KITTY...KITTY...KITTIES

On May 30th 2008 our cat Tinkerbell had kittens. This happened to be the last day of school for Hayli and we knew that Tink was due at any time. We decided to go out for dinner and we checked on her before we left and there was no sign of kittens coming. When we got home Tinkerbell was at the door waiting for us as usual and we all came in and went about out regular business. We had just gotten sat down for the evening when Kenli went chasing after Tinkerbell into my room. The next thing we know Kenli is running out of my room in complete HYSTARIA!!! She was screaming, crying and yelling something all at the same time. All we could make out was there is a RAT!!! A RAT we all exclaim! Where is the RAT Kenli... where did you see this? She says to me its under your bed by Tinkerbell and its going to get her she cries. Steve the "TOUGH GUY" he is.... LOL NOT! Says "T" go see what it is! OHHH ya... that's right ME hunting for the so called "RAT". So I go into my bedroom not knowing what I may find and I look under my bed... the next thing I see are these two yellow glowing eyes with fear in them looking right into mine!!! Thank goodness it turns out to be Tinkerbell... what a relife that is but when I reach for her I felt something wet on the ground! I can't see what it is so I have to move the bed out a bit to get to it. Once I got things moved I notice its a little teeny tiny kitten!!! OHHH MY GOSH I hollar! Steve its a KITTEN not a RAT!!! I have Hayli grab the big tote to put Tinkerbell into with the blanket so we can make her as comfortable as possible. For the next few hours I get to play the "VET TECH/Mid Wife". Ohhh this was so much fun. We let the kids even come in and enjoy this experience that most people would never get to do. Tinkerbell gave birth to 6 kittens that evening. There were 3 Black ones, 2 Grey ones and one striped one. Ohhh they were so little and cute! The "RUNT" was so little and just wasn't as active as the other kittens. I kept trying to help it by putting it on the teet to nurse but it just wasn't strong enough to keep going. He/She passed in the night and I knew that this was going to happen. That is just nature happening and we had to explain this to the kids. They all took it rather well. Sadly so we did end up loosing one other kitten after a couple of weeks and she was the striped one she was not as big or strong as the others either. I was only expecting Tinkerbell to have only 3 or 4 kittens NOT 6!!! We were very happy to enjoy the ones she had. Once the kittens started getting a little older they became more active and social. Over the 6 weeks we enjoyed them so much and the kids were really good with them. I think this helped the kids become more nurturing and loving to animals and others. My cousin Raganne put dubs on the 2 black kittens from the begining and we decided to keep one of the grey ones, the last grey kitten went to one of the guys from the fire department so we at least get to have updates on how they are all doing. The one we kept her name is Charlie and she is just the most precious kitten. So loving and kind just like her Mom Tinkerbell.