Article: Happy Mother's Day To All You Who Are "Moms" Of Furkids

IMAGE SOURCE~©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTO

Sachiko at 17 days old

I realize it's a little "early" to be posting this now, but thought I'd get a head start before Mother's Day

Originally published May 12, 2013 Bubblews, a webs tie that no longer exists

Okay people looking at the title of this might scratch their heads and go. HUH? In my opinion though, one doesn't necessarily need to be a mother to a human child, but yes indeed, we can be "moms" of the furry or even winged "child".

Those of us who have pets often think of them as our children, and believe me I'm no exception. We have to nurture them, take care of them, provide for them, from the moment we get our furry child every much as one would for a human child. In my case, I've had a few "bottle babies" that I've taken care of in the past. The first bottle baby was a newborn kitten that the neighborhood kids found in the garbage, yes, the garbage back in 1987. I'm guessing that this newborn kitten was born that very day as she still had her umbilical cord attached. The kids knew I had cats already and couldn't think of anyone else who could take care of this innocent life that had been tossed away in the garbage save for me of course.

Raising such a young infant animal takes every bit of effort and patience as raising a human child. One has to bottle fed the young newborn animal every two hours with a special formula. Also, one has to encourage the young newborn animal to "do it's business" by rubbing it's bottom to make it "go"…I used to use a warm moistened paper towel to accomplish this; normally it's the mother animal that licks the newborn baby's bottom.

I decided to name the kitten Sachiko. Such a young animal, like a newborn kitten is born with their eyes shut, thus can't see, nor can they hear until about two weeks later. But they can sure smell and sense their presence of their "mom". I used to keep Sachiko in a box with a towel, and kept the box in a large pet traveling case in the bedroom to keep her safe from the older cats I had at the time. While Sachiko would be sleeping I would sneak in the bedroom where I kept the case to get something. Well like I said, she couldn't see nor hear, but she could smell my scent and the moment I was in the bedroom started meowing like crazy….eats time! Yes she would wake up then wanting to be "fed" her bottle again. Yup folks, I was definitely "mom".

Sachiko became one of my velcro cats, being completely attached to me in a way that my other cats didn't, not of course that they didn't attach themselves to me, but it was different with Sachiko…The bond was much stronger since in a sense I really had been her "mom" since only hours after her birth.

So if any of you are "moms" to your furkids….I'm wishing you a Happy Mother's Day as we deserve recognition as being "moms" also.

I include a watermarked photo of Sachiko when she was only 17 days old. By then she could hear and see.