A few weeks ago I turned our walk in closet into a "safe room" for Nikita to have her kittens. Wouldn't you figure she chose the bare floor in the dining room corner to have them? LOL She only had one kitten at this point, so when it looked safe I offered her box (with towels and newspaper) to her and she climbed in right away.
Despite my wild fascination with the whole "Miracle of Life" process, I tried to hang back as much as possible. I tend to over-research topics when they are presented to me and I read that it's best to leave the birthing queen alone. When they are laboring and feel threatened (or a big audience) they will actually stop. So I put up some boxes to give her a sense of privacy and she seemed so much at ease.
Cody and I got to see her deliver 4 more kittens. She has a total of 5. Fortunately, none of them were stillborn. I watched kitten delivery videos on youtube and a few of them said stillbirths aren't uncommon. I didn't want to see her deliver a stillborn kitten, but I was prepared. Thank God she didn't.
After she was done I removed the wet newspaper and left her with some old towels. Actually, I think that worked out really well and I recommend it to anyone who has a pregnant cat (queen). Put a few layers of old towels down in a box with several layers of newspaper on top. After she delivers just pull out the newspaper so she has clean, dry towels under it. She will lick her kittens constantly and that with a combination of the dry towels will dry them off and help them keep their body temperature up. Just in case something went wrong we had a small box with a heating pad on "Low" and a blanket on top. A sort of "warmer" for the kittens. But my intent was to let Mother Nature (& Nikita) do her job.
I was really proud of Nikita. She really knew what to do and took over. The kittens basically nursed all day and night. She stayed with them, except for a couple of short walks within eye shot of her kittens.
I did have a little scare when I thought I felt another kitten inside of Nikita. I was worried because after Nikita had her 5th kitten she still pushed a little. So I was very concerned about another kitten being left behind. I called a nearby vet's office, who suggested I bring her in. It was $75 for an office visit (which I really don't have), $100 for Xrays (to see if there were any more kittens), and $900 for a cesarean if there was another one in there. I REALLY don't have that. I got kinda emotional at that thought because I knew I couldn't give her all of that and if a kitten was left behind she would certainly die from infection.
But I took her to the vet anyone. They took Nikita and the kittens back. I told them that she was a stray that I took in one day when I saw her nearly passed out under our living room window. The cat that we adopted (Sara) was spayed to prevent pregnancies that we couldn't afford (& to do our part for decreasing the kitty population). I was trying to do the right thing by rescuing this cat and now I was being confronted with a situation where I HAD to chose to possibly let her die. I was so upset.
The lady came out a short while later. She said the vet felt Nikita's belly and although it was hard, there were no more kittens. But she wouldn't know for sure unless an x-ray was done. Because this was a stray she wasn't going to charge us. Thank you Lord! I appreciated that SO much!! I wanted to do what was right, but I couldn't afford it by a long shot. Fortunately, Nikita would be ok.
So I took Nikita home and laid her in her box with her kittens. I put the box on my bed and laid there next to them until I fell asleep. I needed a quick nap so badly!
I fell asleep to the sound of whimpering kittens being warmed and loved by their mother. It was so wonderful!! Here are the pictures I took on my phone (please forgive the poor quality). There are two orange ones, a black one, a white one, and a gray one. Now I know who the kittydaddy is. The black and white one prowling the neighborhood!
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