About a minute after birth. After she gave birth. Not afterbirth. Ew.
Queen Sara Saturday gave birth to a single kitten yesterday afternoon. She was a few days late so we were a little worried and considering a caesarean section, but she did it all on her own!
The kitten is very active, squeaky, and is very good at nursing. We’re calling him or her Butterball since he was born the day before Thanksgiving. (For the purposes of this post I’ll call Butterball “him” but we may change that determination when things develop more fully.)
Sometimes Butterball wanders away from Sara to a different part of the nest and starts squeaking to find her. Rather than get him, Sara growls in response. Squeak. Growl. Squeak. Growl. It’s a game of Marco Polo until he gets close enough for her to put out a paw and pull him close.
We originally didn’t even know Sara was pregnant. We put Sara and Max together on a date, and she was certainly interested, but Max seemed to be having geometry problems and couldn’t find the right angle. (Watching cats mate has to be the weirdest part of this whole thing). After a day without success we decided to try again the next time she was in heat. And maybe send Max back to sex education class in the interim.
Well, apparently they figured it out at least once because a month later we noticed Sara getting a bit of a belly. An X-ray last week confirmed it. One kitten!
I had to be in the office yesterday, but both Marie and I were keeping an eye on the Kitten Cam in the nest. Sara had decided to hang out there so we knew she might be close. Here is how it went down:
Real time commentary
I’ll have to put “Nice placenta!” in my book of Phrases I Never Thought I’d Say If You Asked Me Twenty Years Ago. In my defense, it was a really nice placenta, as placentas go.
We’ll get some better pictures when Sara will allows us (she growls when we handle the kitten to weigh him). But in the meantime, here’s a cool night vision picture. Sara and Butterball are in the bedroom with us, and when they wake us up with a squeak or a growl it’s nice to be able to see what is going on without bothering them.
This kitten is reserved.
Night vision! Butterball is nursing, of course.