When life gives you kittens

Me and Jono recently moved into our first home together, and one of the things we've most been looking forward to when becoming home owners was being able to have pets!

We both grew up with cats and we knew we definitely wanted to adopt a kitten, but having to do lots of renovation work in the house meant we'd put our plans to adopt on hold for now.

We'd seen a cute girl cat around, she'd wandered into our house when we'd just moved in! But a month later, when we were home with covid, she came meowing to us for food and looked incredibly skinny.

We let her in and gave her some dreamies and let her sleep but she kept coming back. We figured she had a home nearby but wasn't sure why she was so skinny. 

Poor kitties had been sheltering here 

A few days later, as we were getting some fresh air in the garden, she popped under our neighbour's shed and brought out a kitten! She led the kitten, a girl about 8 weeks old, into the house!

We were so surprised. We gave them some water as it was really hot and they were very thirsty, then we bought some food from the shop. We rang around some cat charities to see if they could take them in, but everywhere was oversubscribed! 

We went to facebook and our new neighbours let us know they lived at a house down the street. So we let them stay out for a few days so they could find their way home, but they never did! Three days later, they were still living under the shed. We saw mum cat try and get into the house a couple of times but they shut her out.

They were so thirsty in the warm weather

We knew the kitten was too young to be outside, so we took them both in and wrote a note to the 'owners' so they could take them back. We put our details on and waited for a knock at the door. But no one came!

I felt all kinds of emotions. I was scared I was stealing someone's cat, I was confused as to whether our neighbours were wrong. I was really upset that someone could abandon such a small and precious kitten - and her precious mum! I wondered whether we should just take them round in a box - but I was scared they might come to some harm if they were unwanted. It was such a dilemma. 

Dinah needed lots of rest

After a week, we were heading off on holiday, and didn't know what to do. Luckily my parents took in the kitten, and have now given her a permanent home! They send me photos and she looks so happy and settled. They've even taken her out for a walk in the garden on a lead!

When we went away, we left out food and water for mama cat, who we knew wouldn't like to be stuck in, and kind of expected her to go back 'home', but as soon as we got back from holiday she came straight in. It was like she'd chosen us.

She settled into her new home straight away

We took her to the vet to give her a health check and see if she had a microchip. To our surprise - she was microchipped! And also to our surprise - the chip was registered to a vet in Spain but had no owner details on! The plot thickened.

We got another surprise too - she was five weeks pregnant! I'd had an inkling she might be given she wasn't neutered, but it was confirmed. Soon we were to be inundated in even more kittens!

The vet aged Maggie at a year to 18 months old - and she was already on her third litter of kittens in her short life - she had got pregnant again while her kittens were only a few weeks old - so we knew if we didn't take her in and get her neutered she'd be back out getting pregnant again as soon as her kittens were born! 

There were some clues Maggie was pregnant 

The vets put an appeal out on facebook and some other channels and said if no one came to claim her in a week we could register her as ours! So that's what we did. It had been 3 weeks since we wrote the note to the people who were supposed to own her and her kitten and we'd had nothing - they'd even seen us playing outside with her! We decided to call her Maggie (after Maggie Rogers, lol).

The next few weeks were pretty difficult. The vet told us Maggie needed to stay in - but she was used to living outside and didn't like being in at all. She escaped a few times - getting stuck on a roof at one point - and caused us no end of trouble.

We've also been having a damp course and re-wire done on the new house - so it's been noisy and dusty and not a great environment for keeping a pregnant cat calm! 

Maggie loved showing off her pregnant belly

A bladder infection didn't help matters either - she kept weeing everywhere! 

We were very ready for the kittens to arrive... then the vets added another week to her due date!

They had to arrive eventually though, and last Saturday night Jono was in the living room and noticed Maggie was acting weird. She hadn't been at all affectionate during her stay with us, but she was suddenly sat on him meowing really loud, and she kept running around a bit frantic. She was finally in labour! She jumped on the sofa between us and needed lots of comforting, and her water broke there and then! 

We brought her birthing box downstairs and filled it with newspaper and towels and half an hour later... we had our first kitten! Across the next two hours she had three more... four cute bundles of fluff altogether!

The face of a cat realising they're off into labour

Maggie did amazingly and didn't need our help at all, though Jono stayed up with her all night to make sure. We'd read lots on kittening and were prepared for anything going wrong (apart from having been out and drunk a load of prosecco, meaning if she needed a vet we'd have needed a taxi!) getting in kitten formula and dental floss to cut the umbilical cord if Mags didn't. 

However, she was such a trooper, we were so proud of her, she licked them all clean and started feeding them straight away, she was such a good attentive mum and was really chilled! 

All the kittens seemed healthy, and when we weighed them the next day they were all a good weight. It had been hard to see what colour they were in the middle of the night, but the next morning we could see two grey and two calico cats, with beautiful colouring, which was such a nice surprise!

A few hours old!

The kittens have all seemed fine and Mags has done all the hard work - but as a cat mum (and kitten grandma!) I've been a bag of nerves, never in my life have I done so much googling. I've been so scared the kittens might be too cold or too sleepy or not feeding enough - but they've all put on lots of weight and seem to be doing well, as is Maggie.

They're so small at the moment you can pick them up in one hand, and while I'll miss them being so small and sleepy, it'll be so nice when they start to walk and open their eyes and have their personalities start to show! 

It'll also be so nice to see Maggie care free and no longer just a baby machine! She deserves a nice relaxing life where she's cared for.

Weighing time! 

We don't even know what sex they are yet, though we have two calicos, who will be female! We have two gorgeous grey tabbies who could be boys or girls. We have a couple of homes lined up, and some people who are interested, so we shouldn't have any problems rehoming them. The problem will be we won't want to let them go! 

We also can't wait to get Mags neutered, so she can go outside again! 

They have the cutest faces

Having spent so much time just looking after myself the last few years, it's so nice to have a house full of people and animals to look after and love!

Even though adopting a cat, let alone birthing a litter of kittens, wasn't something that was in the pipeline for this year, I'm so glad we've had the chance to help an animal in need, to bring new life into the world, and it's so nice to have others to care for.  

When life gives you kittens... you have to be thankful! 

Nawwwwww!