Welcome To The Kitten Pile | My Experience With Kittens
Recently My cat had a litter of kittens. Its not all AWWW moments when having kitties. This is my story of “The Kitten Pile of Chaos.”
Our cat Karma is just a little over a year old. When she started going into heat we decided to mate her with our friends beautiful white long haired cat.
Our friends cats name is Ed. He is 100% deaf, and the biggest talker you’ve ever seen. Since he can’t hear himself, he is extra loud. He really never shuts up while hes awake, but he is very lovable.
Karma is a pretty tough feline. Anytime Ed went in for the kill Karma hissed and scratched him. The poor guy was so passive we were never sure if he got any or not. I’m pretty sure he sprayed all over the house for nothing.
So we expected it was a failed attempt that stank our place up for weeks. A few days later another friend popped up with a kitten, and said it was going to the pound if she couldn’t find it a home. So we decided to try to find her a home. After a few days we got attached and decided to keep her. It was a stormy day when she showed up at our doorstep, so we named her Stormy.
When female cats go into heat they will do anything to break out of the house. Our old cat Marley once broke our bathroom window and jumped from the second floor.
Karma’s hormones were raging even harder then ever. A few days after taking in Stormy she broke out by lifting the heater vent on the floor, and navigating her way through the duct-work. She came home about a day and a half later.
Around 5 weeks later we noticed Karma was looking a little more plump then usual. We thought that she didn’t get pregnant, and were content with just keeping Stormy. One destructive force of nature taring up the house is good enough for me.
Once we realized she was knocked up we got super excited. For the next month all we could talk about was her kittens. The anticipation was killing us! We kept trying to calculate the days to figure out who the baby daddy was. It was like an episode of Maury Povich or Steve Wilko’s shows for cats.
Finally the day came. My wife Ann just happened to have the day off. Karma became more loving then ever. She wouldn’t leave us the whole afternoon. Then she finally decided to break her water on my lap. So we laid out a quilt and stayed by her side.
I laid down on my side with her through the whole birthing process of the first two. She wanted to lean right up against me through the entire experience. My cats love and trust me so much. Its pretty cool when little creatures care so much about you. They are our family.
I’ve had cats that have had kittens before. It was a new experience for my wife. Cats giving birth is even grosser then humans having babies. There is all kinds of nasty stuff that comes out with those adorable little things. A friend described them as looking like sauce covered popcorn shrimp.
Karma took it like a champ as far as it went for the pain factor. She hardly even meowed through the whole thing. Getting the 1st out was the hardest for her. When the second came out it was dangling from the cord, and Karma was walking in circles trying to get it to drop. I had to cup that gross little sauce covered popcorn shrimp in my hand. It was pretty nasty.
It gets even grosser still. The funky red sack came out after the second. She didn’t seem to be biting the cords like other animals I’ve seen give birth. The 2 kittens were getting tangled in the cords, and their faces kept going into the sack. So I picked the sack up with my bare hands and put the cord up to her mouth. She figured it out then, and we were successful with a little team work. But EWWWW!
Since the placenta sack came out we thought she was only having two. So I scooped them up and put them in the box we prepared for them. She ended up having 2 more. The third came right out with no problem. The last one took extra long and came out backwards. He was the runt I named Can’t Get Right.
So who’s the babies daddy? Karma is brown and black. Ed is so white hes borderline albino. There is an army of horny cats that roam our street that are eligible after her break out.
One kitten came out looking nearly identical to her. The other three are as black as kittens come. Ed, you are not the father! We’re pretty sure it has to be the mangy looking dark cat that we rarely see. Cats gestation period is normally around 64 days. We estimate she had the kittens around 70 days after we took him home, and he sprayed the house like a fire-hose for nothing.
Having new born kittens is such an awesome experience. We had her box in the living room, and the noises they make at first just brightens up the day. Karma completely trusts us, and we’ve been picking them up since they first plopped out.
We named the kitten that looks like her Dharma. One of the black ones is way bigger then the rest, so we named him Chunk. The other two black kitten were both runts compared to Dharma and Chunk. We named them Spud and Can’t Get Right.
Kittens are adorable, but when it comes to the nipples its a fight for survival. Karma has extra hairy nipples, and her nips look smaller than most cats. Kittens are completely blind for their first week and a half of life, and their only instinct is to feed. They squirm on their bellies and claw with their paws. They constantly form into a kitten pile that is pure chaos. Its a fight for survival that Chunk and Dharma seem to be winning.
Poor Can’t Get Right seemed to have some complications coming out, and was much smaller then all the rest. Ann tried to help him get to the nipples for days. He was just to small to compete. By day 4 he seemed to be doing better, then suddenly he just started to give up. We tried to get him to latch and he was just going limp. I tried to hand feed him to save him for the whole day on and off, and tried to keep him warm.
We tried so hard to save him. He just didn’t get a fair chance in life. It was so sad when we lost him. We lost a member of the family. We buried him in the yard where the pretty flowers grow.
Its been a long time since I’ve had a pet have Kittens or Puppies. I forget how brutal they are in the beginning. We didn’t factor in Karma’s extra hairy nipples. Spud is nearly as small as Can’t Get Right was. We learned from our mistake and gave Karma’s belly a haircut.
Chunk and Dharma aren’t missing any meals. They still roll over Spud, and he still doesn’t stand much of a chance if either are awake. Chunk is especially brutal. He bullies his way through and hogs all the nipples. He totally dominates the pile as the alpha male.
Spud was a little stronger, but was looking a bit weak also. Several times everyday we have to take the big two out of their box so spud can get some solo nip-nip time. Hes not as coordinated as the others also. We have to put his head on the nipples, and he still falls off or loses them all together.
Their 10 days old today. Spud is still about half the size of Dharma, but hes started to get some fight in him finally. We still have to take the other 2 out to make sure he eats several times a day, but we don’t mind playing with the other two. Their finally starting to open their eyes, and Dharma is even starting to stand as she slithers her way across the carpet.
Having kittens is a cool experience, but it also has its downsides. It was so sad to lose a new born kitten, and having to nurse a baby everyday isn’t something you anticipate. We’ll do whatever it takes for them though. Soon they will get big, and get out of that box. I can’t wait until they get mobile and start wrecking everything in their path. I love these little creatures.
Stormy is still only a little over 4 months old. At first she was hissing at Karma and the kittens. Now shes warmed up to them, and her and Karma are playing rough again. Karma is like a teenage mom who wants to go out and party. Anytime she hears Stormy wreaking havoc, or hears us in the kitchen, she wants to check it out. She gets tired of laying there feeding, and still wants to chill with the rest of the family all the time. We have to make her stay in her box sometimes.
I never had a hairy cat have kittens before. I learned a valuable lesson. Give their bellies a haircut ahead of time. I don’t think it would have helped Can’t Get Right either way, but I think its helped save Spud. Its still a fight for survival in the kitten pile of chaos for Spud, but I think hes gonna make it.
