Towards the end of Millie's pregnancy, I have to admit to wondering if she might just be a very fat cat, who happened to have popped nipples and a hankering for stashing wads of ripped up paper around the room. When she came to us 3 weeks ago, we all had thought she would be labouring that night...then certainly the next...definitely the one after??!!
Finally, as we were all about to give up on the idea of those wriggling lumps beneath her fur being actual kittens, she let out a yowl at 7.30pm last night, followed closely by some very messy, noisy licking.
The first kitten arrived in just half an hour later, followed after by 3 more writhing balls of of fur.
She did incredibly well, though clearly exhausted as she reached the end of her 6 hour labour. There were some small difficulties with kitten number 3, (funnily enough the tiniest kitten) who got a bit stuck and needed to be helped along by a very privileged me ! By the time #3 had actually been born Millie was too tired to tear the sack herself or see to him, so again needed a tiny bit of help. She soon recovered enough to see to him though !
She is quite the adoring mother of course, and sometimes it seems to me that shes actually showing off the babies for us to see when we peek in on her, the way she moves back a little and looks up at me as if to say, "Look what I did!" ....I guess she could have trapped wind but I choose to believe its real mothers pride!
The older children in my house were able to sit in quietly, one at a time, while Millie gave birth, and helped to name the kittens as they thought matched their "personalities". This is our way of cheering them up when we tell for the ten millionth time, "NO, WE CANT KEEP THEM ALL!"
So far I think we have Tabitha, Sox, Honey and Cooper as names...after Wiley Kit and Wiley Kat were banned by Mum and Dad.
I managed to get some very good photos along the way when she wasn't paying attention but these are my fave few !
