Book Entry 5: 1955 A Cloud of a Different Type

1955

A Cloud of a Different Type

I can remember many days, when the sky was just right, watching clouds with my mom or dad.  We’d spread out a blanket on the front lawn, lie on our backs, and pick out different clouds as they’d float by.  We could find Mickey Mouse, cats, trees, and a hundred other objects.  My favorite would always be some type of ship.  Ships looked so majestic moving across the sky.  Torpedo ships, sail boats, or pirate ships, it didn’t matter.  We searched spring skies with the little wispy clouds and we searched autumn skies with the big powerful displays of blue and black and grey clouds. Dad would look for animals and I would look for ships.

One morning dad came busting through the kitchen door all excited.  I was at the kitchen table having breakfast.  Dad announced a soft little cloud had gotten stuck in our garage.  I was a five year old kid.  I believed every word that came out of my dad’s mouth.  I could not understand how a cloud could even get into our garage and sure couldn’t understand how it got stuck there, but if my daddy said it was there it had to be there!   I can remember dad taking me by the hand, with a huge smile covering his face, and running with me to the garage. 

Once in the garage he put his finger to his lips to shush me.  He told me not to make a sound.  Together we tip-toed to his work bench,  “Here is the little cloud.” He said.  There in my doll buggy was our momma cat with six brand new  kittens.  I jumped up and down with excitement.  Dad calmed me down and took my hand.  Gently he pushed my hand into the buggy and over the tiny heads counting out loud.  One, two, three, four, five, six he said.  I can remember how incredibly small and soft their heads were.  I remember how the momma cat purred and how the little family looked so cozy snuggled in that buggy on my doll blanket. 

I was allowed to go into the garage any time to look at the kittens but dad would take me on an official “touching” visit every day after he came in from work.  I learned a lot about kittens that summer.  I thought it was gross they were born with their eyes shut but I thought it was a miracle on the 10^th day when they opened them. 

Dad let me hold them from the first day.  I remember feeling how very small they were.  I remember their tiny little toe nails and stubby little tails.  I remember how after just one or two days their little tummies looked swollen with all the milk they drank.  I remember holding them up to my face and rubbing them on my cheeks.   They were so soft.  I remember their smell.  I remember how the momma cat would allow us to pick up her babies but meow the whole time, never taking her eyes off the baby we were holding, until we’d put it back in with her.  I remember dad’s hands, as big as mitts and as rough as sandpaper, gently taking a kitten from its mother and placing it into my tiny hands.  I remember the kittens lying in my hands and my hands lying in my dads.  I felt so secure and surrounded by his love.

I loved lying in the yard with mom and dad watching clouds.  Any time we’d get bored at the beach or at Yosemite we would find ourselves challenging one another to a cloud watching session.  It was always fascinating.  The items we’d find in the sky were only limited by our imagination so there was no limit!  I still watch clouds and find hidden treasures in them.  I used to do it with my kids, now I do it with my grandkids.  I always loved it but I think this memory of the kittens is my favorite cloud memory even though it is a cloud of a different type.