My Mother, the Pied Piper

Seattle, Washington | Originally written May 24, 2021

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I'm fairly certain the the people in my parent's neighborhood are going to think my Mom is a witch.

It all began with a lone, stray black cat, who we eventually named MomCat. She was cautious around humans but would put up with them enough to score some grub. Months passed, and she would continue to hang around on our back porch. In short order, MomCat was the mother of 3 fuzzy black kittens. These four black cats were permanent fixtures on our back porch. More months passed, and before we knew it, more of the stray cats were reproducing. We eventually had 13 stray black cats living on our back porch. A spooky site to happen upon!

One afternoon, Mom started making a little "tsk tsk" noise around the herd of cats. The kittens were fascinated by this noise she was making. The 3 youngest kittens approached Mom, while she continued to make that noise. Amused and curious how far they would follow, Mom started walking 5 ft, 10 ft, soon she was in the yard next door - all the while making the "tsk tsk" noise with these 3 kittens following her. MomCat was PISSED. She began hissing at Mom and stalking her angrily. Eventually we had made it probably 100 ft with this trail of kittens following her. However, once MomCat swiped at Mom we knew it was time to stop. What is this kitten whisperer superpower that my Mom has?

- Erin Zingré, 32