cat rescue

Our Betty is pretty clearly a first time mum ….. the look of shock on her face as she went into labour said it all.    She gave birth to them and cleaned them and sorted them out, but then quietly confided in me that she hadn’t really been looking to start a family yet.  She’s only young herself and was hoping to go to college and follow her dream of studying creative arts.

Her first challenge was to be able to get into the bed with all 5 of them without sitting on one of them.  She’d clamber in, settle herself down only to find one or two of them squealing and trying to wriggle out from under her.  Standing up and weighing up the situation, she’d turn round a bit, then settle down again, this time squashing the other kits.  She was clearly  flummoxed by it and decided the best plan was to stay out the bed most of the time, and just pop in occasionally to feed … but stay sitting up …so she didn’t crush anyone.

I was a little concerned because when I went into her bedroom she was never with the kits.   Nevertheless, they were always clean (I imagined her diving in with a handful of baby wipes, then making a swift exit),  were clearly growing, and mostly seemed contented and sleeping.  Nothing really to trigger a referral to Kitten Protection.

If I’ve picked the kits up she’s had a quick look to make sure they’re ok and then got on with eating her supper.  It’s ok that she’s not a mumsy sort of mum.  In my limited experience I’ve found that the mums who start by being quite detached often go on to care for and feed their kits quite a long while after the more involved mums have started packing the kittens sandwiches in a map and showing them the door.

This evening was quite different.  They’ve opened their eyes, but one eye on a ginger kit and another on black kit was still glued together.  I got some cooled boiled water and cotton pads and went in to bathe their eyes.  Betty was on my case, wanting to know what evidence there was that this was helpful, what possible side effects there could be, exactly what my future care plan was going to be.   I explained that a possible side effect was that the kitten could have a damp head for a few  minutes, and that we may be repeating the treatment in the morning.  Bless her.

It’s been a relief this last week to have a happier tail of kittens to tell.   Little stray, Betty, arrived with us about three weeks ago.  Some lovely caring young women had found her stray in their garden and offered temporary shelter, then got her a place at 8 Lives.   As ever we were full, but knowing that Jack was off to his smart new home in a few days time, and the weather forecast was pretty poor, we settled her into the conservatory and hoped she’d hang on to her kits until Jack was in his new home and Betty could have his bedroom.

trying to get help before coming into rescue

It’s possible that we suggested hanging on to her kits a little too strongly, as she moved into Jack’s freshly vacated bedroom and nearly a week later still hadn’t given birth.   The nightmare of Maya and her kits, and tails from other rescue friends about their young rescue cats having birth problems and needing C sections, sent us running off to see Dr Alistair.   He reassured us that apart from a few ear mites and worms, all was well and the babies would be along shortly.  Distressingly the products for worms and ear mites can’t be safely used in pregnancy, so we’d had to stand helplessly by while poor Bet clawed at her ears.

getting bigger

… and bigger

Having checked on Bet very regularly since she arrived, it was clear that last Saturday morning something was different.   She was in her little crib and quite flustered.  I’m sure she’s a first time mum – the look of confusion and pain on her face was heart breaking.  She purred a lot, and then growled, and then cried with pain … and of course glared at me thinking I was causing it.   It was a scary few moments, flashbacks to the trauma of Chi’s kittens, phone clutched in hand with vet on speed dial …. thank goodness it was Saturday morning and I was home and vets was open.

Moments later a little ginger body had arrived and was being cleaned up.  His little cries brought back the birth of Max, still so recent.  Thankfully Betty was in a much better position to care for her kits than Maya had been.  Shortly afterwards, a little more growling, and a little black and white person entered the world.   All cleaned up and sorted.    I was expecting more kits, and possibly an odd number given Bet’s size and shape.  However after a couple of hours nothing else had happened and I took my chance to go get some lunch.

first two babies

Returning about half an hour later, I heard Betty growling as I opened the door.   My first thought was that despite being sweet and friendly up to this point, she’d become very protective over her kits.   When I saw her it was clear they were more growls of pain … and very soon a little black kit made his debut, followed very swiftly by another black and white kit.   Things settled down.  All cleaned up, kits fluffed up (which made me realised just how prem Max must have been).   So I was right that she had more than two kits, but wrong about the odd number.  Sat for a long while, chatting to her and admiring them, feeding her in her bed so she didn’t have to get up and leave them.   Then went to fetch some clean bedding …. and we sat a while again, just total awe at how gorgeous and tiny and perfect they all were.  I explained what I wanted to do, about moving them a little so I could put new bedding in, but Bet laid down again on the dirty bedding, so I waited.  More growling ….. and my conviction that we were having an odd number of kits was proved correct as a tiny pale ginger kit slipped into the world.

full set of kits

So, after a night with no sleep we thought hearing that first cry might be an auditory hallucination, or a dream, or a miracle, and left us a bit dazed.   The second cry sent us scrambling into action.   The second kit had clearly gone to the bridge though her presence relieved the fear that there were unborn babes trapped inside Maya.   However the dark little head we’d seen the previous night started squirming and squeaking at our touch.   We bundled him up in fleeces and with a little wheat bag, and with one arm free, began re-making formula.

Had the heartbreaking job of burying Minim, and really not being sure how closed to leave her grave in case her brother needed to join her soon. We got a little formula into the tiny person who came to be known as Max, but it was hard to keep him warm and in the end we rushed down to the vets for help. Lovely nurse Lauren carried him around and got him warm. It dawned on us that the reason he wasn’t drying out and fluffing up like most new born kits was that he was really rather premature. He had a little fur on his back, but his front was quite naked, and his arms and legs almost translucent.

For the next 48 hours we lived and breathed little Max. Tiny tiny amounts of formula going into him, almost constant cuddles to keep him warm, and very gentle attempts to toilet him. When we had to take little Niki to her new home, our amazing child-proofer Erin and her mun Sally looked after him. The residents got on board and either through concern, cussedness or curiosity got seriously involved.

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On Sunday 1pm nurse Rosy came from the vets to check up on him … no charge, just because she cares, because she’s part of an amazing vet surgery. Max was well hydrated and despite being tiny and premmy he was doing pretty well. We made plans about day care for when I went back to work on Tuesday. It’s a weird feeling – part of me fears he won’t survive the next half hour, part of me has to worry about how to manage his care for the rest of the week.

Sally & Erin popped round in the afternoon ….. with cake. It was at that point I realised I’d not eaten since Friday evening and not had a drink since I picked Max up from Sal’s on Saturday evening. So at 3pm, Sal and Erin took Max to their’s to give me a break. Away from the anxiety of every breath of Max I had a blissful couple of hours sleep. They texted me at 5pm because he was restless and mouthing for his bottle. I scurried round to collect him,

The little guy had a good feed at 5:30 and after that I spent some time on facebook looking for more expert advice about hand rearing premmy kittens, or getting surrogate mother. Had a couple of options in the pipeline, though they would have involved a bit of a road trip for us. At 7pm Max wasn’t so interested in his feed. He’d been asleep and not shouting for food, so I wrapped him up with his fleece and wheatie bag and we settled down for cuddles until he woke up properly for a feed.

Cuddling, and typing one hand on facebook to sort out our next move, I checked down yet again on Max …….

My heart was broken ……. he’d slipped to the bridge without a word.   There’s nothing quite like the pain of a dead baby in your arms.  We’re a week on as I’m writing this, in some ways the focus has changed as we have a new pregnant kit with us, but the agony of losing this babe will be raw for a long while to come.

Maya, our lovely little Lancashire Lass had such a traumatic arrival here that we weren’t surprised she hid away at first and didn’t want to eat.  However, when she’d been here a few days and still hadn’t eaten we started to get really rather concerned and despite not wanting to put her through the distress of going back in a carrier and off to the vet, it clearly had to happen.  Conveniently Sooty had a review appointment booked with Dr Tim for Monday afternoon and said that if Maya was feeling poorly he’d be happy to let her have his slot.

Sooty isn’t always the most amenable patient, but Maya topped any challenge Sooty could present.   Although a mixture of her feeling poorly and my determination to get her to the vet had got her into the carrier, that didn’t mean she was willing to be examined once we arrived.   One option with a terrified cat who can’t be examined is to give a sedative, but this could pose a risk to her unborn kits.   However, she was clearly unwell and doing nothing wasn’t an option.   At the end of the day Maya had to take priority over any unborn kits (there was even a possibility that her swollen tummy wasn’t due to pregnancy) but just maybe we could save them all.  She had an anti biotic injection and a follow up appointment in two days for if she was feeling no better.

We came home hopeful, but Maya resolutely turned away from the offer of any food.  We’d been through the full repertoire: tuna, roast chicken, fresh cooked fish, scrambled egg, sardines, cheese, boiled ham, all manner of treats ….. and returned to the vets on Wednesday evening, at which point they admitted her.  She had some sedation, a scan which showed two kitten heartbeats inside her, a mouth with just one remaining tooth, tests which showed an infection and not surprisingly serious dehydration.  She was put on a drip and anti biotics and thankfully started to improve.  Despite the lack of teeth she began to eat to olympic standard and was clearly feeling much better.

We collected her from the vet about 6pm Friday evening – delighted that she came home and started eating, and had her anti biotic wrapped in some sardine.   I went off to feed and cuddle Jack for a while and when I returned she’d given birth.  I could just see one tiny dark kitten head near her, squawking for attention.  It was immediately clear that things weren’t quite right though … there’s normally one heck of a lot of purring going on at this stage ……. but there was nothing, other than the odd squeak from a kitten who wasn’t  getting the attention he needed.    So then another dilemma ….. I want to make sure the kitten is ok but Maya is afraid of people and maybe by my staying around its making it worse and less likely that she’ll take care of the little one.  I keep popping in to see how things are going, no sign of other kittens …… the vet said he saw at least 2 kitten heart beats …… where is the other kitten?  stuck inside her?  stopping her from being able to care for the little one who is already born?   Nearly 1am and I’m on the phone to another rescue friend with a lot more experience and decide watchful waiting is perhaps best option.  Maya is curled up near the kitten, asleep with her head on the placenta and completely ignoring him.  About 3am I make up some kitten formula, sterilize the bottles and go into her room with the intention of ‘snatching’ the kitten and starting to feed him.   He’s snuggled in the curl of her tail however and at least warm and safe near mum.  If I take him and then he smells of me, and she rejects him, he’s going to have a real uphill struggle.  I sit and watch them for a long while, neither appear in great distress and I decide to leave them be.

I crawl to bed and sleep the troubled sleep of a foster mum out of her depth.  I dream I take them somewhere and whilst I’m explaining to someone about the second kitten heartbeat and wondering where kit 2 is, Maya produces another 26 kittens in a wide variety of shapes and sizes …. one is bright blue, very fluffy and the size of Jango, another is green and gummy and resembles Ganesh, they become mixed up with the kittens in the home we visit and it turns into typical anxiety dream of trying to collect them all together into the carrier to leave.  It’s now 5am.

At 7am I go back into Maya’s room to find she’s vacated the kitten box and is in another little bed.  The little kitten I’d seen the previous night, and another kit lie still and cold in the box.   Neither have been detached from their placenta.  I’m exhausted and so so sad.  I put food out for Maya, and crawl downstairs for coffee before I can face burying the babies.   After tears and coffee I throw away the formula I’d made up in the night and start packing away the bottles, return to Maya, sorting out crushing her tablet and wrapping it in sardine.  I’m exhausted, the tablet shatters on the floor, I kneel down to look for it and I hear a kitten cry.

We had a really stressy time a few weeks ago …. what with Sooty’s girlfriend and adoptions suddenly seeming to grind to a halt.  We had Sooty to try to keep indoors, the other residents determined that they should be allowed out, plus three rescue cats all of whom wanted their own room .    Breaking point came when the weather warmed up and the seasonally available third single room aka the conservatory became uninhabitable with the door closed as it was too warm.    Despite hours of lying awake thinking through permutations of doors open and closed and who has access to what, the number of different needs within the house simply did not compute.

niki

Thankfully help arrived in the form of a lovely local foster family for Niki.   Her confidence has rocketed since she went into a cat free home, and she’s loved playing with the human kittens in her foster home.

Molly was made an offer she couldn’t refuse last weekend.   Another lovely cat free home, not far away, with a couple of servants on paw to pander to her every whim.  Go for it Molly!  You’ve had a tough time over recent months ….. claim that rug and the fire as your own.

As though that wasn’t good enough, Jack met some people last weekend and has called them back for a second interview as he’s hopeful that they may be able to offer him almost as many cuddles as he needs.

So we unexpectedly had space to offer for another poor soul who needed rescue.  Hard to describe the emotion of looking at a clean and empty bedroom, food (adult & kitten) stacked on the shelves …. just waiting …. wondering who may come next and what story will unfold in the coming weeks.