| The kittens |
It was about a month after Mortimer saved the baby that fell into the well that we began to notice his strange behavior. Mortimer had taken to avoiding humans and, it seemed, was spending much time alone. His eating habits had changed too. Instead of his normal wolfing down of his food, he would carry the larger pieces off, apparently to eat in private. Something was obviously bothering him, but what? About the same time, we also noticed that one of the main cats was missing, but at the time we did not connect the two events. It all came to a head the day before the wheat harvest began. The Koontz family was having a big reunion at the big tin Quonset shed up on the hill east of the farm house. The usual Hanston relatives were in attendance, and several families were in from out of town. The barbeque grill was working full out, and the hamburgers were cooked expertly by Uncle Paul. Once cooked, the hamburgers were placed on the back of the grill to keep warm. As the large family ate their hamburgers and visited, Mortimer seemed almost his usual self. Then, as Uncle Paul and Uncle Loren were discussing something about carburetors, Uncle Loren suddenly jumped up and ran toward the barbeque grill. "Get away from there!" he shouted at Mortimer. But it was too late. Mortimer had carefully lifted one of the largest hamburgers off the back of the grill by turning his head sideways and using just his teeth to avoid burning his mouth. When Uncle Loren shouted "Get away from there!" Mortimer turned and ran down the hill, carrying his prize. Uncle Loren gave chase, shouting "Bad dog! Bad dog!", but could not keep up with Mortimer. Uncle Loren was half way down the hill when he saw Mortimer, now about a quarter of a mile ahead of him, disappear behind the barn. Uncle Loren continued running down the hill, but not as fast as before. When he reached the corner of the barn, he was out of breath, and stopped to lean against the barn. Catching his breath, Uncle Loren's attention was drawn to the old silo, a few hundred feet beyond the barn. He could not believe what he saw. There was Mortimer, standing at the edge of the open silo and looking down into it. He had just dropped the hamburger into the silo. The silo, used for storing hay, was currently empty. About 40 feet deep and roughly 20 feet in diameter, it was off limits to all of the Koontz grandchildren because of the danger of someone falling into it. Uncle Loren walked over to the silo and looked down into it. At first, he did not understand what he was seeing. At the bottom of the silo was the missing cat, seemingly in good shape. There was something else, something small, no, several small something's, and they were moving. Then, Uncle Loren understood. The cat had fallen into the silo, and could not get out. The cat had given birth to six beautiful kittens, and all this time, Mortimer had been bringing food to the mother cat and her kittens. Mortimer had not moved from his position at the edge of the silo, and now seemed to be smiling. The final outcome of this farm episode was that Uncle Loren climbed down into the silo and rescued the mother cat and her kittens, who then took up residence in the barn with the other cats. Mortimer, in a ceremony befitting a king, was hailed as a hero by all the Koontz family, and was given several hamburgers to eat, and was presented with a brand new chrome-plated food dish (hub cap from a 1941 Buick). After this, Mortimer was very happy, and carried his new food dish around to show anyone that would pay attention. |
| Unpublished work � 2002 Carl M. Fox |