1/09/2005

The Midwife

I was thinking today about my three pregnant cats.

Yeah. All three are in various stages of pregnancy. It appears that Max has been a very busy guy lately, doesn't it? Between impregnating the females and getting into increasingly more violent Alpha Male fights with his full grown son (Bad move Max. YOU have no front claws, Sigfried? Does. As Max unfortunately found out quite badly last night with a huge gushing blood gash under his chin last night.), I’m surprised he even has energy to groom himself as well and often as he does. Well, I imagine it is easier to groom his HUGE BUTT since his son has snatched him half bald, but still! Sadly, I will have to find a good home for Sigi, cause it is just getting TOO violent. Everyday is becoming a bloodbath here.

I'm thinking, by the looks of Angel, aka: Homeland Security, she looks like she easily has 5 in there and looks like she has maybe 2 more weeks or so to go. Well, hell. Scarlett? (The cat, not me! Don't I wish?), she should be due in 5 weeks or so. She's tiny like her MIA mom yesterday Isis. So, maybe she will only have two like her mom.

Either way, that is one huge load of kittens. (Good thing I love the little critters, isn't it?) A good friend of mine calls me "Ellie May"(Beverly Hillbillies, remember?) for a lark.

That means I had better get my stuff ready, since I usually deliver them. See, I’m a cat midwife of sorts.

Persian cats are usually quite lazy when it comes to birthing their young. They can get them out just fine, but sometimes, the whole cleaning the sac off the babies faces or cutting the cord kind of slips their mind, so that’s where I come in. If that sac isn't cleaned off quickly after birth, they suffocate.

I clean em up if mama isn’t doing it and cut the cord and everything, then put them near her tummy to get a bite to eat.

My cats are so very close to me, they usually wait until I am around. Rarely have I had a cat deliver a litter when I was not at home. In fact, Isis's mother, Cozette, did not like her delivery bed I made all special for her, was in early labor, and prowling my room while I was in bed, reading late at night. I had no idea she was in labor until she hopped on the bed and laid on my lap. I felt shaking on my legs and I thought she was purring awfully hard. I look over my book and notice that she has gotten a kitten half delivered ON ME. )Oh wonderful. Needless to say, I stuck her butt in that birthing bed anyway, and by then, she didn't give a damn as long as I was stroking her head while she was delivering them, one by one.

I love that they are so close to me that they even let me pick the babies up and handle them. I've had cats that come get me and try to get me to follow them, and when I do, they take me to their babies, look at me, lick their 'lips' , look back at the babies, and then go eat and go do their bathroom business while I 'babysit'. If I try and leave the kids, we go through the whole thing all over again, but usually with much meowing on mama cat's part, cause I have pissed her off, apparently.

Once, Velvet, my first female Persian cat, was pregnant same time as her daughters. (Much like now) they delivered the same week. What freaked me out is that she would go to her daughter's boxes, jump in one so her daughter could go eat and go potty, and curl up with her grandkids while her own new kittens slept. Sometimes she would even suckle them. It freaked me the hell out each time she did it. She was the sweetest, daintiest little thing…. With the deep meow of a tomcat. Heh.

I'm curious what kind of kittens I will get this time. Sometimes, it's like a rainbow. But since they all went and got knocked up at virtually the same time, I decided to have a little talk with them and make 'requests' of each based on the possibility of what they can have. It's only fair. Tell you what! I will probably need help finding names, so as they are born, I will describe each litter for you and you all can help me find some fab names, okay? (Seven Dwarfs names not applicable ok wise guys?)

I mean Isis actually listened to me last time *wink* and I got Miss Scarlett, my Tabby Calico. (I'm not being vain. Arianna named her that!) What the hell, it won't hurt.

I hope to God that I get a job soon, because I am going to have a lot of mouths to feed in the very near future!

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From Bad to…..

Worse, I think. Well, in some ways.

A medical update. I. Still feel kind of crappy, but in completely different ways. Great, huh?

Fever.. I think under control. Achy-ness, gone pretty much. Congestion/Sneezing/allergies/blocked ear/general Sinus infection crap? Still here, but less somewhat. But as of this morning? I think I am on the road to being truly screwed up.

See, my ENT told me on Wednesday that my sinuses were infected (which explains the hellish pressure and pain in my ears nicely, doesn't it?) and he gave me a shitload of antibiotics to help combat it from going to my throat and vocal cords and voice box.

I think the infection has hit both places overnight last night because when I woke up? My throat was swollen and extremely painful. Other than that, a good way for me to tell on my own is to try and sing. If I have pain when I sing, I know the infection has reached that area, because it lessens my range considerably. * La la la la la la laaaaaaa*(Well, that and I sound like a singing frog, but anyway..) I also feel like I am choking and suffocating on the phlegm that I can't seem to bring all out, painful as it is. It is a bit scary.

At least some of it is clearing up while other things are acting up. Whee. I found a bright side.

I think I'll blame Isis on the throat thing since I was out looking for her furry ass till 4 am last night in the cold because she went AWOL when monster 'accidentally' left the front door open, so Isis decided to take off because she is sneaky that way, the little hussy. Usually she comes when I call her but last night? Nothing. I was really worried about her. So Isis, that bitch, decided to go gallivant out around Lord knows where on the COLDEST NIGHT IN BAHRAIN, dammit. Plus wind chill. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Then late this afternoon, I left the kitchen door open for a bit in case she got hungry and wanted to come home, and all of a sudden, she strolls on in. I SO told her little self off…….as I was hugging and kissing her head and telling her not to make me worry. She was looking at me, and then, gently pressed her little paw to my cheek twice almost like an apology.

So then this morning? Throat. Yeah, Isis. It's all your fault, cat.


A little reminder, or my weekly nag as some of you might call it. But. Well, I just want to remind you about, well, you know, any little question you might want to ask of me for The Inquisition get it in before the sun rises on the West Coast of the U.S. on Tuesday. I will get Cheryl B's late question in this weeks answers. But if she wants to give me another, be my guest.

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