Jenkins: Cat obsession much?
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September 23, 2009
Filed under Feature
As most of the students know, there is a particular teacher in the building who may be a little over enthusiastic about her cat. Her name is Mrs. Natasha Jenkins and she loves her cat. Possibly a little too much? That’s for you to decide. To Jenkins, talking about the love she has for her cat, Kibbles, is a normal everyday occurrence.
When Jenkins and her husband moved into their first apartment, they both wanted a cat. They checked the newspaper for free cats and made an appointment with a woman who had some to give away. Kibbles was not one of the cats being given away since it belonged to the woman’s roommate. Jenkins said she noticed Kibbles, though, which was the cat she wanted most.
“She said that the only way I could have [Kibbles] was if I would also take this really, large male cat that [had similar features],” Jenkins said.
When the Jenkins duo first picked Kibbles out, her name was originally Roxanne. Jenkins said that she changed the name because it just didn’t fit. She needed something a little more upbeat. Jenkins said she doesn’t even remember the other cats name, since they didn’t keep him for very long.
“When we brought the cats’ home, the male cat was horrible. He emptied the trash, knocked over the VCR; it was like he was going crazy,” Jenkins said. “We could not handle it, so the next day Mr. Jenkins brought the cat back and left him in their garage.”
But where did the “obsession” begin? Apparently, Jenkins was not aware that Kibbles was pregnant, especially because she had been to the veterinarian and nothing was mentioned about a possible pregnancy. One night Kibbles was acting very abnormal. Neither of the Jenkins’ knew what was going on.
“She was meowing non-stop, so I woke up and she had a kitten hanging half way out of her! She was having a breech birth. I had to help her pull the kittens out because she just couldn’t do it,” Jenkins said.
A breech birth is when the baby enters the birth canal with the buttocks or feet first, rather than being head first. From that point on, Jenkins and Kibbles formed a permanent emotional bond.
“She would not even nurse her kittens unless I was in the room, sitting down next to her; she relied on me for everything. She has to sleep with me, and Mr. Jenkins is getting a little bit jealous,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins has taken the love and appreciation of her cat one step further by posting numerous videos of her on the well known Web site YouTube. It started out as a family contribution so her family in Arizona and Washington State could see Kibbles. From that point on, everyone in Ottawa High School had heard about the videos and formed their own opinion on the subject. The question is now: Why is she continuing to upload videos?
“Kibble’s dream is to become as popular as the Friskies cat food cat. She looks up to cats like Garfield and Tunsis; ones who have a huge impact on society. Her ultimate goal from all of this is to get the chance to try out for American Short Haired Idol (cat competition). This is just her time in the spot light,” Jenkins said.
According to the numbers, Jenkins videos have become a success. One single video, the most popular of the bunch has had 396 views in a very short amount of time. Jenkins feels as though students’ seeing her outside of the school and a little bit of her life makes her seem like a regular person and not just someone that tells them what to do. To her, by showing the students that side of her, she feels as though they can better relate to her. That is a large part of why she does it.
“I actually have seen a video of Mrs. Jenkins playing with her cat on YouTube. It was quite humorous; I’m not going to lie,” Shawn Denton, English teacher, said. “One of my English students last year, for a project developed a holiday about Mrs. Jenkins cat. The cat situation is just well known all around the school and everyone knows about it with the exception of the freshmen, and we are all used to it. It doesn’t even seem odd anymore. It just gives you a good laugh and everyone needs that once in a while.”
Just to top it off, YouTube is not the only site that Kibbles has made her mark on. The very personified cat also has a Facebook fan page, and has been on many other Web sites.
What are the students thinking? There are very many different opinions, ones ranging from thinking it’s weird, funny, sweet and some students just don’t even care, and some just don’t know what to think about it.
Senior Olivia Paine said the whole situation is a little bit weird, and she doesn’t even know how to describe it; whereas junior Logan Swafford thinks with all the abandoned animals in the world, it is a beautiful thing to see someone love an animal that much.
Senior Skyler Fisher said “I’ve heard a lot of rumors, but I just try not to believe them because it’s Ottawa High School, so you can’t really believe anything you hear. I have not seen any of the videos, and I don’t really care to. She is a really good teacher and I think she is pretty cool.”
It is such a well known topic in the school that even some of the freshmen have opinions.
“I’ve seen the videos, and they’re a little bit over-obsessive and weird. I mean who really needs to video tape their cat fighting a tablecloth?” freshmen Alex Hasty said.
Regardless of what others think, Jenkins will continue to love her cat and everyone will know about it. She will also continue to post videos of Kibbles and let everyone on the world wide web adore or despise her. Cat lover or not, she will continue to be Ottawa High School’s World History teacher who loves her cat dearly.
Check these out:
Kibbles’ Intense Adventure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiLFfZHKR7Q
Kibbles Jenkins (First Video Ever Posted) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Gheze0Ixo
Kibbles Jenkins: Pawfest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdQM8E_niZM
Kibbles vs. Paper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnj6dSb4LVg
Kibbles vs. Paper Round II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4bkZ_tEgP4
A Very Kibbles Christmas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l25Pdzbo9Js
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Danon Taylor
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