What A Wonderful Mother!

by Addy Bryant

Well, our family of three didn't intend to have kittens. But when our lovely Siamese named Lavender (a seal-point, and a generally wonderful cat) got out of the house while in heat, we had to nurse her through the pregnancy.

On the night of her birth, she crawled into bed with me, though I didn't notice at first (being a bit of a heavy sleeper). At around 2:00 in the morning, I was half awake. Lavender's paw was resting on my arm, and I was about to drift off when she suddenly sank her claws into my arm.

I yelped and felt around under the covers, stroking her down to her tail when I felt something warm and wet. In shock, I reached with my other hand and turned on my bedside light, pulling back the covers.

There was Lavender, with a kitten still in a slimy sack, under my covers, giving birth.

Needless to say, I ran out of the room, yelling to wake up my mom and dad, hoping that the bloody stuff wasn't gonna happen in my bed.

Joy. It did. Lavender was eating the placenta, which left a great big bloody stain on my sheets. If I wasn't so preoccupied with the kitten, I would have chastised her.

Speaking of the kitten, it was a tiny tortoiseshell female, who had a bright ginger looking flame patch on her forehead. She wasn't breathing just yet, so I had to run and get a warm and wet washcloth to use. I wiped her mouth and nose with a corner of the cloth, and she started mewling about ten seconds later.

I moved her closer to her mother, who licked her some more, drying her off. She began to suckle.

(Note: I say she and he because I now know what genders the kittens were. I didn't at the time.)

About an hour later, she had a little black boy kitten. He soon began to suckle, and we brought the box we put her in out into the living room, setting it on the couch. The next night, while I was sleeping on the couch next to her, she had another tortoiseshell female. Then she had yet another black male later.

We gave the first black kitten away, and the second tortoiseshell. We kept the first and last kittens, and named them Leiani and Shadow.