WE HAVE KITTENS!

The kittens have arrived!!!

After what seems like forever, this morning was the special day. For the past week, every night when I got home from work I would throw my bag down, run upstairs and open the door to the library and look for babies. No such luck. Just a big, fat, tired mama laying in the middle of the floor looking at me expectantly. Every morning when my husband would wake me up, I would say - before fully even opening my eyes - "Go check on mama!" I would hear him walk down the hallway, open the door and say "...Nope, she's still fat."

But today. Today was different. And I knew it would be. I had a feeling.

This morning I woke up and did my morning routine of demanding my husband to check on the cat. I heard him open the door, pause and then say "...I don't see her..." That's all it took for me to jump out of bed - stark naked - and rush past him into the library. We looked around... Where was she?!?! Then I bent down and looked in the oversized carrier I had set up with sheets and blankets in it for her when she decided to let those babies out of her belly.

And there she was... With six babies!

"WE HAVE KITTENS!" I yelled. She got excited and came walking out, the last kitten still dangling from her lady parts, not even fully out of her yet.

I grabbed my cell phone and started snapping photos, even though they were mostly too dark to see anything. I immediately dialed my mom. It was only 5:20am. After a few rings, she picked up very sleepily - I had obviously woken her up. "WE HAVE KITTENS!" (I think I have overused this saying plenty today, honestly.)

It was about five minutes later, upon taking a closer look, that I noticed one of the babies wasn't moving. I poked at it... Still nothing. I picked it up... and it was stiff. The poor thing was still-born. I held him in my hands and looked at his little baby face and wanted to cry. I know we saved the lives of five potentially-healthy kittens, but my heart felt heavy with the loss of this little furry life.

We buried him tonight in a shoe box under our baby weeping cherry tree. It seemed fitting. We marked it with a big stone to remember where he will stay. Poor little baby.




This little guy (I keep calling them all "guys" even though I have yet to identify what they are) kept finding his way out of the carrier, away from mama and kept getting lost. He was meowing and screeching away every time I picked him up to put him back inside. He's going to be a wild one, I fear.

A midst the excitement of being a new kitty-mommy, I also was informed that my grandfather - who has been suffering from lung cancer that has returned to him at least three times over the past five years, and shall be 90 next month - was admitted to the hospital with blood clots in his lungs, and the lung cancer growing again. As much as it pains me, I almost want him to go. I want him to be at peace. He's been fighting so much and is suffering so greatly lately. I just want him to be happy again. I want him to go see his son and daughter, who he's lost to the same damning disease.

So... today has been filled with ups and downs - almost to the extreme - but I am thankful for being able to have the happy along with the sad. It makes life worth living.