life morals with special kids

Where Is My Cat?

"Mommy please let me keep this little kitty, please "
My son pleaded while looking at me with those puppy eyes of his... He's been begging me to get him a cat for a week and today in his way home from school, one of our neighbors gave him this small kitten to take care of because she already has a lot of cats... My son told me that she's the one who offered to give it to him but I bet it's the other way around!

" Alright alright, I'll let you keep the cat!"
I said in frustration.
My son seemed very pleased and went outside to get the kitten from the garden but before he reaches the door I stopped him and said " however I have my own conditions"

I could hear my son murmuring something under his breath, but then he turned around with a wild smile on his face and said " sure mommy!... What is it"

" you must be the one fully in charge of taking care of it, you will feed it Clean it and I will only help by giving you the money to buy cat food once in a while, and you must be the one to go to the store to buy it.
Also, I won't allow you to keep it in the house, so you have to find a place for it to stay in during the rain, which is why I suggest you build a small wooden house for it "

My son's jaw dropped to the ground, he spent almost half an hour complaining and negotiating with me, but eventually, I won XD.

Honestly, I didn't expect my son to take care of it for more than a week considering all my hard conditions... But he has truly proved me wrong!

He fed the cat every day till it felt full...he made a wooden house for it and played with it.
I was really proud of him for his gentle treatment, but I could also notice a change in him, he was less energetic than usual and he was also quieter than usual.

One day he was very tired that he slept early and forget to feed the cat.
In the morning he went to school in a hurry that he didn't notice  the cat following him, and when he got on the school bus it kept following him till the bus reached the end of the neighborhood and then the poor kitten lost sight of the bus.

I put my headscarf on and went to search for the cat but I couldn't find it!!
I asked a few neighbors around but they all said that they haven't seen it!

When my son came back home we searched the whole neighborhood and even the other neighborhoods... He came back home at sunset with tears in his eyes saying that he couldn't find it.

He threw his head in my lap as he shut down his eyes trying to prevent his little tears from falling.
I stroke his hair and tried to calm him down then I gently said
" are you sure you've looked everywhere?
Maybe it didn't go that far, perhaps it's here somewhere in the neighborhood, you know how small it is, it could be hiding anywhere"

He said between sobs
" I know!... Believe me, I searched everywhere here but it's nowhere to be found!"
I kept stroking his hair and thinking then I said " my dear do you know why I made those hard conditions?... It's because I wanted you to realize that the small kitten isn't a little toy... you can't play with it and throw it away when you get bored of it, I wanted you to take care of it in order to learn how to understand it and have a responsibility toward it "

My son finally lifted up his head and said" I know mom, that's the reason way I'm upset. My kitty is so small and gets scared of strangers easily... She must be frightened on her own "

" but my dear if the kitten is afraid of strangers then why would it go away? "

My son realizing this suddenly got up and went to his room!
He looked under his bed and removed a few things out of the way, and there it was hiding in his shoebox!

He picked it up and came downstairs running and showed it to me and happily yelled
" Mommy I found it look I found it"

I smiled happily and kissed his forehead and said
" thank God that it's unharmed but frankly I didn't expect it to be hiding in your room how did you know it's going to be there?"

My son looked down and hesitantly said " because mommy when it was raining last week I couldn't let it sleep in the wooden house I made, because I knew it wasn't safe for the kitten since I haven't really finished it, so I sneaked the cat in my room and hid it under my bed.
Are you mad mommy?"

I bite my lower lip and raised my eyebrows then I smiled down at him and said
"Well am I?"