As you may know, Lisa and I have been fostering animals and working as volunteers for the Animal Defense League of Texas. In 2011, we took in 3 abandoned puppies (only days old) that Lisa found in our neighborhood. We fostered them through the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services until they were old enough for adoption. Later in that same year, we took in 6 kittens from the ADL shelter when their mother could no longer nurse them because of mastitis. We got them from mother’s milk to solid food when a medical problem returned them to the shelter hospital just ahead of their normal return before the Christmas Holidays. They recovered and just like the puppies we fostered, they were adopted quickly.
On Monday, the day after New Year’s, Lisa called me at work to tell me she had taken in a pregnant cat from the ADL shelter. Lisa named her “Jasmine.” She is a beautiful tabby with classic swirl markings that I’ve not seen on tabbies before. She was rather small so we figured she might be a young female, a first-time mommy. Her belly was very swollen and her six nipples were filled with milk. She was very friendly and craved attention. She insisted on climbing into our laps where she purred non-stop. She was also very restless going from one to the other. We were told that the birthing event was possible at any time. Lisa busily transformed our guest bathroom into a warm, comfortable delivery room. We all settled in to wait.
Jasmine’s story was all too common. Her family abandoned her in their apartment complex when they moved out. When the family’s friend and neighbor realized that the family cat had been left to fend for herself, she decided to feed her. After a while it became obvious that Jasmine was pregnant. She could not keep her and the kittens so she contacted the Animal Defense League shelter and the foster care director contacted Lisa. That’s where we came in.
Nothing happened during Jasmine’s first night with us, except she meowed most of the night wanting attention. She and Lisa had bonded so Lisa spent a lot of time checking on her. Jasmine wanted out, but that would not set well with our two rescue cats, Babs and Cali. They had just about forgiven us for the last batch of kittens that we took in and now we brought this noisy creature into THEIR house! It was being kept mysteriously behind closed doors. Little did they know that mother cats can be ferocious toward other cats and people. Even if it was for their own safety, they did not like it.
Lisa went online the next day and printed out information on what to expect during the feline birthing process. She even watched a You Tube video of kittens being born. She began to get cold feet. The video showed a mother cat frantically running around with the emergence of her first kitten. We learned that new first-time mothers often freak out at the start of the process. We both began wondering what we were getting ourselves into.
When I came home Tuesday night, Lisa had spent a good part of the day with Jasmine and said she was starting the “nesting behavior.” Lisa had stocked the bathroom with hydrogen peroxide, thread, towels and the kitchen scissors. She was glad I had the next two days off. She decided to get comfortable in the bathroom and stay with Jasmine as long as it took. I eventually went to bed a little before midnight. Jasmine was calm and resting next to Lisa. The information we had indicated things were ready to happen, but sometimes the expected still drags out.
A little after 1am, Lisa came into the bedroom shouting that there was one kitten. Jasmine had given birth to kitten #1 while Lisa had fallen asleep and Jasmine was now frantic. This was all so new to her. Lisa gathered the first kitten from the tile floor by the door and placed it on the blankets and towels that she hoped would be Jasmine’s nest. At that point, Jasmine raced over to her kitten and we witnessed this beautiful transformation from pregnant cat to nurturing mother. It was amazing to see all these maternal instincts kick in. Jasmine rolled over on her side exposing her nipples for her kitten to nurse. Kitten #1 was a little confused as to what he was supposed to do. He kept crawling toward the wrong end of things, as if he decided he liked it better back inside. I think I’ll call him “Wrong Way Corrigan.”
It took about an hour before #2 made its appearance and shortly after that came #3. Poor mommy was scrambling to clean both kittens so we stepped in and helped out. Jasmine was concerned at first. “What are you doing to my babies?!” Then she calmed down and allowed us to help out. Things settled down as another hour and a half went by. We could see another kitten or kittens moving around in her belly, but nothing was happening. Our information said that the last kitten could be born up to 24 hours later in some rare cases. By this time, kittens #1, 2 and 3 were moving around trying to figure out this “feeding thing.” Jasmine was patiently licking them as they explored her belly in search of their first meal.
We finally decided to leave her alone with her Kittens sometime after 4:30am. I went back to bed and Lisa crashed on the living room couch to be out with our 2 cats that were acting up and behaving badly. Did I mention they were not happy about all this? Around 6:00am Lisa came in to the bedroom and said that #4 had arrived sometime after we went to bed. When we came into bathroom, there was Jasmine in all her glory nursing 4 white kittens. They all had the hang of it by now. Not only that, but the afterbirth was gone, the kittens were clean and she had even cleaned up herself. We were so proud of her! What a mommy! We tiptoed out and left them alone only checking occasionally.
Later we placed the kittens in a warmed box with bedding while mommy ate some food, but she quickly jumped into the box to make sure they were all okay. “Who said you could move my babies?” We took the old bedding and towels out to be washed and left the new family to their business.
What we witnessed last night was wonderful and truly amazing. Birth! New life forms coming into this world. For a short while, we celebrated this life affirming miracle, this circle of life. Death gets too much play in our world. You need to see a birth now and then to give some meaning to a world often too full of sorrow and not enough joy…like baby kittens. Thanks, Jasmine.
Food for THOUGHT…
