Ode to Bell

Sarah knew birth was exciting to her, starting at a young age, when kittens were born into her life. Bell  followed Sarah home, when Sarah was 11. Bell was a beautiful siamese cat with lots of white fluff and gray undertones.Sarah heard Bell whimpering in the apartment complex car port. As a clever resourceful 5th grader, Sarah used her vanilla ice cream cone to coax Bell from the car port to the house. While normally, these 2 locations are not far from each other at most complexes, this particular complex involved a large flight of stairs and some lengthy sidewalks in between. The stairs were the most difficult part. Once Bell had made it to the front door, Sarah exclaimed that there was a hungry cat outside and she needed some milk. Bell preferred ice cream, but settled for the milk. Soon Bell became a porch cat. Then she graduated to indoors. The beautiful Siamese was a little hesitant around people, which worked well, because Sarah hadn't previously owned a pet and would grow bored of petting her fur quickly.

After a few weeks, the belly bulge was noticeable and the family discovered that they had not just taken in a cat, but they were housing a pregnant cat in need. Sarah's parents were not super excited that the 1 cat they had not agreed to, turned into more.

Sarah's parents try to prepare Sarah for the birth of the kittens. They told her what might happen, including if Bell chose not to lick the birthing sack off of the kittens, they wouldn't survive. Sarah's parents usually thought of the worst case scenario. Knowing Bell didn't like people much, they weren't sure what kind of mother she would be. But Bell had become more affectionate during her pregnancy, wanting to be comforted  & cuddle often.

One day, Sarah and her father had just come home from school. Sarah went to look for Bell and found her missing. Bell had become so large in the belly that she actually couldn't slip out the porch anymore, like she used to. The fact that she was missing was very scary..

After a few minutes of searching, a neighbor came and rang the door bell. This neighbor, Debbie, had lived next door to Sarah's family for several years. Debbie had also lost a considerable amount of weight from rollerblading. The fad had been essential to this blond woman's life, as now she looked like a model. Debbie had been sunning by the pool in her new blue bikini, when Bell tottered up to her, jumped onto the lawn chair, moaned and had her water break all over Debbie.

Debbie had snapped to it, getting a box, towels, and throwing some rags on.

When Debbie got us, all 5 kittens had already been born.
Rushing down to the pool area that day, we walked up in time to peer into the box to witness Bell licking her kittens.

This exciting moment is still memorable to Sarah's veins. The rush of excitement of birth. The longing to be involved, to see every process, and then the end result.

Running around the pool that day. Running around back and forth to the apartment, getting towels and telling mom.

We won't go into the part where the kittens were given to the humane society and Sarah's little heart broke.

But, just to reiterate the point, it was the beginning of births for her.