Happy Mother's Day to Cappy!

Every day that we came home, we would dart into the house wondering if we'd find little kittens. Right after everyone got home from here, there, and everywhere, we walked in one evening and heard her cries. We knew it was time! I gently carried her down to the laundry room, and we waited for the big moment. She clearly wanted company and purred whenever we were around. 

Remember Cappy is just 6 months old, pregnant when we found her, unbeknownst to us. We suspect her age had some bearing on what happened that night. She began to push out one kitten, but then it just hung there. We waited and waited. The Internet told us that after an hour, indications are that something is wrong. We waited a bit longer, then called the vet, but got no answer. CC and I decided to try to help her, based on the recommendations of online vet sites. But we were unable to get the kitten out. CC told me to put her in the carrier and we would try to find a vet. Poor kitty was exhausted and not doing well. The vet answered and was at the clinic within a few minutes. He was unsuccessful in getting the baby out either and told us he would have to take them via surgery. He then said, "I'll prep her, start the surgery in 1 hour, and I will call you in about 2 hours to let you know if any of them survive." He sent us home, and I told him I could come back to see her when he was done. It was a long 2 hours. Finally, at 10PM, I decided to get in the car and drive back to the vet, knowing that he would soon be done when I got there. I sat in my car and said to the Lord, "You know my heart and that this has been a hard season. Please help everything to be ok. Please let at least one live." 

He saw me in the car and motioned for me to come in. I thought to myself, "This guy is going to see me burst into tears if they are all dead." And then he boomed, "Three babies, they all lived!" And I walked in to see my sweet Cappy perfectly still, but eyes wide open, and three little curly babies trying to get to their mama. This moment, the smell of the clinic, the little cries of the babies, the wide dilated eyes of Cappy, the relief of the dread in my heart are all permanently etched in my mind. I felt like I had been given a gift, a gift of healing and joy amid a difficult few weeks. My friend announcing for certain they are leaving Turkey, my Firstborn moving away to start university, and the death of Phaselis had been painful. But these little kittens said to me that God had a surprise gift of joy for our family, quite unexpected. And they all lived! Three blessings for my three heartaches. 

Amazingly they were all different. We had a little grey stripped (the one that had such difficulty being born), and yellow stripped, and a calico. 

It was a hard night for Cappy. The vet instructed me to bring them home, but that I would need to care for them all night until she recovered. She was starting to wake up and was determined to walk, but she could not walk without falling over. She did not act like she recognized them in the slightest, as they were born c-section while she was under anaesthesia. And so, I fed them kitten formula with a syringe. He said it was very important that we keep them warm, and they felt very cold to us. We decided to put them in a box next to a heater. CC (such a softie) turned on our heat in April! We kept them away from Cappy, as we were afraid she would fall on them. She had no idea where she was and kept prowling the room, falling over. It broke my heart. I stayed up until 12 and fed them as much as I could. Then I set an alarm for 2 and 4AM to feed them and check on them. We then placed them with her the next morning,  and amazingly God's miracle of instinct took over. She cleaned them and nursed them, and she unloaded a small box of paint brushes and supplies to make a tiny nursing box for them. She didn't like our big box, so she got her own. I'll never forget this night!