Forums » Smalltalk » Fresh new kitties!

So, a few months ago our beautiful tabby Calypso slipped out back, and came back with an extra package... or three. A few days ago she dropped three kittens. A small, but healthy litter. I have a video I'm trying to upload them where I showed one about twenty four hours after it was born, and the picture I took this morning that I'm showing here is at just over three days old. Their eyes are still closed and everything.

Poor Calypso was so terrified when the first came out, she started spinning in circles trying to get what was hanging out of her crotch off. Perhaps I'm a bad person, but I still find humor in the THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP against her birthing basket. Don't get me wrong, I stopped it as quick as I saw what was going on, but all you have to say is THUMPTHUMPTHUMP in our house right now and everyone laughs.



They have temporary names until they get bigger and show more traits. The firstborn is #2. The name comes from the fact that if it keeps growing similarly it'll look a lot like momma. Hopefully #2 doesn't have brain damage. The second one's name is tiny. Looks a lot like #2 but less white on the face. It was small enough that after #2 led the way, Tiny slipped right out without any fuss, we almost didn't notice. The final born is called Fatzo, because it came out about twice the size of the others. It's not as dramatic now but Fatzo is still maintaining a healthy size difference. Fatzo I had to help pull the placenta off of because Cal was too exhausted from pushing him out to get up and pull it off, I didn't want it suffocating. The rest of the cleaning I left up to her.

In spite of bludgeoning #2 on first arrival, Cal is a very good mommacat. She only leaves her nest to use the litterbox, and has maintained almost 24-7 purring to keep them calm. She won't let people she doesn't recognize near the box, but trusts us enough to pick them up and inspect them without getting mad; still, she watches intently and immediately perks up if one of them starts crying.

I just have to say... d'awww.

We're still figuring out what to do with them. As much as I love our tux Kratos, Kratos is too lone wolf for a family setting and drives Derek up the wall with constant efforts of escape. She always returns but it's still bothersome. We may end up trading one of the kits for Kratos when it's big enough and find homes for the others.

If anyone lives near enough to me in the TX/Louisiana area, and wants a good, grown cat, Kratos isn't bad; we just have too many broken windows in our house and she's already cut herself a few times trying to get out, we're terrified she's going to kill herself. She can be a lover, but she's not in her face and sets off on her own now and then.

And if someone's seriously interested I can get pics of Kratos.";

*melts a little* That is just too cute! And mildly amusing about the first kitten.

I hope you manage to work the situation out, every one of them sounds and looks adorable!

Awwwww adorable!! They look so cute!

Kittens are sooo sweet.

And loool...I know what you mean about the 'thumpthumpthump'..

They are just so precious! Congrats!

Oh my goodness they're so adorable! Poor #2-- I hope his wittle kitten head is okay!

And unfortunately I can't help with Kratos-- I live too far away, and we own two cats and a dog already, but hopefully you can rectify the situation in one way or another.

http://youtu.be/gae2gKdfe0k Here we go, they were one day old here.

They are so adorable I'm gonna die! Have you considered spaying Calypso?

Can I freeze them and eat them as a dessert?

Seconding Heimdall's question.
There are numerous health and behavior benefits that come with spaying, as well as preventing unwanted litters.

Regarding Kratos, it would be kinder for him to rehome the new kittens, rather than the adult cat that was there first. There is little 'market' for adult cats, and many that end up in shelters never make it out.
To smooth introductions and ease Kratos' anxiety, may I suggest employing the use of Feliway Diffusers?
They emit a calming pheromone that decreases stress levels and generally encourages harmony between cats.

NO! BAD BONES! *sprays with waterbottle*

That is a very good suggestion to help Kratos fit in, but Minerva also posed another important issue that is making it hard to keep Kratos: she keeps escaping outdoors and may potentially get injured sooner or later from the escape methods. If Minerva feels her house isn't a safe place for a cat trying to get out no matter what, it may be a better option to find someone who has the ability to let the cat come and go as the cat sees fit, while providing a quiet home to her.

Thank you very much, Sanne. I feel the original poster of that comment mis-read my post and believes Kratos may be a male (and the father) that may be uncomfortable in the presence of the kittens and thereby trying to escape. However, this has been an issue with Kratos from the start. Kratos had a very non-delicate personality and masculine appearance in regards to Calypso, and I'm sure we all know it can be hard to tell a cat's gender at a young age. We originally felt Kratos could take care of "himself" outside, as he was a boxer and had shown he could combat small dogs and so on, and was very intelligent and took to cover under our house if large birds came by. We let him play outside early on, and therein made the mistake of establishing a pattern in behavior where Kratos wants to be outside. Eventually, we found a wild cat about 6x the size of "him" mounting "him" and trying to mate "him" and figured out what was up (I mean this was a 35 lb cat. We regretfully had to kill it because we couldn't chase him off the property and he was beginning to get violent towards our four year old daughter when it got outside).

We don't have the resources to spay any of them. I'm very well aware of the psychological and physical health reasons for it, but we can't even really afford these cats. The thing is, we adopted them about this time last year when it was unreasonably freezing cold for our part of the globe (regularly under 20 degrees). They were very tiny and orphaned, and I was recovering from my dog dying. I had a broken heart and it was bleeding to take them in. I believe I told the story on another thread, to Sanne. I felt that taking them in and preventing them from freezing to death was a far better option than leaving them to freeze simply because we can not afford to spay them. Out here, the vet clinics wants to charge 130$ per cat to spay them, and none of them are willing to offer knowledge of any sort of financial help--that or they don't know. We live in the boonies, where inbred relatives get all the jobs. Case in point, the only job I can find right now is a maximum of 8 hours a week at minimum wage, and I'm the only one in our house pulling income. We eat from food stamps and live under our grampa's roof. I'd spay them if I could. I can't. And I think it's better than them being left in the cold.

Similarly, Kratos actually already has injured herself getting out. She's gotten glass in her foot, she's sliced her leg all the way up the side, and more. Worse, the new neighbor has two pitbulls that they let wander around, and Kratos still wants to get inside even after I've had to clean her bloodied face due to them. It's just not safe. I'd rather the cat feel slightly displaced in a new home than be dead in the locked jaws of a dog, or bleeding to death under our house. Calypso doesn't have the same issue, as she was daintier, less of a fighter, and wasn't put outside in her kitten age early on. She wants to be inside with us. Kratos is TOO intelligent for her own good, getting around any blockade we've erected or covered the window with.

I'm aware of the lack of market for adult cats, that's why I've tried to find friends willing to take her. Worse yet, she's a black cat, which has a much lower adoption rate. I know all about the statistics. It's really upset me before. But... yeah, you get what I mean.

Kratos gets along very well with Calypso and the kittens, there's no need for the pheremones to calm. Kratos always has and always will want to get outside, but it needs to be in a safer neighborhood, or a more secure house to prevent it; that, and needs to be spayed, but... you know, $$$.

Anyway, updates! Here's the new kittens as of last night.



Cal's finally wanting to leave the nest, but only seems to do it when they curl up asleep together, and will return to it if we so much as look into the basket while she's not there.

Here were Kratos and Calypso a few months ago:



As you can see, they get along swimmingly.

Here's a good picture of Kratos:



Pardon the cluttered coffee table she's sitting on. She has a habit of clearing it off just how she likes it.

Still standing by my suggestion to try the Feliway diffuser.
It really does help cats that are anxious and stressed, which according to your description, is what Kratos is.

There are low-cost spay/neuter clinics all over the United States, and I'm sure in other countries, if you live elsewhere. Google turns up quite a number of inexpensive options.

It doesn't have to do with Kratos being nervous, it's just a pattern of behavior we mistakenly established when we originally didn't intend to keep them, just nurse them until they were old enough. The shelters out here are completely overrun and I didn't want to doom them to eternal sleep (and a more violent death than most people think happens with being put down).

If anything, Cal's the one nervous. Derek (Maximus, on these forums) was best friends with someone who had an accidental kitten mill at their house and has seen a lot of litters, but this is by far the loudest and most demanding for their size. Poor Cal is finally at her wits end and starting to try to stray. They keep managing to climb out of the nest even while blind, so she's trying to find other locations to keep them in... like the toy box, which isn't the best thing. I woke up at 2 AM the other day hearing a kitten cry in my daughter's 30 inch deep toy box. Thankfully I found it before it fell down the rabbit hole.

But unless you know somewhere that gives away those hormones for free, she's going to have to deal with it like every other momma has had to. I've already illustrated our monetary position.

That being said, I've looked into cheap spaying clinics but the closest I can find hint of is in Beaumont, over an hour and a half away by good car--which we don't have. Mine can barely get me to work. I live, essentially, in the Devil's Butthole. The closest "big city" is 7000 people and we still live pretty decently outside of it, and that's the place with the vet clinic's charge I've mentioned. To get to Beaumont you have to go through a long, long stretch of nothing. Ever seen a wooden sign painted in dripping red "KEEP OUT" and "GO BACK"? I'm sure it was paint, but it's disconcerting and one of the few landmarks between here and there. If we broke down I'd be SOL. And that's very likely.

It's the same reason when my pup came down with parvo I had to nurse him through it myself. No vets any time around the weekends are open here. He surprisingly lived through it. In fact, he grew too big and strong, and that's what ultimately did him in, but that's another story.

If anything I'd need to find some sort of online fund that could give me a voucher that could be accepted out here. And as my access to the net being even this ready is new to me, I haven't found time for searching yet. I'm going to try today since I have a few hours.

God bless internet access. I just found a list of 23 programs in texas for spaying options. I'm sure they don't all come to my area but something should tell me what to do. Some are even mobile. I'll call them after work.