Poor poor Poppet.

by Emma
(England)

We have been fostering kittens for the RSPCA in England for about five years now, and it's great fun! We look after them until they are 9 weeks old, and they they go to new homes.

A few weeks ago, we got our first foster pregnant queen - we were sooo excited! She was unbelievably affectionate, and we all fell in love with her. We named her Poppet. We were all expected a normal, simple birth - we were pretty naive!

We just imagined a bundle of healthy happy kittens to just slip out! However, the reality of Poppet's birth was far from our expectations. She went into labour at middday, and the first kitten slipped out easily.

However, Poppet wouldn't cut the umbilical cord, and eventually my mum had to do it. Then, disaster struck.

The second kitten got stuck, and we had to make the worst decision ever - pulling the kitten out would kill it, not pulling it out would kill her.

The kitten arrived dead, and Poppet slowly began to slip away from us. She was rushed to the vets for an emergency cesarean, where four more kittens were delivered. She seemed to be O.K, so we took her home, but one of the kittens never did really wake up, and he died in my litle sisters hands at about 11:30pm.

But Poppet had no milk, and was totally uninterested in her new babies. She is currently at my mum's friend's (who happens to be a vet) house, where she is pippete feeding the four remaining babies once every hour.

Poppet is gradually beginning to accept her babies, but she may never properly take to them. Ah, well, it just means bottle feeding over the summer holidays!!! Wish us luck, Poppet and her babes are coming back to us tonight. Thanks for taking the time to read this! xxx