I grew up across from a rest area, people were always dumping out dogs and cats.
We would
feed the critters if they showed up at our door, almost always table scraps
as we normally didn't have a long term pet. One wintery day I came across a half-
grown kitten at the rest area. Did not realize it at the time, but it was just a small
cat, it never got bigger.
.
I brought it home and mom had me bring it inside to feed it and meet it. After it ate,
we headed into the tv room and mom was vacuuming. She noticed the kitten had
some dander so she told me to hold it while she sucked up some flakes. The kitten
never freaked, in fact it rolled onto its' back so mom could vacuum the belly. We
were amazed.
.
Then I joined mom for some
cards at kitchen table and mom heard a pesky
mouse
that had been avoiding mom's traps in the hall closet. The closet was stuffed full of
boots and coats, but mom wondered if the new kitten was a mouser. She had me
place the kitten in the closet, there was noise for a half minute and then no noise.
Mom figured the kitten was napping so after another 5 minutes she opened the
door. The kitten prances out, drops a dead mouse at mom's feet and goes for
a leg rub. She won her place in our hearts from the minute she showed up.
The next Spring a German Shepherd showed up, but it ran so much my dad was
afraid a neighbor would lose some pigs so it ended up chained most of the time.
Anyway before that it had developed a hobby of chasing that little kitten, it would
grab the kitten and take it out into the middle of the
yard and drop it. The kitten
would clean itself up than slowly start towards a shed, the German Shepherd
would give it a good headstart than hammer after it. It never seemed to grow
tired of "chase the kitten", I guess we
should have gotten it a tennis ball.
Maybe this is how it started with the German Shepherd?