Why I Think Medicine Cats COULD Have Mates – With Boundaries by Lunaspring

Lunaspring explains their idea of how to improve the medicine cat system.

Lunaspring here👋 I’m coming to you with a controversial but interesting topic: Why I Think Medicine Cats COULD Have Mates–But Need to Have Boundaries. (Please note that the views expressed here are my personal opinion).

We start at the beginning. (AKA mothflightXmicah).

Mothflight was the original medicine cat and after her mate (Micah) died, she declared that all other medicine cats after her could not have mates or kits and then proceeded to divide her kits between the clans. (This is a VERY short summary of what happened, and I would recommend reading Mothflight’s Vison for full details). While this entire experience was awful for her (and Micah was one of my favorite cats in the series), I don’t think she should have gone as far as to say they cannot have mates. I believe that she could have done something different. What do I mean by that? I will explain.

The Alternate Route

My theory is simply this: instead of making medicine cats choose the “all or nothing” path, there is instead a tier of medicine cat rankings and responsibilities. The ‘head’ medicine cat cannot have a mate and is usually much older than the other medicine cats. Granted, this would require each clan to have more than one medicine cat, but that would be a good thing anyway.
For example, when an apprentice is about to become a medicine cat, they have the option to be a ‘full-time’ medicine cat or a ‘part-time’ medicine cat. (so there would be three tiers of medicine cats: head, full-time, and then part-time).

The full-time medicine cat would eventually have the option to be the head medicine cat. Full-time medicine cats cannot have a mate but can choose to step down to a lesser ranking if they decide to take a mate. The part-time medicine cat can have a mate and kits and only helps with smaller tasks such as gathering herbs or treating small wounds. ( Like when Brightheart was temporarily Thunderclan’s medicine cat helper).
Think of the part-time medicine cat as a sort of ‘secretary’ to the other two. You can have as many part-time medicine cats as you need, a limit of three full-time medicine cats, and one head medicine cat. This way if an apprentice wanted to be a medicine cat but also wanted a mate they could have the best of both worlds. Granted, medicine cats with no mates would still be encouraged but not enforced.

I know this is a short post, but it was just a random thought I started to write down and then decided it would be an interesting discussion topic. Let me know what you think in the comments!