“No Kibble Left Behind” a short story inspired by true events

Of the resident cats, Marley has the most personality quirks. For those of you who do not know, I am a rescue home operator for abused felines, but have four “lifers.”

As newborns, Marley and his sister Gizmo were taken from their mother and spent the night in a garbage can before arriving at my rescue. They suffer fierce separation anxiety from me, as I became their surrogate mama, bottlefeeding and raising them from infancy. Marley is the only one with the particular side effect you will see in the story, though, and it is terribly endearing.

No Kibble Left Behind

“It’s almost breakfast time Marley! Let’s go wake up Mom!” Gizmo said.

“You always have to be the one to wake her up, don’t you?” Marley laughed, shaking his head at his sister.

“Well if I don’t do it, who will?” Gizmo questioned.

“I’m pretty sure she will wake up on her own, Sis.”

Gizmo thought about this for a moment, considered it a preposterous idea from her weird brother, and padded proudly toward the bedroom with her head held high and a sigh- somebody’s got to do it.

Mom was successfully roused from bed and both Marley and Gizmo led her around the house, making sure she performed her morning ritual correctly and didn’t forget anything.

Finally it was time for breakfast! They sat patiently by their bowls, exercising great patience because they knew they were big kitties now, and Mom would expect them to act their age and not like starving, roughian kittens.

Gizmo had recently become aware of a strange eating habit of her brothers, so she kept one eye on him while she crunched her fresh kibble.

Most cats will take a bite, chew, swallow, and repeat. Not her silly brother. He took a mouthful, moved somewhere else, dropped it, and then proceeded to eat each piece one by one. She noticed he was always aware of every piece, even if one rolled into the sink or under the couch he always found and ate it after the dropped pile was consumed.

“Why do you eat funny?” Gizmo asked Marley while they were grooming after breakfast.

Marley stopped and looked at her. “Eat funny?”

“Yea, you eat all weird, not like everyone else.”

Marley continued to look at her. He didn’t understand, he ate when everyone else did!

She pointed out her observations to him and he slinked off in shame. He didn’t want to be thought of as the guy who eats funny. He just wanted everyone to be happy. They had a good life now and everything was purrfect.

Gizmo watched her brother slink out of the room and her gut twisted. She heard footsteps and looked up to see old Solo walk into the room.

“What’s wrong with Marley? I said good morning and he just kept walking.”

Gizmo put her head on her paws with a sigh, “I think I hurt his feelings.”

Solo sat beside her, “You don’t look too good yourself, kid, tell me what happened.”

Gizmo told Solo about noticing how Marley ate, and what she had said to him.

“I can see why he is sad, Mo,” Solo said, nuzzling her head. “He doesn’t want to be thought of as weird, and when you pointed out his eating habits and used the word “funny” he felt like you were making fun of him.”

“But I wasn’t, I just wanted to know why he ate differently.”

“I know, doll,” Solo said, “but you have to be careful what words you use sometimes, or at least explain what you mean so things don’t get misconstrued and feelings hurt. Communication is important.”

Gizmo thought about this for a while. She hadn’t meant anything by it, she loved her brother more than anyone else in the world, and she hated having hurt his feelings.
She found Marley looking out the living room window. It was cold outside, you could feel it coming in at the edges where the window met the wall. The snow was deep, covering everything in a white blur, and water droplets had frozen in sharp spikes from the roof. It was still for this time of day, not even the birds came out to play in this weather.

“Hey Marley.”

“Hey,” Marley said, not taking his eyes from the outside stillness.

“I want you to know I didn’t mean anything bad when I asked why you eat funny. I meant why do you eat differently than most.”

Marley looked at her. “You didn’t?”

“No, I just noticed what you do a few days ago, and it caught my attention because I have never seen anyone eat like that before.”

Gizmo noticed the corners of his lips lift. The wrench in her gut eased.

“Remember when we were little, and the bad man took us from Mama?” Marley said.

“Yes.”

“And then we were brought to this nice lady who became our new Mom? Well, remember how I didn’t want to give up the bottle?”

Marley had a goofy little smile on his face and Gizmo laughed and nodded, remembering how Marley fought being weaned. He’d still be drinking from the bottle, cuddled in Mom’s arm even now, full grown, if he had his way!

“Well,” Marley continued, “when I finally tried eating big cat food, Mom was so proud of me, so that’s what made me give up the milk. I loved her being proud of me and didn’t want to disappoint her. And so I would get over excited when she would give me kibble.”

“Kibble is important.” Marley went on, looking back out the window with a faraway look in his eyes. “One day, I was so excited for Mom to feed me that I literally got into my food. And I scattered it everywhere. But I did my best to clean it all up and eat every piece I had spilled.”

“But a few days later I was playing and ran under the couch,” Marley rolled his eyes, “and there I found one piece of kibble. It had rolled off the table and under the couch and I had missed it.”

Gizmo watched her brother, intent on the story.

“And looking at that one lost piece that I had missed, that I had forgotten, I was reminded of us being abandoned, and that long, cold night that could have lasted forever. And I felt very sad. That piece of kibble could have been us, Gizmo. If we hadn’t been found we would have been forgotten and lost forever. That’s why I cannot leave one piece of kibble alone and forgotten.”

Gizmo groomed the tears from Marleys eyes, and they went and cuddled by the warm fireplace. And from that moment on, whenever a new rescue noticed the way Marley ate, Gizmo was there to tell the story, and Marley was commended for his compassionate and quirky heart.

All steem proceeds from this story go to providing medical care, food and supplies for abused and discarded cats and kittens <3

Images and GIF's my own

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