The Neglected. Ch 2. Love is...

A few weeks ago I agreed to bring two pregnant cats into my rescue, knowing full well that we really didn’t have room to take them on. Over the weeks we’ve been impatiently waiting for the kittens to arrive. Eleven days ago Winnie, the grown daughter of the second pregnant cat named Laney gave birth. Her labor was effortless and quiet. Her first two kittens were large, but strangely silent upon arriving into the world. They were both stillborn.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Winnie with newborn Piglet.

The final kitten arrived, tiny, weak, but alive. Foster mom, Moe named him Piglet. Of all the kittens born that day, we were all surprised that the smallest one lived, but for how much longer we could not know. Winnie grieved over her loss and didn’t immediately bond with her little son, which put him in grave danger.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Laney and her belly full of kittens.

Winnie stood by the place where she gave birth and cried out. She didn’t eat well. She half-heartedly cared for Piglet as Moe and I worried that Piglet’s days were numbered. “Grandma Laney,” so filed with kittens she could barely walk, took interest in her grandson and took him from Winnie to care for him. Perhaps Winnie needed time to adjust to being a mother and to her losses. It didn’t matter to Laney. She was doing what she’d done so many times before. Her last litter was barely 17 weeks ago. Motherhood was something she knew better than anything else.

Screen shot of photo of Laney with her last litter just about 17 weeks ago. Pictured beside her is ANOTHER one of her kittens who was having kittens of her own. This cat has since been spayed through the generosity of Kitten Associates. All but two of the kittens pictured here are with Moe and are in foster care and part of the K.A. family. One kitten was lost due to predators and one is with another family.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Laney gives birth not long after this photo was taken. Notice Piglet is sandwiched between the mama-cats.

Moe slept on the floor in the room with the moms making sure they kept Piglet warm, clean and fed. She only supplemented his feeding once on the third day when he just wasn’t gaining any weight. This frail kitten needed something more to survive and that more came a few days later when Laney went into labor.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Just 2 ounces at birth, Piglet was premature.

Saturday afternoon, around 1pm, Laney began to pant heavily. Winnie took notice and ran to her side. Pacing and fussing around her mother as the contractions came, she ignored her kitten. But Laney needed Piglet. She’d get up to be near him or pick him up and keep him close by. It didn’t matter if she was giving birth, little Piglet was her comfort and her reason to keep going. Her love for him, her need to keep him safe, no matter what was all that mattered even as her body shuddered through another contraction.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Laney, panting. About to give birth to kitten #4.

As Laney pushed hard and cried out, her first kitten came into the world, quickly followed by two more kittens. After giving birth so many times it was easy to deliver the kittens, but she was also too weak to even clean off their afterbirth. It was Winnie who realized there was a problem and immediately began to clean each kitten’s face so they could breathe. Moe pitched in to help clean them off as Winnie ate the afterbirth. Laney laid there quietly, her paw reaching out to little Piglet. She’d been through this too many times and the kittens were enormous. Her uterus wasn’t strong as it once was and passing the kittens was taking a toll.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Laney, exhausted. Winnie jumps in to clean off the newborn kittens. Laney had delivered too many kittens over the years and wasn't strong enough to handle delivery.

The first two kittens were buff tabbies-a boy and girl. The third was all black and also very large. After Winnie cleaned them, they began to nurse right away on Laney. Laney began panting and again another kitten arrived and again Winnie helped her mother while Moe watched ready to offer assistance.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Even during labor, Laney wanted to have her grandson, Piglet nearby.

After only a few hours the labor was over. Six very big kittens were born. All looked healthy and vibrant. Laney got to work feeding them, falling into an exhausted asleep with her eyes open, but she didn’t leave Piglet out. He had to be with her or she’d get up and move him to her side. Fearing the other kittens would not get their colostrum-which is only produced for the first day or so a mother nurses, we decided to move Winnie and Piglet away for a day or two.

©2014 Kitten Associates. With another kitten coming, Winnie comforts her mom, Laney.

What happened next surprised us. Winnie stopped eating. She was very upset and didn’t want to care for Piglet any longer. She needed her mother. The next day passed too slowly while Laney continued to care for her six kittens. Winnie fed Piglet but with little interest. The next day Moe decided it was doing more harm then good to separate the moms so they were reunited.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Little cat bed, big love.

Within moments of being back with her mother Winnie ate, Laney grabbed Piglet and got him cleaned up and fed. Later that day Winnie showed more interest in Piglet and Laney’s kittens too. So began Winnie and Laney’s co-parenting of all the kittens. They were never apart and laid together facing each other on a small cat bed. The kittens fed or slept between them. Winnie would wrap her arms around her tired-mother giving her comfort as she did her duty providing for any and all kittens who needed it.

©2014 Kitten Associates. Piglet's turn to shine. With two moms his odds of surviving just went through the roof.

And the best part was that after a single day of the cats being reunited, Piglet’s weight increased by a full ounce, which is the same as a 150 lb person gaining 50 pounds overnight. It was the day that made all the difference for Piglet because now he was the same size as his nephews and nieces even if he was a week older. It also meant he had an increasingly better chance of surviving. With two moms who adored him and a doting foster mom in Moe, Piglet won a jackpot, which will hopefully end up with him living a long full life.

©2014 Kitten Associates. A birth day for most of the kittens but you can see Piglet, who is a week older, barely is the same size as his newborn counterparts.

What helped Piglet beat the odds was not only simply sustenance but love. Love from his moms. Warmth from his new siblings. A sense of belonging he was missing being an only kitten. We’ll never be able to ask Piglet what he thinks about all of this but I can bet he’d tell us that the love he felt was what got him to step away from the darkness. His moms wanted him to live, so he had to oblige.

©2014 Kitten Associates. True love.

As for myself, I couldn’t help but imagine the “what ifs.” What if I had said no to Moe because we haven’t had any adoptions in months. Because we have a record number of cats in our program. Because it’s risky and might break our bank to care for these cats if something should go wrong, we can’t do right by them. I think about them being in that neighbor’s yard with a dirty dog bed covered in fleas for their new home. I think about the filthy fly-covered food they might have had to eat, if someone fed their moms at all and what the poor nutrition would have done to the kittens growing inside them. I think about how they had no safe place to go so they would have so easily fallen victim to any number of predators and meanwhile the humans in the home would have turned a blind eye to them, making up some lame excuse as to what happened. Maybe they’d say they “ran away” or “didn’t know what happened to them.”

©2014 Kitten Associates. After a very long day some much needed rest.

I know that at least half of Laney’s kittens would have died and Piglet along with them. I think Laney had a very good chance of not making it, too. Because soon after she gave birth, we realized something was terribly wrong and her next stop was to the ER in the middle of a very rainy night.

To be continued….

©2014 Kitten Associates. Winnie looks lovingly at her mom, Laney.

(If you’d like to know more you can read the beginning of their story HERE and HERE)