Meet Our New Family!

 Our calico cat, Lucy had kittens last night - we haven't had any newborns in years, as we are trying to bring our cat population down to something sane - however a much older female cat evidently had one heat left, and we had one unfixed male left - do the math; May/December romance! *snort*. We weren't financially in a position to deal with getting them fixed, and they did what came naturally, of course....I have to say that as much as I didn't want more cats, there is a part of me that's going "Yay, Kittens!" Cyn and I are so soft hearted! LOL! 

This particular cat has never had kittens that survived well, so I don't know how this is going to go - we will love them while we have them and so far they appear very healthy! Last night there was  one tiny scrap of orange nursing, and that was all I could  see - she was being very shy and defensive, so I did not upset her yet by digging around in her basket under our altar initially. So I went and checked again, and we were up to 2, possibly 3, but it was hard to tell. 

And there was a lot of meeping coming out of that basket! 

Then a bit later, and by now at about 1:00 am in the morning, I checked again - four kittens, happily nursing. All good. I did some more stuff on the computer. Decided to make sure everybody was OK on my way to bed, and discovered...

That we had FIVE kittens!!! FIVE!  0.0

Cyn was asleep of course, but I had let her know earlier that Lucy had gone into labor and I would stay up with them. Cyn has to get up at 4:00 AM, so I was only going to awake her if we had an emergency. So I went on to bed, after the last one - really the last one - was born and everyone appeared healthy. I climbed into bed and Cyn mumbled something that sounded like ...mgyhrkittensmfr???" So I said, "She had five." 

Cyn: "nfethasni-FIVE!?!?" It was priceless. I am still giggling! 

So...we have a little dark tabby boy, a little orange boy, two dark calico girls who look like twins, and a softer orange girl. We will have names for them shortly, as personalities and names suggest themselves to us. 

I must add a note about the proud papa - Firedancer II....he is a young orange cat who is very CAT...he is aloof, dignified, and has an intense case of cupboard love for us - we feed him. He was curled up with Lucy in the basket at the beginning of the night, but she finally got irate and tossed him out, where upon he curled up on the floor next to the basket and stayed there all night long. Now he goes over constantly and sticks his head over the edge of the basket and checks on Lucy and the Kittens. He appears to be quite cogent of the fact that these are his offspring too, and is very interested.

So life will be interesting around here as they grow and start venturing forth from their basket over time. I am going to keep a run of posts going on the family's progress with pictures. 

We feel very blessed, and we hope that every single one of them grows up healthy and happy!