What Life Is AllAabout

A couple of years ago right after I moved into this house, both Sara and Shelby some how managed to talk me into letting them have one kitten each. Now I wasn't exactly wanting them to have the cats but well I am a sucker at times.

Sara had a female cat named Tiger that looks very much like the cat pictured above. The only difference that I can see is that Tiger had blue eyes and this cat has green eyes. And Tiger's hair was a bit shorter and slicker.

Shelby had Precious who you would think would be a girl and we thought it was a girl for a very long time. This cat was very long haired cat. He was a true ball of fur. White with orange trimmings. Beautiful cat really. The thing with Precious was that Shelby picked him out a couple days after he was born, then while she was waiting for him to be old enough to bring home, well some how he got under a rocking chair and the guy who gave us the cat smashed the kitten's head. We ended up waiting longer than normal for the kitten because the owner wanted to make sure that the kitten was going to be ok. Precious was ok, well sort of ok. For a very long time he didn't have a clue how to clean himself and he was a bit slow. Shelby had to bathe this cat, so much so that the smart fur ball would jump into the shower with you if he got half a chance.

Last fall when I was big and pregnant with Katie we realized that Tiger was pregnant. Stephen was beside himself worried that we would be over ran with cats. I personally was pissed that I had already been fat and pregnant for so long and this darn cat got to have her babies in no time at all.

When Tiger had her fist litter of Kittens she was a bit slow to mother them. However once I got her to nurse them she was fine and Nature took its course and she turned out to be a great mommy. Trouble was that she was still nursing kittens when she got knocked up again.

Needless to say we had a lot of Kittens, but we did find homes for all of them except one. Then all of the sudden both Tiger and Precious where missing. We had made them start living outside full time just before Katie was born. They where fine outside but then all of the sudden they went missing. and the one kitten was alone and sad looking really. But a day or two after the mom and dad went missing so did the kitten. I really thought something ate it.

We live on a circle drive where most of the homes are owned by one guy. There are only a couple of us that don't rent from this man. A few months ago I mentioned to the handy man that my cats had gone missing. The man said boldly as ever, right in front of my 10 year old " yeah I shot them, I was sick and tired of having cats all over the neighborhood so I shot all of them" Now I was shocked and pissed really. But Mostly I was upset that he said it in front of my daughter who cried about her cat being shot.

Then a couple of weeks ago the lady across the street starts calling and throwing a fit cause there was a stray cat on her porch and she swore it was our cat. We told her several times that Jerry shot our cats and we don't have any cats now.

Yesterday Shelby comes in with the above cat swearing that this is Tiger and she has to save her because the lady across the street has been hitting, kicking and throwing the cat. I was really tired and didn’t feel like getting into it with her, not to mention that at a glance this looks like Tiger.

The entire time Stephen is going on and on about how "that's not our cat, we are not keeping the cat and it’s not our cat!!" Then Shelby says the oddest thing. She is standing there holding the cat up to me going on and on about it being Tiger and the she says "Omg she peed on me!!!" I was so exhausted that it took me a second for it to click as to what she had just said. Once I realized what she said I thought ummm cats don’t normally just pee while being help up in the air.

Of course I look to see what Shelby is on about and I will be darned if there isn’t a kitten butt hanging out of this cat. Even though the darn cat's water had just broke on my bedroom carpet and even though Stephen was still chanting "it isn't our cat" I couldn't throw the cat out the door with a kitten hanging out of her. So I made a bed in a container and put her inside.

It didn't take long to win Stephen over, because it didn't take long to realize things where not going well with the cat. She had 5 kittens all of them where either butt first or sideways. Stephen had to pretty much pull the kittens out and three of them didn't make it.

Mommy was struggling to clean her self up and the babies where pretty much on their own. Now I know that the mom cleaning up the Kittens is what gets them started really breathing. Stephen had to do all the cleaning up and tried to rub them all enough to get them breathing but only two of the kittens made it.

Mom isn’t interested in letting them nurse and the kittens are not even trying to nurse. The kittens had no hair and no idea who to suck or swallow.

We put mom and babies in the laundry room on a shelf with a heat lamp to help keep them warm. Apparently this is necessary with premi kittens (per my internet search). When we came home today the kittens where gone and mom was wondering the house. We searched for a long time and found the kittens beside the tub we had them in, one had died during the day but one was hanging in there.

Mom refuses to leave the kitten any where besides on the cabinet so we actually have mom and baby on a towel on the cabinet with a heat lamp over them.

One of Sara's friends brought me the tiniest bottle to feed the kitten with. We are basically manually pumping milk from mom and forcing open the kitten's mouth to teach it to nurse but also giving it some vaporized milk in this tiny bottle. The kitten seems to be giving nursing an effort but it’s difficult because mom has very little milk. Also because mom isn’t really nursing she seems to have a very large tummy still. I am thinking this is because the nursing is what causes the uterus to contract back down and she has had no real nursing yet.

Stephen has named the mommy CAT, and for some reason CAT has decided that even though Shelby brought her home, I made her a bed to give birth in and Stephen insisted she didn't belong here, she is defiantly Stephen's cat! She follows him every where and jumps into his lap when he sets at the computer. This cat has claimed Stephen and now he is talking about buying her a collar.

Stephen swears that we can't keep the kitten but I have a feeling that if the Kitten makes it he will be so attached he won’t let it go any where. The girls want to name the kitten Faith or Miracle. Not sure about a name at the moment I am just hoping for survival for the poor kitten.