Zoey

by Jessica Shaffer
(Danville PA USA)

I was sitting here at the computer late last summer, everyone else was in bed but my mom wasn't sleeping yet. It was about 11pm and there wasn't much of any sounds so that's why it scared me when I heard this panicky meowing outside.

I went to my mom and was like "Did you hear that?" she just kinda looked at me and listened and sure enough we heard it again. So we went outside and followed the meowing and come to find a kitten stuck up underneath my mom's Trailblazer.

Somehow she had found herself stuck on top of the drive-shaft. So I went under with a flashlight and wriggled her free and we brought her in and fed her and showed her where the litter box was.

She couldn't have been more then a few weeks old her eyes were still blueish. She slept with me for the first few weeks but then decided to become very rambunctious with our other cats especially our older female Bella. Bella is fixed but we also have two toms who are not.

Ace and Poppy are mainly outside, they normally only come in to eat and sleep a little. We had planned to get Zoey fixed when I saved up the money for it since she is mine and since the males stay outside 90% of the time we didn't expect her to get pregnant.

Well sure enough the first time she came into heat one of our males got her. We didn't know of this until a few days ago. I saw her walking and I was like: mom she looks like she swallowed an apple. She's a small cat and she's still quit young. I'm afraid for her health because of the fact she's pregnant so young.

Yesterday I was sitting here and she was sleeping on the chair next to me and all of a sudden I saw movement that didn't match with her breathing pattern. The kittens were moving. I saw that as a good sign that they were doing good so far.

We don't expect her to have very many, maybe 3 or 4 at the most because we were pretty sure that only one of our toms got her as she wasn't very interested in the other one. She has gotten a little bigger and has been sleeping a lot so we expect to have new kittens in about a week or so.

I've been watching her very closely and keeping the kids away from her. She isn't extremely affectionate, likes to be petted every once in a while but she is still as rambunctious as ever. She lets us touch her tummy though to feel the baby kittens which I believe she is proud of because she kicks up a bought of purring when we do it which isn't normal for her.

My mother and I have had plenty of experience dealing with either kittens or cat pregnancy and birthing so I'm not worried. Just praying that all of the kittens make it and that Zoey pulls through.