Cinders And Her First Litter

by Rachel
(Maine, USA)

Last year I adopted Cinders, she was a tiny bag of bones that my neighbor found in her shed, maybe 9 weeks old and literally skin and bones. She had a flea collar so she WAS someones. Her mew sounded like and old cat it was soo sad.

My fiancee believes it is better to let a cat have one litter before you get them fixed. This brings us to now. We never knew she was in heat, never showed signs, she is the most affectionate loveable kitty ever.

We noticed her belly getting fatter and she is not such a big cat... So I put out dry food always she ate as much as she could hold wich was 7-10 times a day a little bit each time towards the end..

The night of May 14th I noticed she was nesting an awful lot and the babies had been moving constantly for days.. I had been reading about signs of labor in kitties for a couple of weeks at this point. So I got her box ready and as long as I stayed with her patting her head she would remain in her box..

She started with the panting around 9 pm.. The first kitten was born around 11 pm, she nearly came unglued. After it was out she immediately chewed the sac off and began cleaning him.. within the next 2 1/2 hours came 4 more one every 30 mins or so.

She didn't need any help other than my comforting, at this point I was rather tired and imagined she could only have maybe one more if any..and she was doing just fine...So I layed down and figured if she needed me she would get me seems how her box was right beside my bed and I had put it box springs and all on the floor to prevent babies under my bed..

Well when I woke up in the morning there were 7. she had 2 more after I went to sleep. They are all healthy and still alive and 3 1/2 weeks old.
Their eyes opened after 3 days so I think they may have been postmature... they now are running pouncing, have teeth and are cute little fluff balls.

In the picture they are 3 days old. I feed Cinders as much as she will eat seems how she is nursing 7. She is rather spoiled: I've been giving her whatever type of meat we are eating for dinner .