Pepper's First Litter 2008!

One of our cats just recently had their first litter of kittens. She is 4 years old and the dad was only about 6 months old or so at the time. She only had one kitten though! Her name is Pepper and the dad is Shadow. You will see a couple of pictures about halfway through the show with mom, dad and the kitten in the box!

This was a very interesting experience all the way around. When we realized that she might be pregnant, I estimated when she might be due based on the "signs" of pregnancy. She ended up delivering about a week and half before I had expected it so we weren't quite prepared.

We also have a situation with this particular cat...she doesn't like to be shut up in any rooms or small spaces! So she wouldn't stay in the areas/box we wanted her to in order to have the baby!

She was in labor for 2 days...it was exhausting as we waited and tried to make sure she wouldn't hide somewhere we couldn't find her, etc. She finally delivered around 6am on August 29th. I had fallen asleep and figured I would hear her making some type of noise to indicate she was delivering, but she didn't! I awoke on the sofa in the living room to the sound of the kitten crying!

Pepper had delivered her under the chair in the living room (which wasn't covered of course--making a big mess). I put her and the baby into the area we had prepared for her..it took a bit of time to get her calm, the baby warm and to get her to stay with the baby and not be freaked out! She finally settled down and started taking care of the baby. In order to get some sleep and keep her from moving the baby, we put her in the playpen we had arranged with her box and everything she needed and covered it so she would stay in. That worked for a bit and then we just put her box in the living room near the sofa so she wouldn't feel trapped.

She did move the kitten briefly into the tiny scratching post. We later moved her and her box into our bedroom so we could shut the door to keep them contained (not hide the baby where we wouldn't be able to find it) and she wouldn't feel like she was trapped. This was also to keep the daddy cat away from them until the baby was bigger.

She stayed there for about a week and a half. We started leaving the door open and she ended up moving the kitten to my daughter's bed! She is on the bottom bunk of their bunkbed. I guess it feels kind of like a box to her but with more room!

They have remained in the girls room through today..and will be for a bit longer. Once the kitten started walking well, we put the baby gate up to keep him (?) in but Pepper can come in and out as needed.

He is running, jumping and playing now! He has even started using the litter box and eating hard food...without us teaching him! He is very cute. He is being called Sam (so it would work for either a girl or a boy), but his name may be changed to Gizmo..because of his ears! We will see!

This is a slide show of the progression of her being in labor (NO gory details), up until today with a short video clip.

This has been a new experience for our family, but it looks like our other cat may also be pregnant! We will see if she will have more than one kitten!

Enjoy!

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