Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Opal “Grandma” Habisch Column 6/12/2000



When I was a little girl, I had a kitten that I called
Mittens because she had two black feet.

Mittens was very playful and got into a lot of trouble.
She loved to play with anything that rolled.

I gave her a little red ball and she just loved to play
with it. She would roll it all over the house.

Mittens would come running to me when she heard my voice.
We played together all the time.

When we played outside, sometimes Mittens would get into
my mother’s flowers and some of the pretty flowers would break off of the
stems. This did not make Mother very happy, but often, she thought the dogs
were the ones who had been in her flowers and she would blame them, instead.

One day, I came home from school and Mother was waiting
for me. She was very angry because Mittens had gotten into her yarn basket
and unrolled all of the yarn balls.

Mittens was so tangled up in yarn that she could not get
out of the basket.

Mother said, “You get that kitten out of my yarn,
then you get my yarn basket back into shape. Your kitten has ruined all
of it.”

Well, I tried to get the kitten untangled for what seemed
like an hour, but I could not get her free. I started to cry because I didn’t
think I would ever get her out of the string and I was afraid she would
die.

Dad came home and when he saw the problem, brought me a
pair of scissors. We cut the yarn to set Mittens free. As soon as she was
able to move,

Mittens ran for the door. I let her out and she went running
to the woods, where she immediately went potty.

Daddy laughed and told Mother, “Just think what new
colors you might have had in your yarn basket if we hadn’t been able to
set Mittens free in time.”

Mother didn’t think that was very funny. She took her yarn
basket and put it away where Mittens could not get into it.

Now Mittens is all grown up. She lives in the barn with
a family of her own. Her kittens never play with balls, there are many other
things for them to do that will not get them into so much trouble.

Remember, boys and girls, if you have a kitten and she
likes to play with a ball, put the yarn basket up high where she will not
get into it.

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