of all, he was neutered. With the exception of people who take their cats to shows to prove their worth as breeding animals, how I determine if a person is a good or bad owner, is primarily based on if their pet is neutered, spayed, or not.

When finally it came to pass that I owned my own home, one of my first acts was to adopt an adult (spayed) cat. Later I was to have a total of four.

My life was not changed by my cats, I probably changed theirs, everyone of them was an adult cat at the time of adoption, and as we know adult cats are seldom adopted. None the less, they did not change my life. My life was changed by those whom I could not adopt.

I started volunteering, and later working, at the animal shelter where my kitties came from. I brought home several litters of kittens who were orphaned and too young to be at the shelter. I spent a lot of nights awake bottle feeding kittens and wiping their tiny bums to get them to go to the bathroom. Of course they always went back to the shelter to be put for adoption.

I would come home with foster wild kittens who had to be tamed. When ever I brought home a foster pet, it lived in my bedroom

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