Update on Cedar and a new litter

So we took Cedar back to the shelter to get a scan done and then be spade. I got a call from Juli, the new cat foster coordinator. It turns out that Cedar was never pregnant AND she had been spade when she was younger. However, she had some kind of internal herniation which had lead to tissue growth with fooled the vet into thinking she was pregnant. So...they fixed up her insides and I can (sort of) forgive whoever owned her because they didn't declaw but NOT fix our sweet girl. Cedar has become one of the favorites at the shelter because she is so loving and sweet. Her facial infection continues to improve. Hopefully she will get a her new forever home really soon.

The other news Juli called with was that there was a mama cat with 5 six-week old kittens who had just been brought in! So off I went to the shelter to pick them up. Mama is a beautiful lynx point with ice blue eyes. There are 4 girls and one boy kitten. There is a grey tabby, two dilute torties (grey base instead of black), one dilute tuxedo and a pale orange kitten. I got them into the car and took them home in complete silence (!)

Once we got them home, they were very apprehensive. Mama started panting and none of them would come out of their carrier. We could touch them without any hissing, but there did not seem to be any interest in the experience :-(. Looks like we're in for some careful socializing.

When I went in this morning, the kittens were starting to explore, but Mama had planted herself under the couch in our family room. I was able to hold the orange boy and the tuxedo girl for a couple of moments.

Mama is now known as Freja (prounouced Frey-a).

Pictures tonight!

Sad news today

After several calls to the Cat Foster Coordinator over the past few days, I was finally asked to bring Cedar back to the Humane Society to get rechecked. The vet checked her over and told us that is seems that the stress of the infection, etc has meant that Cedar's pregnancy has ended and she seems to have reabsorbed any kittens that might have been growing. Although she is healing nicely, her added food intake has lead to her being overweight. We are keeping her for another week to help get her infection cleared up. So no kittens.

It seems that this is not that unusual in cats. It does make sense from a survival perspective - if the cat does not have the necessary energy and resources to heal and maintain a pregnancy, then the pregnancy essentially stops.

On the other hand, I was excited to have little ones in the house. And I had possible forever homes for 3 or 4 of the expected kittens. I think it will take the weekend to feel sadness over the loss of my expectations.

I do hope that we can find Cedar a forever home. She has such a sweet personality, and the right person will love her dearly.