Eyes Wide Open

The big news here at the foster house is the kittens' eyes have opened. They are now scooting around a whole lot more, so Nala moved them to a safer place: the back of a deep closet. Fortunately, I'd anticipated the move and gave the closet a deep cleaning, then covered the floor with soft blankets before Nala even gave birth.

Zira, my expectant Mommy cat, was thrilled with the move. She is very attached to Nala (they are definitely related) and was none too happy about being booted out of the cat nest when Nala's babies arrived. Zira earns her keep, helping Nala care for her babies. She cleans them regularly and snuggles up with them when Nala needs to stretch her legs. I suspect Zira will give birth in the same closet when the time comes. That should be interesting with other kittens running around!

At least I know ahead of time Zira will be a good little mommy. She is so young, maybe six or seven months, it is worrisome. Another one of the pregnant kitties, from the same over-populated house we pulled these guys from, miscarried her babies. Her foster mom is, understandably, sad. I would be too. I have looked in on Zira many times today with that in mind.

The babies aren't all that is new around here. I have some new fosters to brag about too!

Marley has been here for about a week. Unfortunately, he was very sick with kennel cough. We see a lot of that from dogs coming out of animal control shelters, but this particular strain is a nasty one. Marley refused to eat or drink -- or even come out of his crate. After a few days of antibiotics, he is feeling much, much better. I have kept him separate from my other dogs, to spare them getting sick too, but am really looking forward to Marley's full recovery, when he can join the rest of the pack!

And, finally, Taboo, a long-haired beauty, has made her way to the foster house. She is a total sweetheart of a kitten already available for adoption. I have a weakness for long-haired cats, so I have fallen in love with her and it's going to be hard to let her go!

Cuteness Overload

I am just so enjoying the experience of having Nala and her babies. It is a really wondrous thing; these precious cats in miniature. And Nala is so proud! I swear you can see her smiling, saying "look what I did!"

I could watch them for hours . . .

Special Delivery

The new pregnant kitties are now named Nala and Zira. For those of you not conversant with Disney trivia, they are characters from the movie The Lion King; both mommy kitties. Nala is so round and uncomfortable, I knew she would go into labor first. She showed her first signs last night, insisting on nesting inside a cabinet in her room, where she licked her belly and purred all night. I checked on her every hour and a half throughout the night.

At 9:10 am, Nala gave birth to her first kitten. She is just a kitten herself and was a little overwhelmed, so I had to help a bit. Her first kitten was BIG and healthy looking!

I snapped a quick photo of her first baby after we weighed it:

This is not a quick process. Nala's second baby didn't make an appearance for four more hours. She delivered the second baby all on her own:

Baby number two latched on right away:


It's now been five hours since the birth of the second baby, so I will update this as things progress. At least she got lots of rest in between babies!



I was surprised she just had two babies, as big as she was, but no more came. They are little bruisers though for newborns, so she has her paws full!