Kittens! or: Just what the world needs, more cats.
Photo taken a few hours after they were born, 21 August 2007.
From left to right the provisional names are:
Anorexia. Second born. Came out some 20 minutes after the first one and couldn't latch onto a nipple for almost an hour after birth. At the time Anorexia would eat, but wasn't as enthusiastic about it as the other two. Now Anorexia has a normal appetite.
Bingey. First born. Won't let go of a nipple no matter what. In spite of there being nipples to spare will fight over the nearest one. Was almost as large as the other two combined. Will suckle anything. Looks enough like a platypus that sucking on a dewclaw almost makes sense.
Stimpy. Third born, popped out just a couple minutes after kitten number 2. At first MAO wouldn't have anything thing to do with this one. MAO had it under her mouth but wouldn't lick it clean after eating the placenta. I had to put it under MAO's face after MAO pretty much rolled away with the other two. Has what looks like a rat's foot. I wouldn't be surprised if Stimpy has issues. As the day progresses Stimpy is looking more and more like MAO, other than that whole rat foot thing. Since then Stimpy's rat foot is a normal looking foot. MAO is now taking care of Stimpy just as well as the others. Stimpy will crawl and roll away from the group now and then, but manage to crawl and roll back when hungry.
MAO being MAO insisted that I be around for the birth and hang around until things settled down. I was working on the forum with my laptop when the labor was getting under way. It's a good thing she decided on a closet in my bedroom. At least I can be close by all the time.
MAO has sinced moved all of the kittens to the closet in my office, ensconcing them under a box of yet-to-be used magazine holders (for all the neurological journals I get) between the wall and a file cabinet. She moved some stuff I had lying around to block the near end and has them all under this defensible space. As their eyes are due to open this is nice and dim. Plus she's now around me most of the day, and still close by when I'm sleeping.
Bengal's are very loyal, so MAO just likes to be around me 20 hours out of the day.
So far I've noticed that Stimpy is the most sensory defensive. I'd get near him and he'd make that "I hate the new smell" sound. Anorexia would make it only if I had been handling something recently that had a scent I could notice. Bingey made it all of one time, when I leaned over to say goodbye just after brushing my teeth and gargling.
They are all purring loud enough for me to hear them when I check up on them. Something MAO wants me to do often enough.
I'm thinking of new names. I'm not going to be calling them what I'm calling them now.
It's obvious that MAO is an F3 and somehow got away from a breeder. All three of the kittens are showing the markings of normal Bengals. Plus there's the whole thing about F3's being super friendly, and that's MAO.
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6 comments:
I hate to tell you this but.. your cat isn't a Bengal. She's got a lovely personality, it sounds like, but she has none of the physical features other than very nice tabby spotting. She's just a nice normal moggy and should really, really be spayed, considering that millions of cats are put down every year for lack of homes, the vast majority of them nice normal moggycats.
I know you don't want to hear this and you love your cat, but please, do the right thing and spay her and the kittens.
I name all my kittens "free to a good home".
But of course most people know that. Classifieds has me on file.
anonymous wrote,
I hate to tell you this but.. your cat isn't a Bengal. She's got a lovely personality, it sounds like, but she has none of the physical features other than very nice tabby spotting.
I could be wrong, and hardly for the first time, but that's not a good picture of MAO. It doesn't show her mascara, the horizontal stripes and the spots that run along her back, and you sure can't see her glitter in a still picture.
Of course I'd never get a good picture of her in the brush. She just vanishes.
Assuming she is a Bengal she's just not show quality. She can catch a hummingbird. She'll make sure I'm around when she gives birth and that I know where her kittens are when she moves them. She has a standing vertical leap that's up to my chest. She checks out the washing machine before I use it. I don't need to put her in a carrier to drive her an hour to the vet. Her claws are sharp enough that she gouged me whilst limping across me when her leg was broken, and it's not like she was trying to get a purchase on my legs, she just couldn't fully retract her claws on the broken leg. She's just not pretty enough to enter into a show.
And given that the father is a local tom, albeit with similar, but watered-down features, all three of the kittens are true to the breed, whatever it may be. Even Bingey, who appears to be all black, down to his whiskers, yet has obvious stripes and spots when looked at closely. There's none of that random mix'n'match coloration you get with litters when one of the cats, in this case the father, has a coat that is a bit blotchy.
We have three kittens whose markings are the same as MAO's, only the primary shades of their coats are different.
please, do the right thing and spay her and the kittens.
Have no fear. I wanted just one litter. MAO showed up pregnant and with a broken leg. Her first litter was reabsorbed. I had breeding plans, but the local tomcat beat me to it. Regardless, I'm keeping all of them. MAO will be spayed and her offspring will be spayed or neutered as appropriate.
cns wrote,
I name all my kittens "free to a good home".
Any luck yet? Is your place less overrun?
Any new soot-covered critters from the near-by fires?
Luck? Less overrun? Heh. In a way. My last giveaway (last weekend) was 3-f-r3. AND it seems I got 3 of the next 4 placed already. A good batch too--2 black, one black with shades of dark gray, one black and white. hopefully another spay/neuter clinic soon and the problem should be mostly taken care of (except for a mommy or two underneath the trailer).
We just lost a mommy, who was likely preggers, so i guess that's one down...
As for soot, I do have one named Smokey. He's from the first litter--about what, 5 years ago?
MAO and babies are adorable.
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