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What is a family

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"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."

Warning: massive description coming up.

always there
to warm you in the winter
always there
with shelter from the rain
always there
to catch you when you're falling
always there to stand you up again
family...

by your side
in seconds if you ask it
arms out wide
to welcome you to stay
near enough
to listen to your hearts song
always there to help you on your way
family

family

family

what is a family?
caring and devoted hearts

with endless love to share

love that follow you everywhere

always there
to welcome you in winter
what is a family?
arms out wide
to welcome you to stay
right by your side
near enough to listen to your hearts song
always there to help you on your way
family
always there
family
family
family



So I decided to do the family prompt for the starpoints then I realized, which family? Teddy is a kittypet to the core. And as far as I can see, kittypets families are very different from what we define them as. I could have added his housefolk here, but I decided that maybe that was a bit much. Maybe another time.

Kittypets are unique in the way they view family. Family isn't so much biology as it is surrounding themselves with the people they love. Their housefolk are family. The other cats with them are family. Hell, the family dogs are still family. They accept basically everyone. They accept others around them. Sometimes I think kittypets are the most accepting ones around. Okay yes, they can be timid and shy away from wild cats but come on. Wild cats are the nightmares that parents tell their children about at night in their eyes. How can you even comprehend coming face to face with the boogeyman and finding out he was... nice?

However kittypets accept others with open arms. Dogs in the family? If they're friendly the cats are friendly. Rats? Fish? Whatever. Some kittypets, yeah they try eat them but others let them go their merry way.

So I included two clan cats and two kittypets here to show how Teddy has matured recently. He used to be pretty withdrawn, in his own world but since then it's expanded.

The cats go (from left to right) Whitepaw, Sox (npc), Teddy, Tibby (npc), and Jetpaw.
I basically put my own family into the neighborhood yes, and Sox and Tibby are my babies. Tibby died last Saturday, or rather we found him dead. He was more likely dead on Wednesday. So he lives in my own imagination, in the world I've crafted for Teddy and his friends.

Sox is 12 years old, and like a father/grandfather to both Tibby and Teddy. Tibby is the younger brother Teddy never had (barring Magma, who Teddy doesn't really know so it doesn't count, again talking about kittypet views on family) at 16 moons old. Sox talks about when he was young (2 and younger) and the clan cats weren't here, which made Teddy a little biased. After all, before the clans came the land was free for everyone. Then, in his eyes, the clans came and took the land. The land that belonged to no one, should never have belonged to anyone.

Then Teddy met Jetpaw and Whitepaw and his views are more confused than ever. Yes, the clans needed a space to stay and all, but couldn't they have worked it out with the native cats as well? But they seem so sure. Jetpaw made his views clear, and to him Teddy is very odd. But to Teddy, Jetpaw is odd. He wants so badly to understand and figure this out. He wants to world to be right and wrong, he doesn't want to hurt his brain figuring out all the grey areas.

I don't understand why so few people have kittypets. They have the potential to be very interesting and complex characters in the world. You could have a resentful one, grown and fed on the stories of the wild cats takeover. How they allow no one to come into 'their' land, but waltz right into the neighborhood if they so wish. You could have the confused, wondering why all this is happening and wanting to understand. You can have the proud. Proud to be a kittypet and disgusted at the wild cats and their barbaric ways.

I just think it's brilliant and interesting how differently the views of the clans and kittypets are. Loners and rogues are somewhere in the middle, but both cultures are so wildly different.

Teddy doesn't understand why Jetpaw calls kittypets soft and weak, because what's wrong with wanting a peaceful society that accepts all species and loves unconditionally, despite not being blood related? What's wrong with relying on housefolk, when the housefolk love and care for their own kits just as much? Families look after one another, and the housefolk are part of a kittypets family.

On the flip side, Teddy doesn't like the fighting. He doesn't comprehend why clan cats need to fight. He would much rather discuss and debate the issue rather than come to blows. He doesn't understand the need to hunt to survive, and the closeknit group the clan cats have. They're family yet not, and they sure don't welcome outsiders a lot of the time. And they're only cats which is very odd to Teddy.

Roads and cars and cats and dogs and people populate Teddy's world. Rats and fish and gerbils and rabbits and every other manner of pet. Yet with clans it's only cats. Yes some prey, but only to kill. Occasionally a fox or badger or something that can kill them. It's cats versus the world, but Teddy's world is full of friends and family and nothing to hurt him really. He needs to be careful in his world of cars and dogs, but he knows how to navigate his universe safely and doesn't fear it like the clan cats do.

Another thing, usually kittypets don't have kittens. They're fixed. That changes their family views as well. Kittens don't always come from love, because if you love a fixed cat you have no choice. But that's what's so wonderful about their society. They adopt. They adopt their families. Their families are made with a mishmash of species and friends and everyone.

So that's why Jetpaw and Whitepaw are on there. Teddy considers them like family despite barely knowing them, because they're in his world. He considers them friends, and for his friends mean family.


Okay okay, I think I'm done now. If you made it through then I seriously appreciate you, because I really would like to hear your opinions, whether it be on kittypet life or clan life or whatever. Debate my views. I don't care.

Jetpaw (c) (~sheckers)
Whitepaw (c) (~Shudderz)
Teddy, Tibby, and Sox (c) ~Soul-of-Sin
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© 2013 - 2024 Soul-of-Sin
Comments4
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paesb's avatar

Omg its adorable! I love it ^u^

I'm sorry about Tibby...its hard to lose a pet after so many years, and then find out they've been dead longer than you thought and have just been sitting there with no one to help them...I hope your ok <3

 

Wait a minute....

wait just one fidlelydonking minute....

is Teddy fixed?