OMIGOD LOOK! It's a fuzzy ball of KITTEN!

I have always, always wanted to have a litter of something born at my house. Puppies, kittens, ducklings, whatever! It always seemed to be the thing that happened to other people, a magical thing that I could only ever dream of. Until the lovely Sophia arrived at our place just over two months ago. She is a beautiful, slender, pure white cat, who is not much more than a kitten herself actually. She arrived one day, scrawny, hungry, with a flea collar around her neck so tight I couldn't get a finger under it, and with a really dirty head as clearly she had been trying to rub the damn thing off for a long time. She wasn't very happy. She was also quite the randy one. Within minutes of taking the collar off her and giving her a good feed, our other adoptee Crunchie strutted over and began to get to know her better, in the biblical sense. (Yes, we know, we are getting him spayed next week!!) And there were other strange cats hanging around over the next few days, so we were pretty sure she was pregnant. We didn't really want another cat, but there was no way we could turn away the lovely and tiny Sophia, especially since she'd be needing somewhere safe and warm to grow and birth her little babies. So suddenly we had a third cat! (This picture of her was taken the day she arrived. Yes, it didn't take her long to feel at home!) She grew and grew, and grew and grew (I had never seen a pregnant cat before!). She ate and ate, and grew some more. Her ever expanding girth had no effect whatsoever on her cheeky scampy nature however! Her nickname is Scamp. She still pounced playfully on Dr Chops (our O.C - Original Cat) at every given opportunity, and leaped literally a metre high in the air to catch them pesky cabbage moths (I was cheering her on!) But she did become more and more wary of the suddenly scarily mobile Indigo! Much to Indigo's disappointment.

Anyway, we knew it would be soon that little Sophia would be birthing her babies, so I put some blankets in a few spots around the house - under the bed, under the armchair in Indigo's room, behind the recliner in the lounge, and also in the bassinet that came with the pram, which we only used once when Indigo was little (coz of course she is huge now!). This I placed in our bedroom, which is the only room that is heated a little at night when it's cold. And this is where Sophia chose to give birth to her beautiful little family. We had been out all day, building a brick wall in mum's garden and hanging out with the family, and when we arrived home I noticed after a while that Sophia wasn't insistently hanging around for her dinner. I asked Mat if he'd seen her, no he hadn't. I wondered if this was it, if she had given birth while we were out and went to see if I could find her, and sure enough, there she was lying on her side inside the bassinet with a mass of cute tiny fluffy things wriggling beside her, blindly finding her nipples and feeding and then losing them again and finding them.

I couldn't believe it! She had done it! All on her own! I was so proud of her, and still am. She has done an awesome job, really she has, and the kittens are growing so fast! Each day we take a peek inside the bassinet, and are shocked at how big they are! I think we been taking too many peeks coz this morning Mat went to check on them and they were gone! I was scared since they haven't been out of the bassinet since they were born, either remaining feeding or sleeping against mum or in a heap together if she has gone out for a stretch and a feed and a wee, as she has been doing. I was worried that Crunchie had attacked them (tom cats sometimes do this to reduce competition in their territory), but there was no blood anywhere. Then we found them tucked deep into the corner of our room behind some hung up clothes and the washing basket. Phew! Was glad they were still OK.

So for now life continues as normal, since they still can't really walk properly and their eyes are shut. Once they are looking about and are mobile, things are gonna get a teensy bit crazy, methinks!! But boy are five kittens gonna be cute! How the hell are we going to give them away?? I'm trying not to think about it too much. Will cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, enjoy the pics of utter cuteness.