Sunday Morning Surprise
I went to bed on Saturday night after doing my usual check of Kali. She was acting just like she did all week. Greet me at the door, run to the closet purring, sit in the closet washing herself and purring… I sat with her for a little bit then called it a night.
Sunday morning I went in to check on her first thing and she did not greet me at the door. Instead, when I looked in the closet, there was Kali with five brand new kittens! They were all cleaned up, dry, and contentedly nursing. Kali was purring with pride. I guess she wanted to remind me that cats have been delivering their babies without human supervision for a lot longer than I’ve been around!
So, introducing The Melons:
Pepino - brown mackerel tabby & white boy - 3.9 oz / 110 gr
Honeydew - blue-cream mackerel patch tabby (torbie) & white girl - 3.8 oz / 105 gr
Charentais - black & white boy - 4.2 oz / 118 gr
Galia - black & white girl - 4.2 oz / 120 gr
Crenshaw - brown mackerel tabby & white boy - 3.8 oz /108 gr
The babies’ pictures are on the web site so you can see their cute little faces. And yes, I know that Pepino is not a true melon, but it’s such a cute name!
They’ve all gained weight since yesterday, with Crenshaw and Honeydew leading the pack with .8 oz (about 20 gr) gains. Our only issue is Kali’s desire to put them under the bed. She delivered them in the closet, on the housebreaking pads and blankets I’d put in there for just that purpose. But now, she thinks they should be under the bed. Next to the wall. Right in the middle so it’s hard for me to reach them. When I move them back to the closet she doesn’t immediately move them back under the bed. She stays in the closet with them, nursing them, washing them, acting perfectly happy. BUT… as soon as I leave the room, under the bed they go!
Tonight I think I will be taking the large kennel up there and caging her. I hate to do it. But I don’t want the babies under the bed. It’s too big a space for the babies to wiggle around in and I worry about them getting separated from mom and siblings, getting a chill, and dying. I’d rather make Kali a little unhappy than lose a kitten. It’s not like it’s cold in there — it was in the 90s here yesterday and the bedroom was about 78 or so. (We don’t have a/c so we rely on closing the house up in the daytime, then opening windows and running fans at night. So I just don’t open the window in that room.)
One last thing to make you smile this morning. Basia has taken a liking to two big stuffed hippos in the hippo room. She has been taking her afternoon snoozes in there, cuddled up to them.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
The melon balls are so cute lisa! Every last one of them. Good to hear they are gaining nicely. Oh yes, I can relate to a mom wanting to move her babies, and me putting them back, and her moving them again as soon as I would leave. Bonan is the only female I have had who would do that, and before I found a way to make her happy in a smaller area… I did lose one baby.:-( I ended up becoming very creative in building a birthing bed that she would stay in with the kittens.
Buzzy is looking beautiful!