It's taken ages for a name for the little pregnant black cat to become apparent, almost as long as it's taken me to be able to get near her. All that has now changed; her name is Binky and as she became more heavily pregnant she took to following me around the yard. Then one day last week as she was mere days from popping, it seemed she decided to take the next step by letting me in to her space to give her a fuss. Most of the barriers came down that day and there was purring and chop rubbing. We walked around the yard and I showed her one of two possible locations for her to have her babies that I'd prepared for her, but she didn't seem interested. Hmmm, I thought.
Friday dawned and I set off for work, pretty sure that today would be the day. Sid was home to help out if need be, though he didn't know it yet. I could hear her miaowing constantly in the background when we were on the phone about lunchtime; hoping she'd hold on until I got home, I did a google search for how to help a cat give birth and printed off the wikipedia page on the subject. Next thing; panicked phone call from Sid saying a newborn kitten had appeared on the patio and what should he do? Arrgghhh! Arrggghhh! Quick, grab a box or something and something soft to put in it for her. So he ran and got a large cat (or small dog, depending) carrying box from the garage (we have about 6 cat boxes, which does seem excessive), put Dora's bed in it and immediately she weent in, checked it out and went to get her baby.
Thereafter she took care of business and produced what we first thought to be three, then five, and finally six babies! Four are black and two are tabbies with bits of white. One might be a tortie.
She looked so serene and happy by the time I got home, I burst into tears on the spot. There then followed the question of whether to leave her there or bring her into the house. She'd obviously decided that we were trustworthy by now and was expecting to be safest nearby.
A black tom came sniffing around shortly afterwards and she was very very anxious about his presence, so that decided us that she needed to come in. OTOH, Ted also came visitng a little while later and it was as though she wanted to show him her babies :) She and Ted are pretty close though. Ted may be the daddy.
So I cleaned out the porch which now seems tailor made for a mother cat and her babies, set out food, water, litter tray etc and then lifted the whole kit n caboodle sorry) in the box into the porch. Job done.
Two days on the kits are getting stronger every day and Binky is doing a marvellous job. She seems to be enjoying this time of ministering to her babies, being catered to with bits of cooked fish and generally not having to worry about anyone getting to her babies. The plan is to socialise them and then try to find homes for them when the time comes. Binky and Ted are staying but will both need to be spayed. Beautiful as the kits are and utter privilege as it is to see Binky caring for them, there's still plenty of cats in the world without loving homes as it is. Hopefully Binky will be over any residual fear by the time the kits are weaned and we can get her to the vets without too much trouble.
But oh God, it's so sweet.
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