There are kittens! The kittens were not born in a drawer and they were not born overnight. Instead, Lassi waited for me to come into the foster room around 3pm and started giving birth within ten minutes on the floor in front of the futon. I managed to get a towel down under her after the first big spurt of birth liquid and we supervised her for the next three and a half hours while she pushed five kittens out of her body. The first two came one after another, then three, four, and five had longer between them but still not as long as we were told to prepare for. We think she's done because the last kitten was so much smaller than the rest.

Almost everyone is having their first meal now. I say "almost" because one kitten has detached from their nipple and is not doing a great job of finding another. Their strategy seems to be "try to kick a sibling off a nipple and steal that one," but it's not working very well. I'm not worried too much because the siblings are doing a really good job of defending their nipples.

Ooops, I lied. The kitten managed to unlatch the smallest kitten from their nipple. That is not ideal. The smallest kitten is now attempting to find the nipple that their sibling abandoned; go, kitten, go!

I weighed all the kittens before their first meal. The smallest was 94 grams and the largest was 123 grams, with the others falling between 111 and 114 grams. We've been encouraged not to name them for the first two weeks because kittens are especially fragile during this time, so they're Kitten 1 through Kitten 5 for now.

So much cuteness. I'll go to bed--not in this room--eventually, I promise.

We don't think Lassi's lived anywhere with a TV before. This makes life a bit hilarious because we've put an ipad holder in the foster room to watch things in there and she has no idea what to think. Last night she was looking at the screen after it went black expecting it to do something so I did a bit of an experiment; the above video is the result.

Still no kittens, but we think they're coming soon! My partner is feeling lots of kitten movement through her side. (I've been mostly petting her head/cheeks/chin these days because she likes to stick them in my face while I'm trying to work.) Today's she's not eating as much and is trying to explore. She was actually up on her hind legs meowing at the door to the foster room this morning so we brought her out on a harness and she's been leading us around on it a bit and meowing a lot. I'm not entirely sure whether it's a "let's explore this new place I'm allowed to be" or "I need to find a good place to have my kittens," but I'm betting the latter.

Still no kittens, but I felt them move through Lassi's side while I was petting her! There are definitely kittens in there!

Okay. Excitement over. We've been doing a lot of research on signs of impending labor, and a video from Kitty Cat Soul Food has been the most comprehensive source we've found. The signs include:

• Mammary gland enlargement and milk production (can be eight days prior to all the way up to right after the birth)
• Kicking in the litter box
• Behavioral changes
• Excessive licking and grooming, especially the mammary glands and genital area
• Preparing a nest
• Rippling/movement of the kittens (visual and felt, especially prominent after the dropping of the abdomen)
• Loss of appetite 
• Drop in temperature
• Vaginal discharge
• Vocalization and contractions 

A few of these we can't use. It's hard to tell if Lassi's had any behavioral changes since she's a foster and still getting used to her new home. She's also been kicking litter out of the box since she got here, and we haven't exactly been taking her temperature. However, she hasn't been showing any (other) signs of impending labor. Her grooming, as pictured below, is just regular post-food grooming. It's novel to us because she's only recently done it where we can see instead of disappearing into a futon drawer, but it looks like normal cat grooming.

How long until kittens? We have no idea. We'll just keep watching and waiting...

No kittens yet, but Lalasa is settling in well! We're feeding her wet food four to five times a day to make sure she has access to enough food to nourish those kittens while they're pressing on her stomach and she has access to dry food at all times as well.

She still spends her days in drawers, so she's gained the nickname "drawer cat" and we're pretty positive that's where she'll be having her kittens. My partner is still nervous about this because she's worried about the kittens climbing or being pushed out the back and getting squished when the drawer closes, but I think the solution to that is to just be aware of how many kittens are in the drawer at all times. Not enough kittens? Don't move the drawer! We still have to worry about Lalasa moving the drawer on her own (it's on wheels), but she's a cat. She's going to give birth where she wants to give birth, and we can't do anything to stop her. At least with the drawer we can roll it out and see them instead of having to crawl behind the sofa to check on them.

When not in a drawer, Lalasa is extremely friendly! My partner and I both went to bed late a couple nights this week because we just couldn't stop petting her. She is definitely a loving kitty.

 Lalasa joined our household on Saturday afternoon, at which point she decided that she was, indeed, a cat and was going to do the typical cat thing of hiding under furniture. We're not really sure if this is a "cat in a new place" thing or a "pregnant cat" thing because once we got her out from under the futon, she was really friendly! As in, trying to climb into our armpits friendly. As in, "give me all the pets, you human you" friendly. As long as Lalasa is getting pet, she's happy. If she's not getting pet - back under the futon she goes! See the video below for a demonstration:

When not being petted, Lalasa really likes one of the drawers under the futon. I wouldn't be surprised if she gives birth there, so we've lined the drawers with towels. Yesterday Lalasa and I achieved bonding to the point where I could get on the ground, roll one of the drawers out from under the futon, and get her out by calling her name. Today she came out without even that! Lalasa is getting used to us!

It may be hard to tell in the above photo, but yes, that is a pregnant cat. Or a "queen," as they're called. If you don't believe me, take a look at this shot my partner got a few nights ago:

(green light courtesy of the light quality in the room)

We don't know exactly when Lalasa will give birth. She's not showing any of the signs of immanent motherhood, but her nipples are certainly becoming more noticeable when petting her! She did come with paperwork from a vet checkup on the 4th, at which point she was estimated to be about two weeks from giving birth. That would put us about a week away now!

Meet the cat: Lalasa!

Meet our next foster, a cat of many names! To Jacki, who misheard her name originally, she is Elena. To the people who have her at the moment, she's Dana. Before then she was Maga. If there's anything we will not be calling her, it's Maga. To be honest, though - she doesn't know her name, we have a friend named Dana, and my partner isn't overly fond of the name Elena. Who knows what name she'll acquire once she comes into our house?

To Be Named is a pregnant cat who was pulled from a high-kill shelter. Jacki said we can expect to have her for about ten weeks, which means she'll be about two weeks from giving birth when she gets here on Sunday! I have been told that "She is super friendly with dogs and people alike. Gets along great with other cats too. [She is] very laid back, loves to be held and loved on."

Overall, To Be Named sounds like a great cat and I can't wait to meet her and however many kittens she pops out during her stay!

(Edited at a later date to announce that we have named the cat! From here on out, she is to be called Lalasa, or Lassi for short!)

This week has been hard. We knew it was going to be hard because we were going to send the cats off to their forever homes and we've gotten rather attached to them. Caring for Shadow and Kismet was always going to mean that they left our lives, but we knew it would be hard.

It was harder than we could have imagined. Both cats went to the vet on Sunday and were given a clean bill of health, though the vet told us that Shadow's distended stomach probably meant worms. First thing Monday morning we took them to another vet to be spayed and neutered. This is a normal procedure; it happens to every rescue cat, as well it should. We don't need more kittens in the world, as cute as Kismet is. We expected to get a call later to pick them up.

Shadow never came home. Shadow died on the operating table. They tried to resuscitate her and couldn't. We don't know what happened. Maybe it was something the vet missed. Maybe she was more fragile than any of us knew. Maybe she took badly to the anesthesia. We don't know. All we know is that this is rare. This is the first full-grown cat that Kitten Connection has lost in spaying. It's one of only two cats that Jacki, who introduced us to Shadow and Kismet, has ever lost in spaying - and the other was a kitten spayed too young. It shouldn't have happened. It did happen. Shadow never came home.

Kismet almost didn't come home. He went to the head of Kitty Connection before he came to us after neuter, and she saw that he wasn't okay. She rushed him to the animal hospital where he seemed to be going in and out of consciousness. They gave him fluids and medication and he made it through, but for a while I was sure we were going to be mourning both of them.

Kismet came home yesterday. We monitored him, played with him, and pet him. We put him in a harness and brought him out into the living room and by the time I went to bed, he'd figured out how to walk on a leash. He's a beautiful, rambunctious kitten. Today, he's back to his normal self.

Kismet is now somewhere in Boston in his forever home. We packed him up with all his toys and some food and sent him off. His new parents have promised to send pictures every once in a while, so we're looking forward to that.

We'll be mourning Shadow for a while, but we have another foster coming on Sunday so the circle of feline life continues.