Everyone I’ve ever known has had a story about a pet or animal that they simply loved. People have their own reasons for this love, but the true emotion and honesty in their voices as they reflect always stands out in my mind. Maybe it comes with the territory, growing up in the country where animals are prevalent. Dogs, cats, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, the stories are never ending.

For every wonderful story there is always an opposite. Most of the time there are the stories of learning the life and death and the harsh reality this brings most people. Where I grew up you had a respect for life and death, you understood that there was a cycle and that was just the way it was. It didn’t mean you liked it, but you understood and tried your best to accept it.

Then there is the dark story, the story that angers me and many people I know. It’s when the cycle of life and death is prematurely set into motion by the actions of people who simply do not care for animals at all, yet always seem to have them. This is the story of not one but two kittens found abandoned.

It was a typical spring day in California. It was early morning, the sun just peaking over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, it’s rays of sunshines casting a warm light on the open pasture and farm land. Modesto used to be a large farm town but urban sprawl had taken much of that land away to be built into suburbia. Problems grew as the city expanded outward from its center; as roads became congested, old one lane farm roads soon became heavily traveled by unconcerned suburban citizens driving far too fast, much to the dismay of the farmers who still used them to move large equipment. These road had become a dangerous place.

It was upon a one lane road that my girlfriend Monica took to work one morning, a common path on her way to catch and tag rabbits for the Endangered Species Research Project. Houses were nonexistent here which is why it surprised her to see a kitten come out of the brush into the middle of the road. She stopped and caught the young kitten, not six weeks old, trying to eat cat food out of a crushed can in the middle of this farmland freeway.

To her dismay someone had dumped this poor kitten in the middle of nowhere, the suburban landscape a mile or so away and fast encroaching. They had left it a blanket, a small stuffed bear, two cans of cat food and no water. The cans, blanket, and stuffed bear had been torn and crushed by the rushing cars, no one even slowing down to take notice of this poor kitten.

Nearly late to work, she took the kitten with her and was lucky enough to find it a home with a co-worker.

It wasn’t until after work that I met up with her, and we returned to the scene to search for more kittens. Having surveyed the scene, it was rather sickening sight. Cars rushed by at this little T-crossroad and for most the stop sign was considered only a recommendation. The remnants of what had been the drop off for these kittens was all be gone now, the victim of speeding SUVs.

But low and behold movement in the brush, and with one quick motion Monica pulls out kitten number two. With a long white stripe on it’s back and it’s overall black body, I though she’d just caught a skunk. There it sat in her arms, dehydrated and small, left for dead by some inconsiderable person or persons.

We looked for a over an hour in the brush and pasture surrounding the road, but found on this second kitten. I’ve since been back twice more, wondering if there were still other kittens out there or if the cycle of life had come across them already as prey for an owl, hawk, or coyote. The thing that angers not only myself but Monica and everyone else I’ve spoken with is why just leave them for dead? The local shelter would have taken the kittens. If the person who dropped them off had children, what are they teaching their own kids? That when you don’t want something just leave it for dead?

Some would argue that the kittens being dropped off was just the easiest way and that in and of itself was the cycle of life. I would disagree; it’s easy to not take responsibility and not care for animals you own, or offer such a low standard that “they’re better off on their own.” It’s a cowards answer, and the person or persons that left those kittens for dead gets no sympathy from me. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions anymore and frankly people need to start doing so.

Both kittens are now doing fine. One already has a home, and we’re looking for a home for the little girl. She has a little pink collar with a bell on it. We call her Moo Cow, because she looks like a cow. It’s day five now, and she’s finally warming up and looking better; you can hear the bell as she runs around the house.

If you sense some anger from me about dropping off helpless animals to die in the countryside, that’s the honesty coming out. If you sense the fact that I actually do care, that’s the honesty and compassion. Sometimes, I think both honesty and compassion are in short supply in this world.