I am taking a quick break from my post series to update you on some recent happenings here on the homestead.
As long-time readers will know, we obtained kittens last year. You can read about this experience in this post – https://pjsprojects.com/blogs/news/how-i-went-from-zero-to-nine-cats-in-one-night
We started with nine and a few of them either ran off or didn’t make it. Two of them were so mean and human-averse that I believe that they simply ran off into the wild. You may want to watch out for these little devils if you are in the northern Kentucky area. The other two, I fear were taken by predators or ran off and died. They were sweeter, lighter colored and lazier cats that I don’t believe would have left on their own. That leaves us with five cats, two boys and three girls.
Nature ran its course and the kittens from last year grew to be adults. We made a conscious decision not to have the cats spayed or neutered in order to allow the kids to experience the birth and development of new kittens. After one litter, we plan to have them spayed/neutered because we are not completely crazy (at least not yet). This resulted in our three girl cats becoming mama cats and here are their stories:
Tigress
Our striped cat became plump and since she is short haired and normally thin, this was a fun thing for the kids to observe. They watched her belly grow and were able to feel the kittens move inside of her belly. We had multiple conversations speculating the number of kittens and the colors that they were.
Our cats sleep outside and are faithful to showing up on the back deck every morning wanting their food. One day, Tigress failed to show up with the other cats. We suspected that she may have had her kittens. Our suspicions were confirmed when she showed up the following day in a much thinner condition. This caused great excitement. Needless to say, traditional school work was placed on hold while we stalked Tigress. She was tired from birthing and nurturing her babies and was in no hurry to return nor to show us where her babies were hidden. It took a couple of days of scrutiny before we discovered that she had hid them across the road in a woodpile on our neighbors’ property. We discussed this with our neighbor and gained permission to search the woods. We found the wood pile and could hear the meowing but could not see any kittens. We would simply have to wait.
Fluffy
Fluffy cat is named so because she is an extremely hairy, black cat. She normally looks large due to her fur, but when pregnant, she had the appearance of a furry, black basketball with feet! Her time to have kittens occurred a week later. She frantically scratched at the door wanting in the house at 5am. After she ran past our feet and into the house, she was very nervous and it became obvious that she was in labor. I obtained a box with an old towel and took her to the bathroom. I sat with her, coaxed her, soothed her and eventually she had her first kitten at around 7am. I ran upstairs to wake my son (who loves animals and anything gross). He was excited to see the kitten and continued to wait and watch with me while the second kitten was born. We discussed the process in depth as he had a lot of questions. Right after the third (and last) kitten was born at around 8am, my daughter discovered our secret in the bathroom. She was thrilled to see it and couldn’t wait for Fluffy to get all of the “yucky-stuff” cleaned up so that we could admire her babies. The other two sleepy-headed children were notified of the new arrivals when they finally crawled out of bed. Fluffy became a VERY protective mama-cat and will admonish you with harsh meows anytime that you go near her box of kittens.
Taz
Taz is a sleek, short-haired black cat that took a little longer to warm up to humans. She was thinner and we anticipated her babies in a week or two. Instead, she had her kittens the day after Fluffy. Her story was a little more exciting.
I had gotten everyone up and started on their morning chores when I decided to take a shower. I had barely gotten my hair wet when I heard a scream “Taz has a kitten at the back door!” I hopped out of the tub, threw on a towel and ran down the stairs only to discover that someone had opened the door for her. She was carrying her kitten in her mouth (as cats do) and ran past my dripping legs and into the girl’s bedroom. She decided that the best place to hide her kittens was under their full-sized bed made from cast iron and passed down in the family. This was a good decision on the cat’s part if she wanted privacy because that bed is not easy to move and the underside of it was full of stuffed toys and clothes that found their way there during the last time the girls “cleaned” their room.
So, I did what anyone would do at this moment. I gave up and went to my bedroom to get dressed. The cat, now satisfied with her new kitten-hiding-spot, decided to get the rest of her brood and ran to the door. The kids were yelling with excitement and concern as they let her outside to find her other babies. I posted each kid to a door as a lookout as my oldest and I attempted to move the bed and the many “cleaned up” toys and clothes stuffed under it. We found the kitten and placed it in a nice, warm box with another old towel. We replaced the bed as Taz ran into the room with her second kitten and ran straight back to her previous spot.
Now, I had one kitten in a box, one kitten under the bed, a confused mama cat and four kids yelling and screaming with excitement. We moved the bed, AGAIN. I was able to move the kitten to the box and place Taz with them. She seemed content with this arrangement so I started to move them to another room.
That’s when I heard it. The combination of barks from our neighbor-dog (a Doberman) and screams from my son. Apparently, there was yet another kitten outside and the neighbor-dog had found it. My son chased the dog off as I ran down the stairs. Luckily for us, the dog has a personality of a big chicken and was easily convinced to leave. I ran over the rocks and found the last kitten in the hidden in the front bushes. We moved this kitten into the box with its mama and decided to leave the box in the master bedroom. The excitement was a lot for the Taz and her babies so we wanted to give them some time alone.
About an hour later, I peeked in on the new family and discovered that she wasn’t quite done. She had just given birth to another kitten! Our skinniest cat just delivered four baby kittens.
Tigress
The weather decided to turn cold again in our area causing many freeze warnings. This seemingly uninterested mama decided that it would be best to bring her kittens into the house before the cold set in. We were introduced to Tigress’ kittens as she carried them one by one from the neighbor’s field and into our living room. Since we were getting good at this process, we provided her with her own box and old towel. She was happy with her new arrangements and so were her four kittens.
So, in case you lost count, let’s do a quick math review. We started off with nine kittens last year. We lost four of them to nature. This left us with five kittens that grew to be cats. Of these cats, three of them were female. Tigress had four kittens, Fluffy had three kittens and Taz had four kittens. This brings us to the grand total of five grown cats and eleven kittens or ……………SIXTEEN cats!
This has been a great experience for us and the kids as we have gotten to witness the birth, maternal behavior, nursing and maturing of three sets of kittens. We have compared and contrasted their colors, manners and speculated as to which one was the daddy cat for each kitten.
All great things must come to an end and we absolutely CANNOT keep sixteen cats so we are searching for good homes for these adorable, sweet kittens. We still have a few weeks before they will be ready to leave their mamas but I am posting pictures of these cute babies. Which one (or ones) do you want to add to your family?
