Stray Cats

I think that it was in the late 1980's when I realized that we had a lot of stray cats in our neighborhood. One day one of my brothers was cleaning up our of our mother's lots. He made a discovery.
My brother showed me a mother cat and her baby kittens. I cannot recall how many baby kittens there were. But the family of cats lived in a truck bed type shelter.

Through the days, weeks ahead the mother cat and father cat would abandon their kittens. One day one of my brothers saw that the mother and father cat would not let their kittens eat. I did not know that cats did that.

My brother would also see the mother or the father cat coming to get the food while the baby kitten would be eating. My brother noticed that there was baby kitten looking around as he was eating. And when the kitten saw one of his parents coming he would run away.

So then my brother started to chase off the mother and father cat when the baby kittens would eat. Through the process of time, there was one cat that draw fond of my brother. So my brother name that cat "Killer Wood."

"Killer Wood" would start coming to my brother, "Eddie". "Killer Wood" would only come to my brother. But eventually he would come to me and others.

I recall one time "Killer Wood would come in to our front door a little ways, looked around and went back out the door. I thought that that was strange.

As for "Killer Wood" we don't know what happen to him. My brother noticed that "Killer Wood's hair was shedding. The cat did not look right.

The last we heard of "Killer Wood", someone saw of him was going down a sewer in February 1999. "Killer Wood" lived to be about 8 or 9. That is good for a stray cat.

Then about two years ago, another stray cat came into our lives. This happened at the house where we use to live. This cat made his home under our house.

This cat reminded us of "Killer Wood." He was very friendly. We later found out that it was one of our neighbors cat that left home.

My brother Eddie named this cat, "Woody". "Woody would always come a running for something to eat. Then one day Eddie notice something about this cat.

"Wood" was a girl cat. She was about to give birth to her kittens. Then one day we did not know where "Woody" was. She had her kittens but we did not know where.

Not to long after the kittens were born, "Woody" came up to my brother, Eddie. "Woody" collapsed. It turned out that she was hit by a car. We ended up calling the animal control. They came and got "Woody" and her kittens.

The irony of this story. "Woody" came back to tell Eddie that she was hurt. That was strange. Perhaps she was worried about her kittens.

We did not know where the kitten were until they came out from under our house. There were about 5 of them. The were wondering where their mother was.

There are still a lot of stray cats in the neighborhood. Some of them look like "Killer Wood" and "Woody". Perhaps they are from the same family of cats.

By the way, it is against the law to feed cats that are not registered in St Joseph, MO. That is what a friend told me. Yeah, there is a fine, if caught. (Cat License)

P.S.
We don't feed stray cats. Our dogs don't like cats. They bark at time all the time.

What I am aware of on
my journey of transformation.
As I was thinking about some of the animals that live in our neighborhood, how they came a part of our lives. Seeing the birds , the squirrels, the dogs and stray cats, how they survived and eat every day. They depended on their source of food from somebody.

This reminds me of our Family Dogs and Neighbor Dogs that I remember as I was growing up. How they were a part of our lives. There were a lot of dogs in our neighborhood. Cats would not have made it back then.

From my Book of Thanks and Blessings....
Father God, I am thankful that you put animals in our lives to care for. I am thankful that we have FAITH as a mustard seed. I am thankful for the saving knowledge of Jesus my SALVATION. I am thankful for the HOPE the in within me. I am thankful for the Door of HOPE.