Meet the kittens: mugshots!

Tonight my partner realized that the kittens are exactly the right size to fit into a mug. We're not torturing the kittens like this on a regular basis, but I thought it might be a cute way to introduce everyone.

Izzy was born last, so it's only fitting that she come first in our photo series. She's the smallest, but she's gentle and inquisitive. She was named after Izzy from Grey's Anatomy.

Inara currently wins the contest for "loudest kitten." She definitely has a set of lungs on her! She was named after Inara from Firefly. 

Inness is usually sweet and calm but he didn't like being in a mug one bit and was very hard to photograph! He was the first to open his eyes and might be my favorite little stripey. Inness was named after a character from the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce.

Ira is our little manspreader. If you noticed the kitten with the arms stretched out in the photo in a previous post, that's him. He was named after Ira Glass from "This American Life."

Iggy, our firstborn, loves being pet! He's the most compliant kitten and doesn't mind being on his back. He was named after (Z)Iggy Stardust.

 

Blogspot and my internet haven't been getting along this week, so this post is a long time coming! The picture above is from Sunday evening when the kittens were one day old. It is proof that in fact, all five kittens can nurse at once. It's possible! It is not, however, easy. Cats can have between four and ten nipples and Lassi has eight, which is average. However, those nipples are in pairs and there's always going to be one kitten who has to be either above or below everyone else. That leads to a lot of squabbles. Long squabbles.

The good news is that in the end, everyone's getting fed. All the kittens are gaining a good amount of weight each day, which is a weight off our backs because we started off so worried for the tiny lives we're suddenly responsible for! Things were complicated by the fact that Lassi had a rough night on Sunday. Lassi's been getting better since then and today she's back to her pre-kitten antics. You know, meowing at us, demanding attention, getting into drawers... it's great to see. Though of course, it's also great to see her return to her kitten to do some Mommy duty!

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!