14 April 2009

New Life at the Farm

(photo of Girlie on Tuesday morning, rather rotund)

Mrs. Fuzzy needs a night out. I'm exhausted!

This is what I got done on the farm today: I put my clothes on and toasted a muffin.

Otherwise, I was on Sick Room duty making sure Girlie Girl, who has a terrible cold, ate and drank adequately. On Monday she saw the doc who gave her a pile of medicines. Girlie acted strange all night... lying at my head purring to wake the dead... pacing... And this morning she seemed really uncomfortable but she let me make her eat a couple ounces of canned food and we held our noses over the vaporizer until she let me know she was "done with me." Girlie is just about the most tractable cat you could ever hope to have. Good thing too...

Because a normal cat would have shred me to bits for helping with her delivery. Miss Girlie, though, was a gentle patient. The first kitten took a breath about noon; it took about seven hours from what seemed like the first pains until we were certain there weren't going to be more babies. I understand that sucks for humans... she had five whilst being whacked with the flu, and no painkillers. Poor thing was too exhausted to do more than push them out so it fell to myself and Nurse Worryworte to clean them up and get them settled onto a cozy little teat.

Turns out I'm pretty good at restraining a snappy mama with one hand while helping with the last push and then grabbing the baby and getting it breathing. Nurse Worryworte (aka Mr. Fuzzy) is excellent at purchasing sardines and milk substitute and the world's best helper for getting a kitten onto a nipple.

You may snigger now.

I won't go into detail about getting Girlie to eat "something nutritious" afterwords except to say I had to hold my nose but we do have her fed, hydrated, and snoring away quite happily. The five little babies, four gingersnaps and a black tortie, are doing their kitten thing... making cute mewing sounds and already bullying for the best teat. I think at least four will be longhairs like their mama.

DATELINE: Wednesday Morning...

One of those gingersnaps has already ventured outside the nesting box at least twice during the dark hours of night. Boy are we in trouble in a few weeks! Miss Girlie Girl is up and eating like she's never seen food before. She takes little breaks to love on us. She looks to be half the size of twenty four hours ago.


All is well again at Stratheden Farm.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job Momma!!!! Poor thing needs a vacation! They are sooo adorable. I just want to kiss them all (after they're cleaned up that is!)

Congrats on the babies!
Kelli.

Luscious Lather said...

Oh they are just precious! You are such a good Dr/Nurse/Mom to the Girlie Mom! Thank you for these darling pics and congratulations on the cute babies! ♥Diane

La Cucitrice said...

Oh my! They are darling, you know. Makes me miss when our little kitties were so small. I'm glad to hear that all is well with Girlie Girl -- cat's with head colds are such a joy! -- and that the babies are safe and sound. Fun times await! We had a grand time with our little kittens for those first 8 weeks. The pictures, by the way, are fantastic. Obviously we should have called in the expert to snap shots of our babies lo these many moons ago. =) Love and many many hugs to you both. I'm trying to put together a package for you all but... things have been crazy!