I have 7 cats, all related, and here's our story for anyone interested. It's worth the read. It includes a brief description/history of each of my cats, and a heartmelting bit about how 2 of my kittens barely made it into this world.
First there was Lucious: Mr. perfect, and Mr. Awesome. He was given to us by a friend who had taken on a kitten at a bad time. He was a 3 month old, big, solid black (supposedly 1/2 siamese) male. She said he was neutered, had his shots, good to go. He was very talkative, and we just assumed that was the Siamese. He was shy and nervous when we first got him, but he became very loving and brave. We leash trained him, and totally spoiled him with toys and love.
We had him for almost year before my boyfriend adopted an adorable, long haired, black and white, female Ragdoll/Maine Coon. She was found in the bushes only a few days old with her feral mom and siblings, most of which were very sick and sadly didn't make it. She was rehabilitated and then sent to a local pet store that worked with the cat hospital to find her a home. I happened to work there at the time, and my boyfriend came in day after day to visit the kitten (and sometimes me, too), until eventually we decided to take her home. We named her Xoey.
Xoey was 6 months old when we took her home, and Lucious adopted her as his best buddy. We weren't in a rush to fix the female, as both of them were indoors-only at the time. We learned about 9 months later that Lucious had not been fixed... Xoey got a little bigger, just a little, but then we noticed the other signs, and soon after she had one kitten. I had educated myself on what to prepare for in case of emergency, but everything went very smooth and the kitten was healthy.
We kept the one and only kitten, he was a short haired, black and white male that we named Dexter. We immidiately had Lucious neutered, and had Dexter Neutered when he was old enough. We now had 3 cats, and moved to a bigger house as it was getting tight in our 1 bedroom suite. We did not spay Xoey, as we were now certain both males were neutered and there shouldn't be any more incidents, and my boyfriend insisted it was cruel if it wasn't necessary. She was his cat after all, so it was his choice.
A year later, a friend of ours was staying with us, and accidentally let Xoey outside. A little while later, she had 6 adorable kittens, 3 boys and 3 girls. In order of birth: Lucy (f), Gandolf (m), Farley (m), Luna (f), Tesla (m), Violet (f). We had originally planned to rehome them, but later decided to keep them. We had them all get their shots etc, and had all the boys neutered. I have a detailed story of their birth further down.
When they were coming up on a year, it became incredibly crowded, and I reluctantly parted with 2 of the boys, Tesla and Gandolf. They went to an amazing forever home together, but I still miss them every day. We still have the others, 3 males and 4 females in total. They all love each other and get along amazingly well. We never have fighting or bullying, although Xoey always put her kittens through a month-long, hissy-growly weaning process. We found it less stressful for everyone if we gave her her own bedroom for this period.
Lucious has implimented himself as the head of the pack, and he is protective of all of the kittens. He and Dexter are allowed outside since we now live on acreage. Lucious does not allow unknown cats near the house. I tried to cat-sit for my mom once, that was not okay with him. He is a great dad, even for the kittens that are not biologically his. As soon as they were born I would find 'presents' on my doorstep daily. This included anything from mice to full grown rabbits and squirrels. He only does this when there are young kittens in the house. Generally he eats everything he catches. Dexter tries to copy him, but he can only catch tiny field shrews, and never eats them, which is not a good thing.
Lucy is very smart, she was the first to figure things out and she is very curious and adventurous. She loves to play and wrestle with the others. She has medium length hair, looks just like mom, and she is very talkative. She is a total lap cat, and she will carefully sneak up from any angle she can. Generally company won't notice she has crawled up until she has been there a good few minutes and has started kneeding their lap. Lucy has an obsession with light spots on the ceiling and lazer pointers. She chatters at anything that looks chase-able, and catches flies in mid-flight.
Farley is a major mommy's boy. Mommy being me, not Xoey. He looks like Xoey and Lucy, but he's huge, and I mean HUGE. He got all the Maine Coon. He is too scared to go outside with the older boys, and doesn't care to explore. He's a worry wart, and when put in a new situation he is super cautious and very low and slow. The slightest sound will send him running. He hates it when I leave his sight. If I leave the house to go to work, that's fine, but if I close him out of the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or other while I am home, he has a bit of a fit. He has to make sure I am not drowning in the bathtub, and that I'm still breathing when I sleep. He likes to lie beside my head, and walk between my feet. He talks a lot, and loves company as long as I am there too.
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Luna is a princess. She is beautiful and she knows it (she's in my profile picture). Her and Violet were almost identical when they were born, but Violet was the runt of the litter, and has always been smaller with coarser hair. Now Luna has long hair and Violet has short hair. They are both lynx points with vibrant blue eyes. Luna occasionally decides she is too good for the litter box, which can be a pain, but we've found her triggers. She is VERY vocal, and acts like queen of the house. She is a lady, and will only cuddle when invited. She doesn't play much, and would rather pose for a picture. Violet really attached herself to my boyfriend. She and Xoey are definitely 'his cats'. She is incredibly smart, and learns tricks quickly. She looks like a tiny siamese.
The story of the kittens: Xoey had 6 kittens, but not as smoothly as the first. By the time Xoey had delt with the first 4, she musty have been too exhausted to tend to Violet and Testla. I watched her with ther first 4, and then it seemed she was done. I waited another couple hours, everything was good, so I went to work. I came home in the afternoon to check up on her, the 4 were dry and nursing strongly at this point, as they were about 4 hours old already, and there were 2 more kittens. They were both smaller, Tesla's face was partially cleaned but mostly still in the sack, and Violet hadn't been touched. They were both cold and not moving, and I was sure they wouldn't make it.
I tried to get Xoeys attention on the new ones, but she wasn't interested. I quickly found the soft clean towel I had ready that morning and started mimicking mom's licking to completely remove them from the sacks and dry them a bit more. They were very weak, and cold, but still alive. I tried again to get Xoey interested, but she just wanted to sleep. I picked up the two tiny kittens and continue to dry them gently with the towel. It took what seemed like ages, but they started to become a little more active as they warmed up, and I knew they needed to nurse. The older kittens were quite strong and pushy at this point. I tried to help the little ones find nipples but the older ones kept shoving them away. I had to pick up 2 of the older ones to give the smaller ones a fighting chance. Tesla figured it out right away, and weakly began nursing. I had to coax Violet for almost 10 minutes before she finally started to nurse, barely. I alternated the older ones 2 at a time until they fell asleep with full bellies, and had to hold Violet up for about half an hour before she was able to hold herself.
Finally Xoey became interested in the 2 new additions and started to clean them up. She rolled to give them a better position and when they were full they cuddled in with the others. I stayed home the rest of the day to make sure they got a fair amount of milk and to make sure mom wouldn't reject them. By the next day they had managed to get strong enough to keep up with the others and they developed normally. I was worried Violet might have suffered brain damage from being cold and without oxygen for so long, but she grew up healthy. If anything she seems more intelligent than the others.
They all had a check over by our vet and they each have a clean bill of health. Our vet agrees that Xoey was likely just too tired to worry about the last 2 kittens. They probably would not have made it if I hadn't checked on them. They are now 2 years old and healthy as can be. We are lucky Xoey trusts us very much and knows we are there to help. She tried to have her first kitten on my lap, and the next litter between my boyfriends feet under his desk. We made her several different welping boxes but she always comes to us.
Xoey had one more litter of 4 healthy female kittens last year, again she was accidentally let out. We have decided she is going to be spayed, because she is just too sneaky and we don't want to be contibuting to the already large number of homeless or feral cats. Gandolf, Tesla, and the last 4 went to great homes, Xoey is healthy, she's had 11 healthy kittens, let's leave on a good note.
That's the story of my cats, thanks for taking the time to read it. I hope you found it entertaining! I know that this is a pro-spay and neuter site, and I completely agree with that. It was irresponsible not to have her spayed sooner, but I am greatful to have the kittens.
