Iskandria-namah: A month of kittens

This morning I woke at dawn to a faint sound from the next room:

“Mrrrrr, mrrrrr, mmmmmmrrrrrioaw?”

Puss, in a questioning voice. I pulled the sheet over my head. It was five o’clock and much too early to wake up.

“Miaow? Miaaaaaooow? Miiiiiaaaooooowww?”

It was getting louder. I curled up into a ball.

Then OMPH. She jumped on the bed, launched herself across me with a strong kick from her back legs, then started frantically grooming Patrick, using both paws to steady herself on his head as she licked and bit his hair, trying to make it a bit more straight and catlike.

I got up. She followed. We went back into the room with the kittens to find….no kittens.

“Miaow?” she asked.

“I have no idea where they are. Where have you looked?”

“Miaow.”

“Well did you try under the bed?”

“Miaow.”

“In the wardrobe?”

“MiAOW.”

“Behind the dresser?”

“Mi….aow?”

I scratched at the side of the dresser and was rewarded with a teeny tiny mew from one of the kittens.

“Would you like some milk, Puss?”

“…”

I gave her milk, she started lapping it up, and I went back to bed. Five minutes later she was back.

“Definitely not my turn,” I muttered into my pillow… Another few minutes of lavish grooming persuaded Patrick that this was indeed the case.

* * * * *

The kittens were born exactly a month ago today. There are seven of them, hence Puss is exhausted and a bit crazy. As are we.

Here is Puss showing off her fat belly 2 days before the birth:

And here they are a couple of hours after they were born (once she had a chance to clear up all the blood and gore):

For the first week or two they spent most of their time either feeding or sleeping. Puss generally put them all in a big pile to sleep – a nice easy way of looking after offspring!