Author Alice Nowak


When my cat Canelle had her kittens, Merlin, the father of the kittens, attended the birth. He also shrieked heartbreaking sounds when Canelle screamed (yes, it hurts contractions). After they were born, he carefully watched the basket when she went to eat or relieve herself, and showed disagreement when a stranger at home touched them. When the kittens started to come out of the basket and run around everywhere, poor, grieving father spent his time running after them to put them back on the blanket. One of the kitten was adopted by my mother, who later came to live with me for health reasons. So we brought Gary back – that his father had not seen for 5 years. Merlin was amazed at it and looked at him like, “Oh, that’s not true!” it did not take them 2 minutes to meet: the licking on the head, big purring, and rubing … I do not know how it happens when a cat has kittens with a female he will not see again not, but mine were raised by both parents (and my female dog who acted as a nanny when Canelle weaned them).