Kittens in the Courthouse

             Some 25 years ago, when I was on the bench, Donna and I discovered that a little black cat had delivered kittens in our back yard. We called her "Mommy" and watched the kittens grow. Then, suddenly, one day, they were gone. We figured that a dog or something had got to them. Mommy, however, was still around.

            A couple of months later, we determined that Mommy was again pregnant. But, this time, we decided to bring her into the house to have her kittens. Shortly, she produced five precious little balls of fur.

            Donna and I became cat people very soon after we were married. When we returned from our honeymoon we moved into our apartment in Buckeye Village, OSU's married student housing, and began our Fall Quarter classes. Walking back to the apartments after that season's (1965) first home football game, we discovered a young cat in a field across Olentangy River Road. We picked her up, took her home, and named her Sooty.

            Since that day, we have always had at least one cat. Today we share our home with Willie and Tybee. Willie marched into the house one day and decided to stay just as I unlocked and opened the front door. I have no idea where he came from. Tybee was a tiny kitten, fostered with his litter mates by our son Adam and daughter-in-law Sandy until he was old enough to come home.

            We have a soft spot for cats.

            After Mommy had her kittens, we had her spayed, changed her name to Mimi, and she became part of our family for many years. But, what were we to do with the five kittens?

            One morning, when the kittens were about six weeks old, I put them in a cardboard box and carried them to the Courthouse with me. I figured that, cute as they were, I would have no problem finding them good homes with my co-workers in Domestic Relations Court. I was right. The kittens became the prime attraction on the sixth floor that day, and, by the time 5 o'clock rolled around, all five had been claimed and were on their way to their new forever homes.

            I got regular reports on the kittens from their new families over the years. All of them were loved and several produced offspring of their own. In fact, one of the cat adopters told me that the kitten I had assured her was a male had given birth to a litter of seven kittens!

            I know there are "dog people" and "cat people" and sometimes they don't see eye-to-eye. But I can't imagine a home without an animal that cares about us. I think about Sooty and how she introduced us to the joys of cat ownership. I view each of our long line of cats as gifts of love that made our lives a little more livable.