Well, the people who gave us Sashimi blatantly lied to us as we found out last week
She most definitely
has been out since she had a litter, and indeed she has not been spayed (they lied to us about the former but not about the latter) and she will be having a litter of little kits in 2-3 weeks (although we must obviously allow for the fact that we don't know when mating occurred).
Who does that? Who gives a pregnant cat away and lies about the fact she could be/is pregnant? She was lying upside down in front of the bedroom door last week (for the first time), showing her pinked-up nipples, which is what prompted us to investigate further, and yep...
She's gaining weight by the mile, but since she's skinny in the ribs we originally thought maybe they hadn't fed her a lot (and, at the time, she didn't look pregnant as you can see from the photos I posted - but as I said she wasn't lying upside-down).
Now, every time one of us sees her she gets affectionate comments like "fatso" and "nipplegirl" slung at her head - not that she minds, although she is finding it more difficult to jump up and headbutt hands.
She's got a box in the loft (where nobody currently goes and where my son can't go because there's a ladder in the way) with a lot of newspaper in it and a blankie that smells of her, and as soon as I track down another box that's big enough she'll have one in the cupboard under the stairs as well - the quietest, most secluded places in the house, and she can make up her own mind as to which one she uses but we're keeping the bedroom doors firmly shut as our bed is waaaay too lovely for kittens (we're deeply, deeply mean
but seriously, we both have bad backs and we need the orthopaedic mattress).
We have towels, some blunt scissors, and the box is ready (and the other will be sorted tomorrow). We want to be prepared now, in case she gives birth early or the vet's estimation's off.
What else do we need? What else have you guys (who've had litters before, not personally of course) found useful? Any tips?
The people who gave her to us spent the first weekend pestering us (via Hippie's mobile, which we'd used to ring them) for pictures and to take good care of her - then I emailed them pictures of her and we've not heard from them since. Methinks they knew she was pregnant and wanted to get the pictures before we found out and refused to send them any.
I suggested we could ring them and have a good shout (I'm generally very polite but it made my blood boil to think they just gave her away without knowing
anything about us other than the town we live in and the fact that Hippie sometimes wears a suit to work - and without having the slightest idea what we might do with the kittens or with her once we found out she was pregnant), and Hippie said "What's the use? They might want her back, and
that isn't going to happen."
Not a cat person indeed
He's a sweetheart, and for all his grumbling at her about how she's a dirty stop-out (
) he's really sweet with her, and has resigned himself to the fact that I'm going to be incredibly picky about who gets these kittens (but a friend of mine from back in Scotland has asked me to keep him posted because he and his fiancee might want two or three, and I know he takes good care of his pets and I have a few more interested people I know well enough to trust, so if none of those fall through we might be somewhere useful already).
If anyone wants to play the guessing game, be my guesst (couldn't resist the pun, sorry - I haven't been getting much sleep lately and I start thinking things are funnier than they really are!). I suppose we'll find out soon enough
But one thing's for sure - what with how Sashimi looks, they'll all be cute as buttons.
