Not much larger than a pickle,
umbilical cord still intact,
cooking in the hot sun
in the middle of the road:
how did you come to be here?
Wrapped in a t-shirt,
placed in a cardboard box
with a heating pad for a floor,
adopted by another mother:
no hope of surviving.
A dropper replaces the feline nipple,
cow's milk for cat's,
every two hours with hope impossible,
a wet paper towel for a loving tongue,
coaxing bowel movements at midnight:
you live to see the dawn!
Dubbed Lintu, Finnish for "bird",
the name is absurd,
as is your existence and luck,
but you live another day,
and then a week, then two:
your eyes open.
You feed from a bottle now,
filled with warm milk and cream,
crawling across your box
before nesting into a dream.
I can't believe you made it,
but now at two months,
you claw up my screens
and attack my ankles:
you've beaten the odds
and proved your mother wrong.
Each night, when I whistle,
you leap across the carpet
and into my lap
for that warm milk bottle
that perhaps will continue
for the rest of your life,
if luck be with you,
and if mother doesn't run dry!
Author notes
This tiny one day old kitten was found in the road, abandoned, and we hand raised it and can't believe it lived! Having lots of fun with this special gift!
A contest entry
- Pet Poetry by Cynthia Gaines.
1200 points, ended July 1, 2008, 25 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
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Thank you for entering this contest!!!
I really enjoyed reading about your wonderful (and lucky) pet kitten! I'll bet its really fun to have around the house!! Your creative poem is an ode of pride and loving joy, straight from your kind and compassionate heart. Thank you for sharing. I wish you all the best!!! Peace, Cyn 
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Thank you so much for feeling this poem, as I just HAD to write it because I have fallen in love with this precious little kitten that I fretted over night after night and honestly, at times, felt she would never make it! Aloha, friend!
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Linta
I thought this was touching,and I understand how touching a siduation like that can be.Bless you for ssaving God's creatures! -
Sappy
This isn't really a good poem, but I guess you were moved to say something about the experience. If you want more polished work, set to music, then listen to yourself more often at www.nakedadam.net!
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