Sushi Neko

Today I witnessed the birth of four little kittens

My neighbour had taken in a pregnant cat her friend could no longer care for. She now broke her hand in two places, so when she got home with the groceries this afternoon, she asked me to help her carry some of the stuff for her little girls’ birthday into the house. When I put the things in the kitchen, we both noticed that the little cat had crawled into the small space beneath the scratching pole, and was panting quite heavily. I first thought it was the heat, but when we’d dragged her out of the scratching pole, she just stood there, listlessly, looking at her foodtray. When I felt her belly, I clearly felt contractions, so I warned my neighbour that she’d probably see some little ones pretty soon.

No sooner than that we’d installed her in her cardboard box next to the couch, or the first sign of impending birth was visible – a little paw. Uhoh. Yup, three of the kittens were breech. We were kind of concerned first, because the first kitten took quite a while to be born (and I had to cut the umbilical cord because momma first had no clue what to do .. she’s a pretty young cat), but the next one came really fast, so fast that the two kittens more or less got tangled up in eachothers cords.

They were very cute, black with white paws and bellies. After that, it seemed for a while there would only be two, but as we felt her belly, we were certain there was more to come. And yes, after maybe an hour there were two more in quick succession. Kitty number three was a feisty one who started to scream for mommy as soon as I tried to weigh him (her?), so mommy was practically on top of me in no time. This one also was black and white. The fourth one however looked pretty much like a tiger! Or tigress

Daddy is most likely a siamese, and the fourth little kitten has a black head and a tan face mask, like an inverted siamese – also (s)he has stripes on the shoulders, legs, and stripes and spots on the belly. A stunner really. We actually thought there might be a fifth, but so far, nothing.

Right now, I really should go to bed, but my sushi-making is not done yet. Tomorrow we’ll be D&D’ing, and I thought to bring something different than chips for a change It’s a lot of work though!