Bean Kat (also called "BK")
This is our youngest cat, Bean. He isn't a purebred, but
we love him a lot.
Believe it or not, he's best friends with our Bernese Mountain Dog
puppy, Titan.
In this photo, Titan and Bean are playing with each
other.
Biographical information:
We got Bean in September of 2000, to fill the void
left by a recently deceased cat (George ye Curious, who died in
1999). Like Harry, he is strictly an indoor cat. He was born on
the same day as our puppy, Titan. When introduced, Titan and Bean
bonded immediately. Bean actually seeks out the puppy's company,
and instigates rough and tumble games with him. Neither has hurt
the other, though we occasionally separate them if the dog starts
playing too rough. At night, Bean has been found sleeping right
beside Titan's sleeping crate. It's going to be wonderful watching
them grow up together.
The three kittens in Bean's litter were initially given
temporary names for their colors. Bean, being solid black like his
mother, was "BK", short for "Black Kat". His two sisters were
"Gray" and "Stripes". When BK joined our family, our four year old
daughter asked us to change his name to "Bean Kat" for the kitty
in one of her favorite children's books, "Bean's Night". Jay and
Laurie still tend to call him BK.
Bean's story
Bean came from a feral rescue litter. His mother and
grandmother had been abandoned, along with a dozen other mostly
feral cats, when an elderly neighbor, who had been feeding them
all, moved away. For several months the remaining neighbors tried
to live-trap and re-home these cats, and all but two were
captured. Bean's mother, and her mother, both solid black and
apparently mostly Siamese, were too clever to be caught by normal
methods. For over a year, we worked to gain the trust of these two
cats. We fed them, provided them with outside shelter in our front
garden, and slowly worked to try to get them to allow us to touch
and hold them. Our aim was at least to catch them and get them
spayed, and then to either try to find homes for them (as "barn
cats"), or release them once they had recovered and could no
longer breed.
Eventually, Bean's mother got pregnant, and moved her litter
of three kittens to the shelter box we had set up for her in the
front garden. (This was before George died). She allowed us to
handle the kittens, and we placed two of the three kittens in good
homes. (The third died in an accident with a car). Still, we
couldn't touch mama cat or grandma cat for more than an instant.
However, we were able to get close enough to drip a liquid flea
killer on both of them, which also served to keep the kittens free
of fleas. Just days after the last kitten was placed, our oldest
cat, George, died. We decided to keep one of the next kittens to
replace him, if we couldn't catch mama cat before she got pregnant
again.
Mama cat did get pregnant again. We started placing their food
in our entry hall, and allowing the two feral cats to freely come
and go while they ate. We would sit in the living room and watch
them, but didn't try to touch them or trap them. Grandma cat
started getting wary, but was pushing mama cat into the house, as
if to encourage her to take up our offer of hospitality. We set up
a well sheltered "nest" in our wood pile, in hopes that mama cat
might choose that as the place to have her next litter.
One morning, Laurie noticed mama cat suddenly no longer looked
pregnant. She let her in for breakfast as usual, but this time hid
behind the door. As soon as mama cat entered and was concentrating
on eating, Laurie shut the door, trapping mama cat in the living
room and entry hall. (The doors to the rest of the house were
already closed). Laurie then looked for the kittens, and sure
enough, they were in the wood pile, right where we hoped she would
have them. She brought the kittens to mama cat, and for the next
two months they lived in our living room. We used the back door or
the garage door instead, to make sure they wouldn't escape.
Again, mama cat has trusted us with her kittens, but avoided
direct contact herself. She did allow us to get much closer to
her, but still won't allow touching her. As the kittens neared 8
weeks old, we allowed mama cat and the kittens to explore the rest
of the house, and retreat back to "their living room". We made
sure all three kittens were introduced to our dog and cat,
Crusader and Harry. Crusader even allowed the kittens (all three
of them) to play on his back! At 8 weeks old, Bean was moved to
the back of the house with the rest of us, had his vet visit and
shots, and "joined the family". This was on the same weekend that
our puppy, Titan, came home with us from his breeder.
Photographs : Check our Photo
Index.
Revised 12/10/2000