Frances with her babies, five in all, but one is tucked under her arm
Seems like just yesterday, Frances was a kitten herself, now she's all grown up and having babies! Yes, the little minx came in to her first heat and managed to skinny out the door for some fun. It wasn't too hard to figure out she was pregnant as her appetite and tummy began to grow and everyday she looked bigger than the day before. Not long after the vet confirmed it, we could feel the babies kicking around inside.
She gave birth early morning on Tuesday. I called "Auntie" around 2:30 am and told her I thought the kittens were on the way, so she woke the kids and they all came over to watch. With me and my four and Cassi and her three (my husband opted out of the fun, but was updated often by the kids), we had our own little version of the Discovery Channel as we watched our sweet Frances give birth to five beautiful kittens! Poor mama had a hard time with the first as it was breech, but with a few loud (understatement... actually bone-chilling, ear-piercing, screaming) yowls, she managed to get the kitten out and the next four went smoothly.
home-grown roses from Auntie for Frances
She has been such a good mama, purring constantly, licking and cleaning like a mad-woman and stretching her paws to cuddle her new babies.
I was able to get a few photos of a couple of the kittens, but I'll share more as I get them. Aren't they precious?
number two
number three
number four
kittens! my favorite! they're beautiful!
Posted by: maya | August 11, 2008 at 01:35 PM
Ooooh, I haven't held a kitten like that in, wow, almost 13 years? My goodness.
Posted by: Visty | July 30, 2008 at 02:41 PM
ohhh so adorable...how nice...
~simply~
Posted by: simply | July 28, 2008 at 03:13 PM
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Posted by: Amy | July 25, 2008 at 02:21 PM
So sweet!
Posted by: Madeline | July 25, 2008 at 08:45 AM
oh...this just makes my heart ache! we recently lost one of our cats--she gave us 4 wonderful kittens like these just 8 years ago!
Posted by: EnthusiasticallyHuman | July 18, 2008 at 01:54 AM
They are so adorable... I love how happy mamma kitty seems sleeping with her babies... it will be so great to see them as they grow... so cute...
Posted by: Shelly G. | July 13, 2008 at 11:28 PM
Oh, every time I see a kitten I want more cats - but my husband think I have Weird Cat Lady tendencies so we've stopped at one (for the moment).
They are so cute. Frances. Great name. Makes me think of those Bedtime for Frances stories. Richard and I used to joke about naming our cat Robert or Isaac so that if we were ever at a very dull event without a reasonable "out" we could say "We MUST go, Robert is at home waiting for us" and everyone would think it was a kid or something. Then we named our cat Toffee. Does anyone leave a party for candy?
Posted by: Sheila | July 13, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Congratulations to your family! The kittens are adorable.
Posted by: Alexis | July 11, 2008 at 04:33 AM
It awes me every time I experience this. Having done it so recently myself - (not the kittens) I'm still marveling at the wonder of it all! Those kittens are precious.
Posted by: Amy | July 10, 2008 at 08:27 PM
I am not a cat person, but boy are they cute! What a great hands-on homeschooling lesson.
Posted by: Ellen | July 10, 2008 at 07:04 PM
Wow - I bet it was worrisome for the kids on that first one - good everything turned out well! Very exciting.
Posted by: Denise | July 10, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Congratulations to Frances :), and have fun to the rest of you!
Posted by: Becky | July 10, 2008 at 08:47 AM
Wow, there's a great educational opportunity if I ever heard of one.
I'm glad everyone came through it alright! They look like little tigers.
Posted by: Wendy | July 10, 2008 at 07:50 AM
aaaaah! they are so sweet. and how neat that your children could witness their birth. it must have made a really big impression on them.
Posted by: cyndi | July 10, 2008 at 07:16 AM