Sextuplets

Eight weeks ago (almost to the day) Tickles disappeared for 14 hours leaving her one-month-old slug of kitten to turn into a noisy, hungry monster.

Why would a mama do that? No one knew. However, the evidence today is quite plain: Tickles is nursing SIX marmalade newborns. (Her largest litter ever.)

Now we know what secret Tickles had lurking in her eyes when (in May) I snapped her picture with the kitten formula (that Dan bought hours before she showed up to settle her baby) in the post called
Meow-therhood.

Early yesterday Tickles met me at the door meowing and attempting to enter the house. Her swollen belly hung low. I knew Tickles needed a nursery. I enlisted the boys' help vacuuming the screen porch, opening the windows for ventilation, setting up a laundry basket with towels, placing it in a corner and making a lean-to tent to cover the works. When we were done, Tickles jumped in her quarters immediately. She napped there during the morning.

After lunch, we left for the beach to cool off during the hottest day of the summer so far. (88ºF/31ºC) Tickles was resting outside on the deck. When we returned about 4:30 PM, Aaron checked on his mama cat in the porch. He announced, "She's got three kittens!"

Within a couple hours, two more babies appeared. By the time we returned from baseball practice at 8:30 PM, six marmalade babies lay in the laundry basket.

This morning Aaron began thinking of names. Before he got too far, I went out to sort them. I had a special mission.

This litter was born on July 1st, my Norwegian host mom's birthday. I'd spent the day thinking about Annie because I couldn't send her a birthday card. She died last year on July 30th. (See The Lord Works...)

Among five males, I found one female. I knew exactly what to do!

I held her out and said, "This little gal is Annie – in honor of Granny Annie – born to Tickles, one of her Sextuplets.