Easter Kitten Drama!
For anyone not on Facebook, or anyone who was not among the legions who visited yesterday - here's what happened!
As a note, I'm using Facebook now for most pics - it's so much less time-consuming than Photobucket, which requires manually shrinking each pic; Facebook does it for me!. I'm "Caro Hewitt" on Facebook; friend me to see lots more pics! A select few will be on here, when i have time.
This first post is again going out to everyone - I have my kitten filter, so all subsequent kittens posts will be locked to that, so as not to bore the uninterested. Please ask to be added or removed.
So, yesterday black_faery and I were snuggled on the sofa watching House. My mum was here, as was Garry, and many of the usual suspects were coming round for dinner. I was guessing that Tia's babies were about 10 days away - bit of a guess as I'm not sure when she was mated! But she was nowhere near as bursting at the seams as when Stewie and co were imminent. I was about to start writing my Swine Flu report.
Tia started acting oddly about midday - friendlier than usual and a bit more vocal. After half an hour of this, I glanced askance at the Bint, and decided to bring the kitten pen down and get my birthing kit together. Just to make sure I wasn't caught on the hop, as Tia has managed to do to me every other time she's given birth. I popped her inside and she was happy to go. mr_epermithis2u and MC WNLJ then popped in for a cuppa, and Bint pottered off for a lie down. Mum was very excited about possibly witnessing the arrival of pies; I was in the middle of warning her that they were unlikely to be arriving for a while, when i noticed that Tia's heavy purring had started (a sure sign that pies would be descending upon the world within an hour or so). Sure enough, the waters broke, the labour started and we all settled down to watch! (All bar Garry, who was playing on the computer.)
Soon enough the first pie emerged. MC and I were watching closely, and we both immediately noticed (through the fur and legs akimbo) that something was Very Not Right - MC's comment was "hmm, that's liver-coloured". I peered in and saw, to actual horror, a heart, pulsing slightly. It was a complete mess - a malformed kitten with vestgial limbs only, and innards growing every which way. It honestly looked like something from a horror movie. Tia promptly started to eat it and I went a very funny shade of green. The kitten itself never emerged from its sack or took a breath; I think that the pulsing organs were just a partially-working circulatory system. MC is studying medicine, so is very blase about such things and she was completely calm, noting that mother nature is a bit of a bitch. We removed the mess and I had a stiff tequila. supertinks and Jamie WNLJ arrived just at that point, so I also piked a fag!
It's occurred to me since that I have no idea how many times this has happened before; Tia would have eaten it all if we hadn't removed it. There was (naturally) more blood than typical for a birth, and I've seen signs of that amount of blood before (when I've caught her two or three kittens into the birthing process!). It's certainly preferable to what we had last time - a living, breathing, fully formed kitten with its innards in a bag, that lived for an hour.
Anyway, we waited for an hour and 20 minutes, and I wondered if that was it. (There was much internal Woe.) chthonic_min and trad_faerie popped in with Baby Hex for half an hour too. Then I went off to make dinner for the masses, and sure enough, she gave birth. The first thing the poor kitten heard was "It's a ginger!", upon which he let out a terrific wail of horror, and all was well. He was promptly named Chrestomanci, and gave us a bit of grief by taking a full thee hours to work out which bits of Tia were serving the drinks. Once he found out though, he took full advantage of being the only one at the milk bar, and drank for 14 hours straight. He weighed 107g a couple of hours after birth, and 118g this morning. Fat litte beggar :-)
This is Chrestomanci shortly after being born, still a bit damp
And here he is a few hours after being born
That was it for the night. The usual Sunday night suspects came round and there was dinner, cards, noise and merriment. I've never had a single kitten before, and realised immediately that this would be a bit more difficult than normal in all ways bar access to milk. Kittens can't regulate their body temperature, so they huddle together when their mum leaves them (as Tia does frequently after the first couple of days). They also teach each other to play, and develop at the same rate. For the first problem I got my microwavable heat pad (one of the items in my Kitten Arsenal, bought for just such an occasion!) and popped it in the pen so it would start to smell of Tia. I also chatted to Tink about calling local vets to see if there were any orphaned kittens that Tia could foster, to help Chrestomanci through the socialisation period.
I slept on the sofa and was only awoken ten times or so by Chrestomanci complaining at top volume that the milk had run dry on his favourite nipple / Tia had moved and disturbed his comfort / he was still ginger dammit. The next day I got up, checked on Chresto (still guzzling), weighed him, mocked him soundly for his fatness and turned on the computer - of course, none of the report had been written yesterday so I wanted to get an early start. Ten minutes or so later, Tia made an odd grunt. I found her doing this.
"That's her Labour Face", thought I, in a bit of a panic. It had been a full 18 hours since Chresto was born; he'd already gained more than 10% of his original body weight. So I was fully expecting her to pass a dead kitten. This did not stop me taking photos - she did this next:
And then there was an almightly wail from around her trousers, and a small head - also ginger! - emerged and started snuffling for a nipple. (Almost as if he knew he was late to the party and had some serious catching up to do!) His back leg was still inside so he didn't have much luck until the afterbirth was passed :-). He was promptly named Prospero (as he has been since last January), amidst much gleeeful giggling. He was also 107g, and since he was born has been making heroic efforts to drain the milk bar dry and catch up to his brother. Happily for me the two lads have different markings - Chrestomanci has fat back stripes while Prospero has thin back stripes :-)
Here's Prospero shortly after emerging, on the nipple hunt
And here are the two lads together.
Two gingers. With no-one to subjugate them. Is the world ready...?!
As a note, I'm using Facebook now for most pics - it's so much less time-consuming than Photobucket, which requires manually shrinking each pic; Facebook does it for me!. I'm "Caro Hewitt" on Facebook; friend me to see lots more pics! A select few will be on here, when i have time.
This first post is again going out to everyone - I have my kitten filter, so all subsequent kittens posts will be locked to that, so as not to bore the uninterested. Please ask to be added or removed.
So, yesterday black_faery and I were snuggled on the sofa watching House. My mum was here, as was Garry, and many of the usual suspects were coming round for dinner. I was guessing that Tia's babies were about 10 days away - bit of a guess as I'm not sure when she was mated! But she was nowhere near as bursting at the seams as when Stewie and co were imminent. I was about to start writing my Swine Flu report.
Tia started acting oddly about midday - friendlier than usual and a bit more vocal. After half an hour of this, I glanced askance at the Bint, and decided to bring the kitten pen down and get my birthing kit together. Just to make sure I wasn't caught on the hop, as Tia has managed to do to me every other time she's given birth. I popped her inside and she was happy to go. mr_epermithis2u and MC WNLJ then popped in for a cuppa, and Bint pottered off for a lie down. Mum was very excited about possibly witnessing the arrival of pies; I was in the middle of warning her that they were unlikely to be arriving for a while, when i noticed that Tia's heavy purring had started (a sure sign that pies would be descending upon the world within an hour or so). Sure enough, the waters broke, the labour started and we all settled down to watch! (All bar Garry, who was playing on the computer.)
Soon enough the first pie emerged. MC and I were watching closely, and we both immediately noticed (through the fur and legs akimbo) that something was Very Not Right - MC's comment was "hmm, that's liver-coloured". I peered in and saw, to actual horror, a heart, pulsing slightly. It was a complete mess - a malformed kitten with vestgial limbs only, and innards growing every which way. It honestly looked like something from a horror movie. Tia promptly started to eat it and I went a very funny shade of green. The kitten itself never emerged from its sack or took a breath; I think that the pulsing organs were just a partially-working circulatory system. MC is studying medicine, so is very blase about such things and she was completely calm, noting that mother nature is a bit of a bitch. We removed the mess and I had a stiff tequila. supertinks and Jamie WNLJ arrived just at that point, so I also piked a fag!
It's occurred to me since that I have no idea how many times this has happened before; Tia would have eaten it all if we hadn't removed it. There was (naturally) more blood than typical for a birth, and I've seen signs of that amount of blood before (when I've caught her two or three kittens into the birthing process!). It's certainly preferable to what we had last time - a living, breathing, fully formed kitten with its innards in a bag, that lived for an hour.
Anyway, we waited for an hour and 20 minutes, and I wondered if that was it. (There was much internal Woe.) chthonic_min and trad_faerie popped in with Baby Hex for half an hour too. Then I went off to make dinner for the masses, and sure enough, she gave birth. The first thing the poor kitten heard was "It's a ginger!", upon which he let out a terrific wail of horror, and all was well. He was promptly named Chrestomanci, and gave us a bit of grief by taking a full thee hours to work out which bits of Tia were serving the drinks. Once he found out though, he took full advantage of being the only one at the milk bar, and drank for 14 hours straight. He weighed 107g a couple of hours after birth, and 118g this morning. Fat litte beggar :-)
This is Chrestomanci shortly after being born, still a bit damp
And here he is a few hours after being born
That was it for the night. The usual Sunday night suspects came round and there was dinner, cards, noise and merriment. I've never had a single kitten before, and realised immediately that this would be a bit more difficult than normal in all ways bar access to milk. Kittens can't regulate their body temperature, so they huddle together when their mum leaves them (as Tia does frequently after the first couple of days). They also teach each other to play, and develop at the same rate. For the first problem I got my microwavable heat pad (one of the items in my Kitten Arsenal, bought for just such an occasion!) and popped it in the pen so it would start to smell of Tia. I also chatted to Tink about calling local vets to see if there were any orphaned kittens that Tia could foster, to help Chrestomanci through the socialisation period.
I slept on the sofa and was only awoken ten times or so by Chrestomanci complaining at top volume that the milk had run dry on his favourite nipple / Tia had moved and disturbed his comfort / he was still ginger dammit. The next day I got up, checked on Chresto (still guzzling), weighed him, mocked him soundly for his fatness and turned on the computer - of course, none of the report had been written yesterday so I wanted to get an early start. Ten minutes or so later, Tia made an odd grunt. I found her doing this.
"That's her Labour Face", thought I, in a bit of a panic. It had been a full 18 hours since Chresto was born; he'd already gained more than 10% of his original body weight. So I was fully expecting her to pass a dead kitten. This did not stop me taking photos - she did this next:
And then there was an almightly wail from around her trousers, and a small head - also ginger! - emerged and started snuffling for a nipple. (Almost as if he knew he was late to the party and had some serious catching up to do!) His back leg was still inside so he didn't have much luck until the afterbirth was passed :-). He was promptly named Prospero (as he has been since last January), amidst much gleeeful giggling. He was also 107g, and since he was born has been making heroic efforts to drain the milk bar dry and catch up to his brother. Happily for me the two lads have different markings - Chrestomanci has fat back stripes while Prospero has thin back stripes :-)
Here's Prospero shortly after emerging, on the nipple hunt
And here are the two lads together.
Two gingers. With no-one to subjugate them. Is the world ready...?!