It was a pretty exciting night in this household. Our new kitty (the pregnant stray) went into obvious labor about 8:15. The vet had advised me to watch her, since she is so young and so small. If she had heavy labor longer than an hour, it might be time to get some help. I was getting more and more nervous as time went on and nothing was happening. Then finally, at around 9pm I heard Bruce, who was the bedside kitty attendant, say "Whhhooooaaaa!" Baby #1 apparently popped out rather quickly after such a long wait. I am calling him "Hoss". Hoss was very active and needed no introduction to nursing. He was born hungry.
About 10-15 minutes later, the second baby made an appearance. This one had us a little worried as he was really sedate. We could see that he was breathing, but he just wanted to sleep. Maybe that is normal and we just didn't know it after seeing how...um....robust Hoss was. LOL. But Mama kept licking him and stimulating him into waking and before long he found his way to nursing too. Mama settled down, and was purring and comfortable. Babies were nursing...so we left them alone to get some rest and just peeked in on them every little bit. I thought that was the end of it, but Bruce kept saying he felt "another one" in her belly.
Around 11pm, as I was checking one last time before bed...I saw a third little head in the nursing pile. LOL. Bruce moved back to the bedside once again, and I went to get some sleep. When he came to bed about an hour later, he told me that there were 4 in total. And she was done...no more impending babies on the way.
This morning, everybody is doing fine. Mama got out to eat a little bit of breakfast, and I took that opportunity to change the towel that was in her box. The kittens are surprisingly big and heavy to have all come out of such a tiny little cat. Seriously, when the 4 of them are lined up in nursing position, the group of them look almost bigger than Mama. How in the world did they have any room in there?
I don't know, but even as young as she is, she seems to be a good mother. She cleans them and nurses them...which is a relief to me. I have heard stories of very young cats abandoning their first litter. What would I do if I had to bottle feed 4 kittens round the clock? I shudder to think......But anyway, please think long and hard about possibly adopting a baby...The vet is going to let me post pictures and advertise through her office, too, but I am still a little nervous. There is NO way we can keep these babies. 3 cats is the absolute maximum that I can deal with. NO more room in the Inn!!! I would even consider giving up Mama if a good opportunity arose. But because she is grown the chances of that are slim.
I will take some pictures and post them later. I don't want to disturb them too much right now. Poor Mama cat is so exhausted and she needs her rest.
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