BB, A Very Smart Black Cat By Sharon Black

BB, A Very Smart Black Cat By Sharon Black

After three kittens were born under bushes about seven months ago began an
adventure for me and a black mama cat BB. I did know the wild black cat I fed was
pregnant. I wanted to catch her to spay her months before, but I was occupied with
getting well post Covid, and had to be on oxygen.

I finally was off oxygen, and on my birthday in October, I went out to my car to go to
church, when I heard a kitten. It came out of my open garage and rubbed on my leg.
When I returned home from church, I brought the kitten inside my house. Surprisingly it was quite tame and very loving, and sat beside me a lot.

A couple days later, my neighbor was eating at the cafeteria in Smith County Memorial Hospital where I work part- time, and said to me there are kittens under our bushes. I said I think I have one of them, were there three?

Three Little Kittens

She said yes. I suspected the mother was the wild black cat. The next day I get the other two kittens who were also very tame, and brought them inside with the other kitten. They were so happy to be together again, and played and darted under the bakers rack when they wanted to get away and sleep.

It was quite nice weather, and I had the back door open to the dog pen, and the black cat was looking inside, and finally charged in in a brave moment. She found the kittens and they were one happy family again.

The black mama cat who I called BB, was a very good mother. She wouldn’t get close
to me at all. The kittens were tame enough, but mama wouldn’t have anything to do with tameness, pets, or snuggles.

When the kittens were old enough to eat on their own, I tried to catch BB. First attempt was a towel thrown on her and do a grab, but she wiggled out. My second attempt with a cancelled appointment at the vet, was a grab at the eating dish. Failure.

Then one day she was in a carrier, and I didn’t know it. UGH! So with a trap set up, and the never-failing sardines, I set up the trap in the bedroom. I peek in, she was in it, but stabbing the food with her paw, not touching the trip lever.

BB wanted to go outside so badly, and now she had been inside for almost seven
months.

I had to catch her, because she did sneak out one day and I squeezed a tiny stuffed toy kitten that meowed and she ran into the house, looking around like, which kitten is calling me? It was a matter of time when I would accidentally leave a door open, and she would escape and come back ‘with child.’

There were enough tom cats circling the house sensing her, and of course, I fed them.

I began to have a sore knee, but that wouldn’t stop me from catching her. I was
determined that one Monday to catch her. After several tries of putting my hands on her in a shut bedroom, I closed off any hidey holes and under furniture. She resorted to running away from me via the top of furniture, and at the table, I grabbed her with both hands tightly, put her in the dog kennel on the floor, and shut the door. I was ecstatic! Success.

I called my vet, and they had no appointments until the next month. The next choice of veterinarian said she could.

Four days later, I let her out, but the toms were after her because even though she was spayed, she was still in heat. She enjoyed the outdoors once again. The next night, she came inside with her kittens and has been coming in at night since being spayed.

Now, she can come and go as she wants with no worries about unwanted kittens in the future from her. She may never warm up to human touch, but at least her life is going to be better.

Sharon Black

Sharon Black has been writing for many years including newspapers, short stories, and as a publisher. She was born in Nebraska and has lived in Kansas most of her life. In her hometown of Smith Center, Kansas,  Willa Cather’s hometown is to the north and Bob Dole’s hometown is to the south. Sharon is a press release writer for the National Parks Arts Foundation and writes for b U n e k e  magazine. The biggest project she has accomplished is the co-writer of the TV movie Home on the Range. The movie is about the song, which is the state song of Kansas and the lawsuit surrounding it in the 1930s and finding the rightful author of the song. Sharon is distantly related to the Mississippi writer Eudora Welty.