Little Sweetie Has A Plan.

  

 

It was a beautiful Sunday in late March. Allen and I were sitting outside under the redwoods basking in the warmth of the sun. We had an appointment later on to go view a car that was for sale on the other side of the bay, a little more than an hour’s drive away but for now, we were still relaxing and enjoying the day.

Little Sweetie, our big momma cat, came wandering over to us, meowing.

“Hey, Sweetie,” said Allen, reaching out to pet her. ‘What’s up, pretty girl?’

Sweetie snuggled into his caress for a bit; then she meowed and kept walking. When she got to where I was, I ran my hands over her lovely, black spotted white back. Two of the spots were close to each other and when she sat a certain way they looked like a heart shape.

Sweetie was a beautiful kitty (all our cats were, of course!) with big inquisitive eyes. She was really smart and the undisputed matriarch, who had it all under control always keeping a good eye on everything. Right now, she was ‘big as a cow’.

“When are you going to give us your babies, Sweetie?” I asked, stroking her. “You look like you’re ready to burst any moment…”

She arched her back and meowed again. The she started walking down the trail towards the neighbors’ but as soon as she came to the steps she turned around and came back up, meowing again. She did that several times, until I said “Looks like Sweetie wants us to follow her…”

Allen laughed. “Haha,” he said. “You mean as in ‘Lassie’ – when she’d bark to mean ‘Come on, Timmy…!’ ?”

I laughed as well. “Perhaps… “

I kept watching Sweetie, who was still doing her loops. “Let’s just go and see what she wants.”

“Alright then,” Allen got up and together we followed Sweetie down the trail to the steps and past the first neighbor to the Harper’s house.

We lived about a half mile off Highway 9, not too close, but we always kept the traffic in mind. People often came from ‘over the hill’ in Silicon Valley, high on the adrenalin rush of their fast little ‘super cars’ flying round the bends in the Santa Cruz Mountains, racing to get to the beach or other ‘urgent’ destinations. While we were aware that our cats went walking on down the drive we were also doing our best to make sure we didn’t encourage them to get close to the road.

The neighbor that Sweetie had got to was still quite a stretch from the highway. Nevertheless we began to feel a little uncomfortable about her going there, and so we said “That’s far enough, Sweetie. Come on, we’re going back up now… Let’s go home!”

We started walking back up the bank to the house with Sweetie following us, reluctantly, it seemed.

Once there, we sat down to resume our previous relaxing and enjoying. Sweetie decided to resume her meowing and pacing.

After a while, I couldn’t watch it any longer. I had to find out what she was trying to say. After all, we were both trying to be animal communicators, I thought. This was a pretty obvious case for practice in my eyes.

“I think Sweetie still has something she wants to show us. I’m going to go down and see where she wants to take me.” Then I turned to Little Sweetie and said, “Let’s go, sweetie. Show me what’s up…”

She ran off down the hill with me following. Down the bank and past the neighbor’s we went. When we got the Harper’s she disappeared under their house among garden chairs and other summer paraphernalia that were stowed there. There was a lattice that was big enough for a cat to get in but not for a human.

I stood and peered in. “I can’t follow you in there, Sweetie…” I called. “It’s too small for me…”

No problem for Sweetie. She walked all the way through to the other side and came back out there. Then, all of a sudden, she was gone.

I walked to the side of the house and looked up the banks there. No sign whatsoever of black and white ‘football sized’ Sweetie. Hm… She had to be around somewhere, she couldn’t just vanish… Well, actually, I believe that cats can disappear and reappear at will, but I was sure this was not such an instance.

Walking up the side of the house a redwood stump caught my eye. Intuition began to beep with excitement. ‘I bet she’s in there!’

I really didn’t want to stick my hand in there not knowing what I would find… I went back up to the house to fetch a mirror and a flashlight. Shining it into the stump confirmed exactly what I had expected: There was Little Sweetie, so snug and cozy, curled up in her perfect hideaway I could have sworn she was grinning at me

I ran back to the house. “Allen…!” I called. “You gotta see this…!”

“What?”

“Let me show you…!”

Allen eventually got up from his seat and followed me. Down the trail to the steps, past the neighbor’s.

“Where are we going?” he said.

“Wait for it, you won’t believe what she’s got, it’s totally awesome…”

Allen followed me around to the other side of the Harper’s house listening to my account of what had happened.

“She came all the way down here and then she disappeared. I figured she must be here somewhere, and guess what – “ I pointed to the stump.

Up the bank we went and when we got to it I shined my light on to the mirror that I had pointed inside it.

There she was, looking cool and pretty darn smug for an expectant mother.

We were both full of praise. “Wow, Sweetie, what a lovely little ‘cabin’ you found yourself! Well done, pretty girl. You are awesome!” Then we walked back up to the house, talking about what an amazing kitty she was to find that stump and lead us to it the way she did. It felt like we could be the next ‘Flipper’ or ‘Lassie’ people. We didn’t know half of it yet…

It was soon time for us to get into the car and drive over to Livermore to see the vehicle we were thinking of buying. It took almost three hours before we were back again.

As usual, all of our cats came running out to greet us as we drove up… all, except Sweetie, that is. We fed the hungry crowd and then called for her to come join us.

Sweetie didn’t appear though. She’s probably having a snooze somewhere, we said, and sat down to check emails and messages.

An hour later she still hadn’t showed up.

‘You know,” I said to Allen, “I bet she’s in her stump…”

“Knowing Sweetie, she could well be. Let’s go and see…”

Down the trail and the steps we went, past the neighbors’ house and up the other side of the Harper’s.

When we got to the stump I shined the light and said, “I think I can see her.”

Allen reached in. He was braver than I was… then he smiled.

“What is it? What is it?” I got really excited.

He pulled out his arm and showed me what he held in his hand. It was a beautiful newly born kitten, black and white like Sweetie.

“The first thing I felt when I reached in…”

I let out a squeal of delight. “She’s had her kittens, and all by herself! While we were gone…!”

“How many are there…?” I asked.

“At least three.” Allen said.

We debated briefly if it was best to leave them where they were or if we should bring them all up to the house. The house won, and I ran up to get the kitten bed for safe and snug transport. One by one Allen picked them out, handing them to me to put in the bed. There were five, all healthy and well. Sweetie came out last, accompanied by major praise from us. Then I took the bed and, Allen followed me up to the house, carrying Sweetie. We had to stop halfway because she became anxious about her kittens until we showed her that I had them all, safe and sound in the basket bed I was cradling close to me.

We placed her in the closet where she had had her first litter the year before and where we knew the familiar smells and sounds would reassure her while at the same time give the kitties a perfect nursery.

Once all was taken care of we looked at each other and gradually it dawned on us what Sweetie’s Master Plan had been all along.

“She knew we would be gone because we told her.”
“She must also have known she would be having the babies this afternoon.”

“And so she found the perfect place where she could have them all by herself AND told us beforehand where she would be in case we came back and didn’t find her…!”

“She must have totally planned this. I wonder what she was thinking when we were so slow to get her meaning…”

I giggled, imagining Sweetie’s comments: “Humans… I wonder if they ever use those big brains …?”

Little Sweetie when she was a baby, meeting a big Labradoodle. She was not afraid of anything! (photo: Allen Atkinson)