Mama's Babies

Some of you may remember the Mama Kitten that we caught a bit more than a week ago. She was, as we suspected, pregnant again and we were also concerned she could be ill because her last surviving baby from the last litter was ill. We took her to the vet, and got her the first round of shots and a check up. We were able to confirm pregnancy, and were told she would be due in about two weeks. (She is also the one with the bullet stuck in her as well.)

Two weeks goes by and we start getting ready. Three weeks goes by and we hold our breath and stay close to home. Four weeks goes by and we start wondering if she really is preggers, or just getting plump from all of the food. Five weeks go by, we can see them moving inside of her. She is incredibly slow and looks as though she is hurting. Honey and I start talking about taking her to the vet.

We decide we'd wait just one more week, and if she hasn't had them yet, we'd take her in.

Yesterday, I was getting my seedlings started off. I hear this rather loud "MEW!" I look, and Hana and Charlie are sleeping safely in the hallway. Dogs are in the living room so we know they didn't catch anything outside. I finish what I was doing, wash up and go check on Mama.

And there were three of the tiniest little critters with her. One of them was still born. If we had seen it when it was first born, we may have been able to stimulate it enough to start breathing. But it did look as though it wasn't fully formed.

Birth went on until some time after we finally fell asleep. We thought she was done at five live ones, so imagine my surprise when I saw SIX of them up.

Up.

And walking around.

One with it's eyes partially opened.

The loud one follows it's mother. It's eyes aren't opened yet, and it moves slowly, but it will walk around to it's mother no matter where in the room she is at. I've seen all but two walking around at one time. I don't mean crawling. I mean walking! They stumble a small bit since they can't quite see yet and they are a bit wobbly.

They are also twice the size of newborn kittens that I've had in the past, or that I've seen in the past. They take the entire length of my hand. We believe Mama's body was holding onto the kittens trying to let this last one 'bake' a bit more.

We did find out that a reason this can happen is some cats can actually be in heat while pregnant. So while she was trying to let this one bake some more, the other six were ready to go! And man did they ever make a start too.

In other news, we're still waiting to hear back about "the bus incident." While the entire thing was out of line, the part that angers me the most is that the bus driver decided to call one of Bear's teachers to "tattle" to him, but not call ME. The teacher is not involved in any way shape or form. The teacher should not have been involved at all. I want this driver fired, or at the very least, put back in the administration office that they pulled her out of.

Anyway, it's been an eventful weekend. Maybe when I'm not so exhausted, I'll come back and tell you guys about it. Already, these little kittens are amazing me.

Did I mention that I hate cats???