CAT SUNDAY SURPRISE

Are you sitting down?

 Let me preface this by saying that this coming Wednesday, Babygirl had an appointment at the Vet clinic for a spaying at 8am.

This picture was taken on Labor Day evening. In fact, this picture was going to be today's picture.  Does anything look different about her?  She looks normal right?  Maybe gained a little weight and maybe we overfed her a bit but she looked healthy.  Went out to feed her Friday morning and this greeted us:

A litter of newborn kittens!

WHAT THE HECK?   Did she LOOK pregnant in that other picture?  It's the weirdest thing.  We've seen pregnant cats before and it's usually pretty obvious. She did NOT look pregnant.

This picture was after we picked them up and put them in a box with a towel.  I didn't take a picture of the graphic moment we saw the pile of kittens as there was some blood and birth remnants.  Don't need to photograph that, seeing it was enough, ha.  Babygirl was sitting on the rocking chair cleaning herself.  The kittens were already clean too (though the porch was a bit of a mess, ha).

We immediately brought them inside along with her.

Here they are.

Five little kittens.  Four of them look healthy and have fat little tummies.  One (actually, #1 in this pic) is a bit weaker and had some blood around his mouth when we brought them in. We think she might have started giving birth on the rocking chair or table and this one might have fallen off.  Then she moved to the corner behind a pillow on the porch floor and had them there.

At first, we put them all on the screened in porch.   She went crazy being inside and decided that the screens might be an easy way out.  We stopped that right away (no damage, thank goodness) and moved the family inside.  We set up a cardboard box and some towels.  She fed them and we tried keeping her inside but she is not meant to be inside right now.  She will stay and feed them and clean them and then starts running around wanting out in a panic.  Per the vet, we don't want her to get so stressed that she abandons them or stops producing milk entirely.  We decided the best move is to let her in and out: she goes out on the porch and sleeps on the chair or table and stays outside...

...and we open the door, she comes in, feeds them, cleans them and then gets restless again and wants back out. We are NOT letting the kittens be outside for their safety, so this will have to work. After some more consultation with the vet, we decided to get bottles and formula so we can supplement them when she is not around or at 3am in the morning, etc.

It was off to Tractor Supply (love that store now) on my lunch break to get some supplies. 

 We got a can of KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) and two bottle sets (one for each of us to use).  We figured the full set with cleaning brush and different nipples was better to have around instead of just a bottle, in case some other baby animals make their appearance out here someday, ha.

We also bought a jumbo plastic litter pan (to keep them contained, for now anyway, ha) and some pee pad liners and extra blankets and towels.

So, this will be our life for the next few weeks.  Already have one adopted out when they are of age.  Vet has graciously agreed to check out all the kittens for free and once she is at the right point after initial nursing, she will be spayed so she does not have to go through this anymore.  Vet said they will reach out to us in a few weeks.

Never a dull moment!