A Kindle of Kittens

A Kindle of Kittens

Rumor Godden

illustrated by Lynne Byrnes

In a subtle cautionary tale (beware of those "love 'em and leave 'em" Tom cats!), a sweet tabby cat finds herself having to care for her four small kittens all on her own.  She selflessly searches the village, finding just the right home for each little kitten.  It bothered Charlotte that she had to give them away, but it showed a mother loving and wanting the best for her offspring.

The Foundling Fox

I can't help but think this would be a wonderful book for adoptive families.  The story is so sweet and feels like an old fashioned fable.  

The Foundling Fox

Irina Korschunow

pictures by Reinhard Michl 1988

An orphaned baby fox is found by another mother fox.  She lets him suckle and then carries him to her own den.  On the way she's chased by a hound and confronted by a badger.  Putting her own life on the line, she defends and protects her new foundling baby.  The most poignant part is at the end when another mother fox chides her for adopting something that wasn't her own.  When she goes to her den to show off how wonderful the new kit is, she realizes that all her baby foxes smell the same and she no longer knows which one was the foundling.  She loves them all equally. 

The vixen poked her head out of the den.

"I'm very sorry," she said,

"but I cannot show my founding fox to you.  

I really don't know which of my kits

 is my foundling fox." 

"How dreadful!" cried the neighbor.

The vixen had to laugh.

"It isn't dreadful," she said, 

"I love all four of them the same, 

and that is that."

And so, the little fox 

was no longer a foundling fox.  

He was the vixen's kit, 

and she was his mother.  

She fed him 

and gave him milk.

She protected him

and taught him everything

a fox should know.