Missy's Corner

The picture on the left hand side was taken on April 17th, shortly after the third baby was born. The photo on the right, is one of the pictures Mister took last night. The little striped and spotted kitten towards the center in the left picture, is the same kitten front and center in the right hand picture! In two weeks they've more then tripled in size! They are still itty bitty though.

NOW FOR THE REAL TREAT! You better be ready to see the cutest video you'll ever see. As the title of this post says, this little video redefines the meaning of "AW" in about 5 seconds (because that's how long the video is!). Mister treated me with this surprise when I got home from class last night. While Kitty was eating, he went ahead and picked up one of the babies so he could take better pictures without the flash. He told me that the kitten moved around so much, it was easier to take a video. As he was doing so, the kitten began crying, which peaked Kitty and she came running. Its short but definitely sweet!

Let you in on a secret, I've watched this video with and without sound about 50 times today just because its so unbelievably cute!

Till next time y'all!

Yesterday, Mister and I came back from a quick trip to Micanopy, FL to find that our closet monsters have eyes! Not the same type of eyes the potatoes get after letting them sit on your kitchen counter for weeks on end, but real ones that can allow them to see! Unfortunately, as I stated before, I can't take any pictures because their little brains are still learning how to use their eyes. Its going to be hard not checking on them every other minute!

On another note, I find it interesting that some of the kittens fur color and patterns seem to be lightening up. The black kittens with stripes on their little pink bellies aren't as dark as they were a week ago. And oh those little pink bellies! We have one kitten that seems to be perpetually on his (or hers!) back, and every time I see that little belly I just want to rub it! Its just like a baby belly! Sometime in the coming week, Kitty and kittens will also have their first Vet trip to get a check-up. Keep coming back for more updates! Hopefully, next time I'll have pictures of kittens with bright blue eyes!

This picture was from a month ago. Kitty finally discovered the fishies that live in our bedroom and was intrigued!

Welcome to my blog! Wow, I never thought I'd say those words. Ever since I was a little girl, I've tried to keep a diary and failed miserably; let's hope I can keep this up! I decided to start writing after having the most wonderful day yesterday, but lets not get ahead of ourselves and start at the beginning.

When my fiancee and I moved to our little house outside the city, it was during the rainy time of summer. One day, after coming home in a big storm, we found a gray striped cat weathering out the storm in a little nook outside. Now I was not a cat person, after all I was allergic to them, but my heart warmed just a little to know that this creature came to our house for shelter. So, we decided to start setting a bowl of food out for the little guy. Every morning, the food bowl would be empty, but we never saw who was eating. Then one night, I get a call from Mister while at work, "Missy! There is a black kitty here with a bunch of kittens eating from the bowl!" Slowly, this mother cat warmed up to us and started trusting us. I would come home from work or class to find her sleeping on the window ledge, waiting for food. Miraculously, this cat became so trusting, she started coming into the house all on her own! We bought her a nice red collar and bell, and named her Kitty (witty, I know!). On a side note, the vet says that obvious naming of cats like that is not as common as you think. Of the hundreds or so cats they see, only twenty-ish are named Kitty. Anyways, back on track. When we started feeding Kitty almost 8 months ago she was a skinny, underweight runt; by March, she was a balloon! Mister and I joked that she was pregnant, but just figured she was finally putting on some weight. But then she started getting really big, really fast! On the 27th, I finally packed her up and took her to the vet. Dr. M just looked at her and said "Oh yeah! Kitty is so pregnant, that she might have these kittens today!" MAJOR FREAK OUT TIME!! I don't know the first thing about CATS let alone pregnant ones!!! After a little research, Mister and I were pregnant cat ready, now we just wait. And wait.... and wait.... The week passed and no kittens! Meanwhile, Kitty was so sweet! She would snuggle with us in bed and sleep with us. This cat has her front claws, but you would never know it! Well, that week passed, then another. It was getting to be so long, we were joking that there wasn't anything in there! After 3 weeks passed (Thursday to be exact), we were nervous, so I took her back to the vet. They ran an ultrasound and said the babies hearts were beating and it looked like there were 3-4 kittens in there. Whew! That night, Kitty would not be satisfied. She whined and meowed like no tomorrow, but she didn't want to snuggle in bed or have anything to do with us.

Cut to Friday morning. Around midnight, I get this feeling in my right arm. It feels like the cat is biting me and she won't let go! I somehow manage to roll over and wake Mister up and tell him "I think the cat just bit me. Go check on her!" But when he checks, she's all curled up in the back of her box. At 6, Mister and I are talking about the strange dream we had shared and debated if it was real. When we checked on Kitty, there were two little bodies against her! Was it a dream or did she really bite me? Now I was in mommy mode. This little stray, that had 3-4 kittens inside her really big belly went on to have 6 births! And that's the reason I decided to start writing this blog.

I said she had 6 births, but only 5 kittens made it. Number four was stillborn. There is no way and no one, aside from Mister, I could tell. I promised everyone in the world that I'd send out a birth announcement e-mail and I just felt that is not the place to share about Number 4. I might have known this kitten for only a few minutes, but I still feel an attachment to it. I don't know if it's my motherly instincts or just my good nature, but let me tell you about little Number 4.

Kitty was very quiet when she gave birth to her babies, and is a quiet cat in general. It was the other kittens that alerted me when a baby was coming. Kitty would stand up and they would lose the teat they were suckling on and cry a little. When Number 4 came, I didn't hear anything, I just saw Kitty cleaning. I watched her clean that little body for ten minutes with no movement, longer then the other kittens. I grabbed a washcloth and started to help; I ever so gently began to rub the kitten hoping to stimulate it enough to make it cry. Kitty helped, but time was moving on. I picked up this little, unresponsive body with my hands and placed it in the washcloth and started gently rubbing it again. Still nothing. After letting Kitty try one more time I made the hardest decision, to stop trying. With a strong, level head I called the vet to see if there was anything I should or could do. They told me my options were 1) to bring in the kitten and they would cremate it or 2) bury it ourselves. Mister was at work and there was no way I could cremate such a precious and tiny creature. I didn't want its last moments on earth to be so clinical. This was a baby and it needed to be taken care of with love, affection, and tenderness. Not that the vet and the people there were mean, it just didn't feel right. Mister came home from work for his lunch break to see the kittens, all of them. In our back yard we have a big oak tree that provides lots of shade. We took Number 4, still wrapped in the washcloth outside and dug a small grave just at the base of the tree. I looked at the little kitten and said "sleep tight little one, don't be afraid," because I didn't want it to be scared. It was starting a new adventure without its mommy, Mister, me, or its brothers and sisters. The most comforting thought, was that God was taking this precious newborn baby into his arms. I just know that its going to be as loving and snuggly as Kitty. Every time I look at Kitty and her newborn kitties, I think about Number 4; and in my minds eye, I see it frolicking in the sunshine underneath that tree, with green grass and tall flowers, and nothing but butterflies all around. Its a comfort to know, that she isn't lonely or scared, and she's protected from storms, just like that first cat when we moved in.

Now that I've successfully pulled your heart-strings and definitely played a sorrowful tune on mine, I'll end with something cute and funny. Last night around 4am the kittens cries sounded real loud! I just figured I was on edge about them and was overly attuned to their cries. This morning, Mister woke up before me, but I could hear him frantically moving around the house. The kittens and Kitty were nowhere to be found! Well, miss Kitty thought it wise to move her kittens to our closet! While there are many reasons she could have moved them there, I'd like to think its because it really smells like Mister and me in there and that comforts her. And its a nice dark place to hide!

Well, that's it for now! Tune in through the week to see updates about Kitty and her kittens.