All the Mackeral tabbies are boys, the torties, torbies and calicos are girls (of course) All were de-wormed, vaccinated and checked over. Other than being very hungry and some still have fleas,  they are all healthy. The vet just looked at me like I was nuts when I presented him with a carrier full of kittens-

So now Aurora has been removed from the room and is on a much-needed vacation from her mothering and the rest of the kittens are scampering about the bedroom tearing up the joint. God help us all! LOL

But this box on the porch- this isn’t what he was expecting!

Enter five more kittens- mackerel tabbies and torbies- probably a month old and starving! They have already ate three cans of kitten food!

At the 2:00 a.m. feeding, I couldn’t find Paris in the room. I looked everywhere for her and just when I was about to give up, I hear this “Thump” and out of the corner of my eye, I see her falling about 7 feet down to the floor! She had somehow gotten up on the supply shelf and crawled inside my mud boots. The boots toppled over and out she came! She landed on her head on the tile floor.

I ran over and scooped her up, she was trembling badly. I tried to cuddle with her but she wouldn’t have anything to do with me. She had a horrible kitty headache I imagine. I watched her on and off in the morning hours. She withdrew from the others, she was shaking and sort of rocking gently back and forth and crying almost non-stop. Once again, off the vet we went. She has a mild kitty concussion but no other noticeable injuries. I am to watch her for a few days and if she shows signs of something else being wrong, I am to bring her in immediately.  I know kitties are resilient, but she fell a long way.

She is a determined mom! The cage we built for her, I was having a hard time containing her at the top. She wanted her kittens and she ate through wood, moved a huge litter pan, slid down through a plastic grate- anything she could do to get back to her kittens, she would do.

Normally, I would just leave her be with her kittens, but she has  “adopted” so many of them since her initial five were born, that she is just plumb tuckered out. In the photo below, you will see the birthing box and the cage system we built for her. At the top, is where ideally at night, I would like her to stay. There is a large hole in the floor of the top cage where she can get through and blocking that hasn’t been very successful.

I needed Mike’s help with this, so yesterday, he came into the bedroom and looked over the situation and came up with a brilliant plan. He told me to screw the litterpan over the hole- so she can’t move it. Worked like a charm!  She slept above the kittens all night, and around 1:00 a.m. when she got really busy trying to dig out, I put Griffin (the runt of the litter) in with mom for some one-on-one time.

They have all zapped her so badly and even though all but three are now eating on their own, the minute she lays down- they all pile onto her milk bar. It also worked because before, she didn’t want anything to do with the three older kittens who just arrived and last night, because they laid with her babies and played with them, the scents have mingled and she doesn’t look like she wants to kill them anymore.

In this photo, the hole is open and she is back with her babies while two more are playing where she slept last night. The whole front of the bottom closes with a hinged screen door so everyone can be contained while I clean up kitty messes in the room! 13 kittens can destroy a master bedroom in 5 seconds! LOL

Shalom and Gibson have been adopted to a wonderful dad and his daughter. They couldn’t decide between the two kitties and decided to take both!  When I left, Gib was hiding but Shalom was out and eating so I am sure they will be fine. Mikal said he will call me in a few days with a progress report and he will be sending photos as well.

Inside their new “home” for now-

Here they are

I “thought” I bought about 20 jars of baby food last night, but this morning, looking everywhere, I couldn’t find them. I am completely out and Aurora’s kittens are on it now for the most part. So off I go to the store. When I get to the door- the store is set up with corner ledges right by the front door, I go to step inside and I hear this loud “MEOW!”

Backtracking a few steps, I see this large box sitting in the corner with tall sides and hear claws scrapping along the sides of the box. I open the flaps and see three kittens inside. Looking around, I see this woman sitting on the sidewalk just watching me. She says “Do you want a kitten?” I looked at these babies, they were full of fleas and needed a bath. I asked her: “Is the mom spayed?” She told me yes and the dad was going to be done on Monday as well. I told her, I would take them all and she about fell over. I handed her my card, suggested she consider a donation (she doesn’t get paid again till next week). I carried the box to my car and  thought to myself: Why doesn’t someone  just shoot me and stop the insanity?”

I get home and give Mike the box and told him to watch them while I prepare a room for them. They are now safe, they had a much needed bath and blow-dry and have been de-wormed and de-flead-

In a town prolific with pit bulls, a box of free kittens in front of the only major grocery store  is NOT a good idea.

Oh, and when I got home, I found the baby food I had bought the night before. They had slid under the back seat of my car.

I keep trying to get her away from nursing these babies. I have been supplementing them now for two weeks- but she keeps getting back with them.  Here are a few of her extended litter of kittens:

     Tweedle and Sky

   Turtle

  Tweedle

There are nine kittens but trying to photograph nine whirling dervishes wasn’t to successful!

Took Jetta and Sunny to the vet today to be tested and evaluated. I felt a bit foolish though, Sunny the long-haired orange kitty (found in the box with the other cat) turned out to be female! Female long-hair kitties are rare in these parts so she will be a quick adoption. She just needs a new name now.

Jetta let EVERYONE in the clinic know that she doesn’t like to be restrained. When they were drawing blood (before they even started) they scruffed her and she turned into a baby tiger. I heard her clear in the room I was in and it just cemented the thought in my head that she has Bengal in her (her coat is amazing)

We discussed Licorice and Hope. One kitty is recovering well, the other (Hope) isn’t doing so good. Licorice is gaining strength- I don’t know about weight because Mike accidentally ran over my scale with his wheelchair the other night and it is toast. 🙁 Although Hope is eating, she isn’t doing much of anything else. Dr. Steve wants to run another hemocrit next week and see what’s up. She has withdrawn to the very top of her cage, perched on top of the carrier and pretty much stays there all day. She had a small speck of black on her nose when she arrived here, and now that speck is the size of a small marble. We will just take it a day at a time and see how it goes.

Today, for the first time since her FUO she ate on her own! She didn’t eat a lot, but anything is an improvement over nothing. Right now, she favors organic chicken baby food by Mom’s Own. She has lost so much weight, it is alarming. They think that one of her litters didn’t make it and she didn’t reabsorb the kitten in a timely manner leading to an infection. That’s the general consensus anyway. I wish so badly sometimes that they could talk to us in a language easily understood.

Thank you for helping me cover this unexpected late night vet visit.