Friday Cat Blogging

One of my cats, Oreo, had five kittens at o' dark thirty in the morning on Labor Day (What a great pun. Ha!). She gave birth in our bedroom closet. One kitten was light grey. Two were white with grey spots, like Oreo's other kittens. This is her third (and last) litter. Two are dark grey/black. The dark grey/black ones survived. This Monday, they will be two weeks old.

Watching the other three kittens die was a horrible experience. It took them two days. I hope to God to never go through that again.

I still get very upset just thinking about it. I'm sure my s. o. made it this far in my post and he's moved on to the next one. He also gets very upset over the whole business. I haven't had much of a chance to talk to anyone about it. Oreo is not the healthiest cat in the world. She was the runt of her little. She is a tiny cat. I couldn't understand what was happening or why. Her other kittens, which we kept, turned out fine. The kittens that died didn't look all that great to begin with. I thought the light grey one was stillborn. They wouldn't suckle. They kept making this heart-wrenching cry that to this day I cannot get out of my head. Anyone who has had kittens die on them probably knows that cry. My s. o. and I tried feeding them kitten formula. One of the three drank some of it. It slept for awhile, woke up, cried out twice, and died.

We both cried a lot. I couldn't sleep, and when I could it was fitful. I couldn't eat. My stomach was turning itself inside-out. I snapped awake at the slightest sound coming from that closet.

Things have calmed down considerably around here since then. One of the two that survived used to cry the moment it lost physical contact with Oreo, even if all Oreo did was move over a few inches to eat. He doesn't do that anymore. He and his sister eat and sleep -- the two things newborn kittens are supposed to spend all their time doing. They still have their umbilical cords. Their eyes and ears have not opened yet. They can barely crawl. Developmentally, they're right on schedule.

I found out both of them, especially the female, love having their bellies rubbed.

Here are some pictures. Oreo isn't a pissed-off cat, even though she looks like it. That picture was taken about a year ago. I took the pictures of the kittens last Monday, when they were a week old. I would have taken them earlier, but I didn't want to stress them out. Eat your heart out, Kevin Drum.