Torts & Todd – Day 2

As I lay me down to sleep last night, I prayed that the cats would feel safe and begin to relax. I asked that whatever angels look over animals speak to Torts in particular and let her know she is in a safe place.

Before I dozed off, I heard one hiss, but when I got up to see what was up, I found everything just as I left it. I suspect now Torts was hissing at Todd. As in, “GET AWAY FROM MY CORNER.”

Squeaky

I got up to pee around 4:30 am and in the darkness heard teeny, tiny mewling. I turned on the light and saw that Torts had two extra tiny heads. She was in a very small box, but I didn’t want to move her because I was pretty sure she

wasn’t finished the job at hand.

I went back to bed, but couldn’t sleep. It was such a small box and while I figured Torts was getting smaller with every kitten born, I wasn’t sure that was helpful. So I got up and made an executive decision to move her. By that time, she’d had another 30 to 45 minutes to get it done. Of course, it took me nine hours to have one, but I digress.

Baby Face

I moved her first into the much larger birthing box Shirley provided. Then I deliberately counted aloud as I moved each kitten – one, two… five. Congratulations Torts, 5 squirmy little kittens. I made them as comfortable as possible with extra towels etc., threw the ad-lib birthing box outside and went back to bed.

When the alarm rang rather soon after that, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Not the plan for a workday morning.
When I got up it was time to go. I took a quick peak before I left the house and there were six kittens in the box!

Todd was hiding in the living room. I left rather quickly and spent the day wondering how things were going at home.

The whole fam-damly

When I got home, I found Torts and kittens in the much larger birthing box; which couldn’t be in the crevasse Torts has taken as her turf, and Todd sitting on the cold linoleum in the crevasse. So, I threw him a towel that covered half the

space. I figured if it were important to him then he would move onto it.

Then I started the job of cleaning lunch dishes and making the muffins I started on Sunday. I worked away in the kitchen for a while and then went to see how it was going in the bathroom. For crying out loud! Torts was on the little towel and Todd was in the birthing box. Torts really, really wants to be in that crevasse. I took a moment to bring in the bedding from under the china cabinet and switched Todd out of the box because it wasnt clean. She had one kitten in there after all.

I threw another towel down beside Torts and went back to what I was doing. Every time I went to look, Torts and kittens were on the towels and Todd was blocking the entrance to the crevasse with his body.

"Lady are you nuts?
What are you doing with that clicky thing?"

Finally, after muffins, dinner, clean up and some advice from kitten expert Luc, I went into the bathroom and kicked Todd out. Then I pulled Torts and the kittens out of the crevasse, put them on the big fluffy blankets and slid them all back into the crevasse. I’m not kidding about it being a crevasse. It’s a place you reach with a broom if something drops in there.

I almost got stuck.

Finally able to relax and purr

Torts is purring loud and constantly now. She likes a head scratch and doesn’t look quite as frightened as she did last night. Todd isn’t as sure, but we had a quick hug this morning at my insistance. Mostly, I wanted to make sure he was okay. I knew by morning that Torts had kicked him out while she gave birth and he spent the night alone. I don’t think these cats spend a lot of time alone.

Noir

So, Day two. Everyone is alive and I went from no cats to eight cats in less than 12 hours. It’s still pretty quiet, except for the mewling. I imagine it will be different in a week or three. 

Saints preserve me.