Kittens....

We have kittens!

We were fairly certain that Bella, one of our two indoor cats, was pregnant, but she had fooled us once before. She began waddling early this week and she had six very prominent nipples exposed, but we had no idea WHEN we would have kittens.

Thursday night, once everyone was home from football and basketball, she started getting really restless and she kept meowing for Emily to follow her upstairs. She insisted on getting into a drawer in Brett's bedroom (Brett isn't all that fond of the cat, so it was quite funny she picked his dresser drawer). Jay and Emily sat with her and about 30 minutes later the first little kitten was born. It didn't do anything at first and both Jay and Emily started crying! Then all of a sudden, Bella seemed to understand she needed to do something and she started licking it and cleaning it. All of a sudden we heard the fainted meow. Bella nudged it and pushed it to a nipple and it started nursing. Cade, who had also been standing watch, donned a pair of nonlatex hospital gloves because he said he was going to help her with the next one! About an hour later the second kitten was born. Bella reacted quicker and got it breathing, moving, clean up and nursing quite quickly. 20 minutes later the next kitten appeared. Things seemed to slow down a bit and about 45 mintues later kitten #4 made its appearance. The girls were thrilled and sat watch. Nothing happened over the next 1 1/2 hours so they decided to go to bed. Emily woke up at about 4 AM to find 6----yes 6----kittens nuzzled up next to Bella!

I won't say the kittens are cute, they are scrawny and their eyes are closed, they are about the size of gerbils, but they are "cute" in their own way! So we now have kittens that will be ready for a forever home come Christmas time, hopefully that will be in my favor when I need to find them families!

Check out some pictures snapped when they were just hours old.... http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mrsmomof6/album?.dir=/f80a