By Jim Langham

A message on Facebook a couple of days ago reminded me of a dog from my childhood that once raised a litter of kittens.

Pepper was a lop-eared coal-black Cocker Spaniel, my first as a child. We obtained her from an elderly lady in Berne (Indiana) who felt she could no longer care for the frisky pup with all of her energy.

So we took her to our country residence and cultivated a warm dog house beneath a tree in the apple orchard behind our house. But Pepper wasn’t the only pet that we had. Somehow, along the way, we started giving homes to cats. One particular cat that I recall became sick shortly after she had given birth to a litter of several kittens. Within days, the kittens had lost their mother.

At first we sought to nurture the little of growing kittens with a small bottle of milk, and then with baby food. They slept in a warm box with a blanket in the garage.