BK was a black community cat living at the edge of a cornfield. For almost a year, we saw his glowing green eyes at night, but by day, he vanished. No one knew where he belonged-or if he belonged to anyone at all.
Rescuing BK was only the beginning. Was he someone's lost cat? How could we find out? What happens when one unaltered cat becomes many? If BK was going to come indoors, how could we help him feel safe? How do you get a frightened cat into a carrier and eventually through a veterinary visit without making everything even scarier?
These are issues many of us encounter every day.
BK gave us an opportunity to do something different with them: take the realities we see downstream and turn them into stories children can understand and relate to.
With support from The Pollination Project, we launched the Kai Kind Stories YouTube Channel. In our stories, Mia and Sam discover BK and, story by story, work through the questions and decisions involved in helping him.
When we first shared the channel here last fall, we had just one BK story. Today, there are seven, following his journey from a mysterious cat in a garden to a cat safely indoors and through his first veterinary visit.
For us, that's another way of working upstream.
A community cat's rescue doesn't have to end with the rescue. BK's experiences can help children understand why identification matters, how quickly cats can reproduce, why frightened animals need choices and time, what it takes to bring an outdoor cat inside, and how we can make veterinary care less stressful.
There are plenty of wonderful children's stories that encourage children to love animals and be kind to them. Many use anthropomorphism-giving animals human-like thoughts, emotions and behaviors-to make their characters engaging and relatable. I appreciate the value of that approach, especially in storytelling for children.
But it can also unintentionally blur the difference between how we imagine an animal feels and what a real animal may actually be communicating. A sad looking cat does not need a hug!
That's something I think about when writing Kai Kind Stories. I want the characters to be relatable without losing sight of the real animal underneath the story.
Body language is woven into the storytelling. Ears, eyes, tails, posture, movement, approaching, retreating and hiding can all give children clues about what an animal may be experiencing. Feelings and emotions influence behavior, and learning to notice those signals can help children better understand why an animal behaves the way they do.
Rather than simply telling children to "be kind," we want to encourage them to become curious observers.
Perhaps one of the most meaningful things we can give the next generation isn't just a love of animals, but the ability to see and understand the animal in front of them.
Kai Kind Stories is free to watch and share. We hope this will be a helpful resource useful wherever animals and children intersect-families, classrooms, libraries, youth programs, shelters, rescues, foster homes, veterinary settings or community outreach.
We'd love for you to meet BK and follow his journey with us.
Watch Kai Kind Stories: https://www.youtube.com/@KaisKindnessStories
A little more of our story: The Pollination Project, which helped us bring Kai Kind Stories to life, recently featured the project and how it grew from an idea into the channel we're building today: https://thepollinationproject.org/a-seed-grant-grows-humane-education/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=kais-kindness-library&ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_1_22_2026_14_42_COPY_01)&goal=0_b4b6689730-8b9216988b-557246793
#EducationandTraining------------------------------
Julielani Chang
The Life of Kai: Compassion Connections Inc.
Davis CA
------------------------------