Our kitten birth story:

When I came home from work on Monday, I wasn’t expecting to start a new shift as a cat midwife.

Braxton-Hicks contractions in cats

The week before, I was stroking our cat’s pregnant tummy and, noticing how it tensed and went hard for short periods of time, wondering if cats had Braxton-Hicks contractions just like humans.

After a bit of googling, I decided that they do, but I thought it was too soon to worry about labour starting. After all, we know that mother cats go looking for a quiet spot to hide and have their babies, right?

Cat labour on the sofa

I was wrong – our cat went into labour sitting next to me on the sofa, and she refused to leave.

She was demanding tummy rubs as usual, but I noticed her entire body tensing and moving in a strange way, and decided that she was definitely having contractions. We found a box for her, but each time we put her in it, she jumped back up onto the sofa!

The only thing to do was to put her in the cat carrier, where she couldn’t get out, and more importantly, our tom cat Vader couldn’t get in.

That bit of quick thinking saved me a fortune as my sofa would have been ruined!

Some sadness…

Four kittens were born, but the firstborn didn’t survive the night. I knew straight away that it was likely, and although we did try to help, there was nothing we could do. We’re gutted, but happy that the other three are doing so well.

How are we going to afford five cats?

Well, we can’t!

Realistically, we can only afford the two we already have. As much as I’d love to be that crazy cat lady, I know that the cost of owning a pet and looking after it well isn’t to be brushed off. We’re going to find new homes for these lovely kittens, but for the next 12 weeks or so, I’m going to be loving my new cat grandmother status!

We’ll have to have mummy cat neutered as well. She turned up as a stray in May, and we had no idea that she was pregnant (that makes her a Trojan horse cat). But hey, she’s family now, and we look after each other.

Naming our kittens!

Any suggestions for our three kitties? Of course, they’ll take on new names when they go to their new homes, but I plan on having some fun before then. I won’t tell you my ideas yet; I’ll leave that for another post!