New Kittens

 On Monday morning we woke to the sound of kittens being born. Yes, our little stray that had kittens a few months back, had another litter, and guess where she came to have them? You got it, in our courtyard because it's enclosed by a high fence and it's secure from other cats because of our dogs. Our dogs love her.

feeding time

Well, She had the first one around 6 or 7am Monday. Then the other 3 came into the world and boy were they loud. David and I thought better of her little hiding place and because Hurricane Pamela was moving into Mexico and was going to drop some heavy rain and wind our way here in Texas, we decided to move her and the kittens into a safer area. We fed her well and while she was on the patio table eating, David and I set up the back porch with the old pet carrier and towels. Then we put a weather tarp over the entrance to the porch so it would block rain and wind. It's the kind of patio tarps you see at Home Desperate or Lowes. That's if you look up when you are shopping in the garden area. It's like a light-colored tan or green gauze. You can see through it but it's hard for rain or wind to get through it. Then we went to move the potting table and move the kittens. I picked up one kitten and all of them came with him. I was alarmed at first and then I called our Vet and told the Vet Tech our dilemma. She said to bring them in on an emergency and the doctor will see what to do. Well, we took them in with momma cat and she was so sweet even when the tech took the babies into the back room without her. She just stayed quiet the whole time in the pet carrier. It was like she had the utmost confidence in all of us and her babies were going to be safe.

Well, we found out that the momma cat didn't clean them up as well as she should have when they were born and their umbilical cords got twisted and fused to the placenta that she expelled and all of them were fused into a mass of kitten when it all dried. The techs were able to get them apart with warm saline. The Vet trimmed off the cords and one might have a belly button problem that might have to have minor surgery to correct. No problem. One of the black and white kittens had to have a bit of his leg amputated because when they were connected, his leg got cramped and it broke at the joint, and the circulation was cut off. Good thing I caught it when I saw it. 

So, after the girls were oohing and awwing over cute teeny tiny 2-day old handfuls of fluff in the back room, we were wondering if they were okay and how much it would cost us. The total cost was $75. YES!! We were thinking it was going to hit us for $200 or more. We got lucky.

Sorry about the picture quality but he was squirming.
The amputation is at the bottom center of the picture.

This morning I checked on the kittens and they are fine. I was told to check the one with the bum leg to make sure the leg stays pink. It's fine as you can see in the picture. So, they are all doing fine and hopefully this time in 5 weeks we can catch the momma cat before she goes off to get preggers again and we can get her spayed.