Bilaoo or Billu for short is my cat who turned one this April. She had adopted me as her human on a rainy evening in July 2014 and has been with me ever since.
A few months back we noticed that she is pregnant. I was not sure if she would carry the pregnancy through as she herself was very young. But she did, and gave birth to three kittens on Saturday, 11th April at about 8.45 PM. It was a cool windy evening and she has been after me to follow her everywhere. She took me around the house and finally after an hour settled in front of my car in a cardboard box which was too small for her. I quickly arranged for a bigger cardboard box and lined it with some newspapers and some soft cloth.
She inspected the box and was in and out of it, certainly in pain and unable to sit at a place she was very restless. Her contractions which were an hour apart early evening, now became frequent and she would get very little rest between them. She did not allow me to go out of her sight and I kept petting her and reassuring her.
Day Zero: She delivered her first kitten at 8.44 PM near my feet. Initially she seemed a bit confused but soon instinct took over and she cleaned the kitten and took it to the box. The first kitten started suckling within 15 minutes of being born.
The second one came at 9.11 PM and the third arrived at 9.26 PM. While Billu delivered the first two without any problems, the third one, ginger, was breach (came tail first) and she was in tremendous pain. She cried during this one, but managed to push and then went on to clean them all. The kittens seemed healthy and Billu looked exhausted but settled down with the kittens for the night.
Day 1: The next morning, they were all cleaned up and suckling. Billu had her morning meal while I cleaned the box and changed the papers.
I am taking care in handling kittens, washing and disinfecting my hands every time before I touch them. The kittens are very small and very susceptible to getting infections from humans. I also take care that I do not handle them for more than a few seconds and no more than once a day.
We have temporarily named the kittens Black, Light (Grey) and Ginger.
Day 2: Cleaned and changed the papers again. Kept a fresh towel. The kittens were loud but Billu was ok with me handling them. While all of them are endearing, Black won our hearts yesterday as it likes to sleep on his back.
Day 3: We weighed the kittens today. They were very sleepy this morning and had their stomachs full.
Black – 170 gms
Ginger – 165 gms
Light(Grey) -150 gms
Aww Billu looks just like my Cookie 🙂