Omg kittens!

They're heeeeerrrreeee! Zelda had four beautiful, healthy, perfect kittens in the wee hours of the morning. It was like freakin' Christmas for me.

And she looks pretty pleased about it too.

I woke up around 2am because Mike had fallen asleep watching 300 and that is just about the loudest movie in the world. I decided to make the best of my interrupted sleep with a quick trip to the bathroom but when I opened the door I heard the tiny 'mews' and 'bews' that could only mean one thing. Kittens. I had used Zelda's carrier as a kind of birthing box (just a suggestion for her) and put blankets in and on top of it so that it was cozy. Wouldn't you know it, that is where she decided to have them. I'm really glad it was there and not somewhere weird like behind the toilet or in the bathtub. Anyway, at around 2am she only had two kittens but it did not look like she was producing milk. The kittens were not latching on to her and they were crying a lot.

I freaked out.

I called the Foster Emergency Line (aka the manager of medical at my shelter) and felt really bad for waking her up. She understood though, and told me the only thing we could do was wait until the morning and go to a pet store to get Kitten Milk Replacer. Unfortunately KMR is not sold everywhere, which is frustrating when you think about it because hey, emergencies happen, and sometimes they happen at 2am. In fact, I would venture to say that most of the time they happen around 2am. There was nothing I could do at that point except pray and cry a little, so that is what I did. I checked on her one last time and suddenly there were three kittens! It was so strange to me because when I had been sitting with her it did not look as if she was having contractions or anything. I am hoping that the process was easy on her. When Spoookie had her babies I remember her crying quite a bit and it breaking my heart.

I set my alarm to wake me up at 7am so that I could call the nearest PetSmart and see if they had any KMR before I rushed out to get it. There were four kittens now and Zelda and her babies were doing fine! The kittens had found places to nurse and mom was happy and I even got her to eat a bit. I actually learned today that humans don't have milk right away so maybe its the same for cats? Maybe it was just because she was not done giving birth. Either way, its now noon and everyone is happy. Everything I read basically says that as long as they aren't constantly crying they are okay. I saw them all nursing and, well, that is just about all they do. Eat and sleep.

Everyone is eating! Yay!

So now it is kind of the waiting game. Waiting for them to get big and fuzzy and fun. Zelda is still sick so I am still very worried. The hardest part is not over. The last family we had we ended up losing one, even though mama was very good at her job. Its just so hard for their tiny bodies to fight off a cold. PAWS has a great vet staff and they are always helping me so I think we will be okay. The safest place for the family to be at the moment is with me since a shelter environment is very stressful on a mother and there are so many ways she could get sick. Most likely the vets will give me more medicine to bring home, or tell me to get weights on the babies, and we will medicate them with the same stuff as mom based on their weights. Keeping Zelda stress free, full of food, and comfortable is priority. I'll do daily weights on the babies to help me determine if they are eating enough. And there will be lots of pictures to come!