Calla was a kitten that nobody wanted. She was a little grey
and white kitten with blue eyes. She was not fat and frisky like most kittens
because she had no home where there was milk in a saucer on the floor. She just
wandered about trying to find something to eat but being such a baby kitten,
she did not know exactly where to look for food. Usually the big cats found it
first.
Calla followed many different people, mewing in her sad
little voice as she ran after them. She seemed to be coaxing to· be taken home.
But usually the people would hurry along paying no attention to the homeless
kitten, scampering after them. Sometimes a person would stop and say, Scat!,
which scared Calla and made her run away.
"Oh Jerry," said Mother, "put that dirty cat
down."
"I want to take it home, "Jerry answered." She
is a hungry kitten I know."
"But," replied Mother, "we do not have much
food at our house."
"She can have some of my supper. Please, Mother,"
coaxed Jerry.
"Very well," she said, ''but you will have to take
care of her yourself."
"Oh, I will, I will," Jerry answered happily.
And so he did and Calla grew into a fine big cat. Then one day something very special happened to her. She had three little kittens. Jerry took special care of Calla then and gave her extra milk to drink. He loved to play with the three kittens and he gave them each a name which were Teeny and Tiny because they looked so very much alike and Tippy because he had a white tip on his little grey tail.
Jerry's mother said they could not keep so many kittens
because the extra milk for Calla and her kittens cost money and Jerry's mother
did not have much money. Jerry felt sad about this because he did not want
these little kittens to be hungry and go wandering about the streets all alone
begging someone to take them home.
So Jerry went about looking for a good home for each of the
kittens. First he found Mr. Taylor, the baker who took Teeny because he needed
a cat to catch the mice around his store. Then he found Mrs. Jackson who lived
next door. She took Tiny to give to her little grandson for a pet. Last of all
Jerry found Miss Anderson. She was a teacher at the school and she lived all
alone so she was very happy to have Tippy for her special kitten friend to keep
her company at home.
So the three kittens all bad good homes and they were happy
and Calla was happy but most of all Jerry was a happy boy.
Do you know why?
('Child’s Way' magazine, October 1953)
