Alert! We Have a Taxi In the Neighborhood!

Alert!!!  Alert!!!  We have a taxi sighting.  We never see taxis here in the ‘burbs unless it is for someone catching a plane or the occasional drunk finding his/her way home after a boozefest.  Even in her prime Mama Drama never was seen using a taxi.

Now this taxi is right in front of my house.  No one ever parks in front of my house because it is a corner with a top sign there.  There was some activity with the neighbor across the street (who is new and I caught my first glimpse of just moment ago) whom he is parked in front.

She did some wild gesturing at at the driver’s window and then left.  He seemed disinterested in what she had to say.  But he is still there and has been for 20 minutes.

I am picturing crazy scenarios as to what is going on inside the house across the street!

My dog is torn between guarding the home front and barking copiously, or behaving and not barking but standing guard.  The little guy has a huge barking problem which I am trying to rectify.  He is trying to be good.  He also knows if he does not bark he might get a nibble of the porkchop on my plate.

Behold Taxi Watching Bischon.

Ignore the torn screen.  That is one of many of the black cats escape portals and is getting fixed soon.

We have an update!

My hunch that booze was involved was right.  The neighbors all piled in decked in Indians gear.  It is opening day here and the first home game is soon!  They are not drinking and driving.

Ah!  I think it was pretty smart of them folks seeing that already one of their cars has a party plate.  I don’t imagine one would want to be the only house on the block with matching party plates.

My sons are men now and I am not sure about this…

UPDATE:  Tim woke up this morning and asked me what happened last night.  When I told him what he did when he got home and how he kept starting to fight with Mark, he was shocked.  (believe me so was I when it all happened!)  He said he never felt this way after having some drinks.  He started making calls.  Turns out there was a party and everyone who took a shot from a friend of a friend of a friend, AKA as a stranger, they all don’t remember anything that happened after the shot.  Every single one blacked out, did some crazy shit and are pissed.  He has no idea how he even got home.  The chick that passed out the shots is getting reamed royally and being excluded from the gang. Someone is threatening to call the cops for what she did.  Too many witnesses saw what she did to unsuspecting victims.  No one knows what she put in the shots.  I thought last night he seemed so unlike himself.  I am just as pissed.  It is one thing to chose to do crazy things to your own body, but to subject others without them knowing is terrible.  I know someone who lost her daughter that way.  Police investigation going on and there are possible murder charges now.  This is why I have always preached to my kids, never, ever take something from someone you don’t know and never leave your drink unattended.

Let me at that asshole bitch whore c@#$ piece of shit.

They turn 21 next week and I am having a hard time of it.  Not the age itself but the worry.  Watching them as they now do man things is not a problem.  But it is the partying.  I never hear other parents talk about this part of parenting.  It is always about when they are babies, school, grades, friends.  But who talks about when your adult sons, who live with you (and they can for as long as they want as long as they follow my rules of respect, responsibility, pay their bills and helping out around the house) and they come home drunk?  (at least they always have a D D.  Learned the hard way on that one through their own and their friend experiences)  I don’t have any thing to compare it to.  Don’t know what to do or? say.  I know this is what they do sometimes.  Hell, I was waaaaaaaaaaaay more of a party person then they are.

Tonight was not a good night when they got home.  They had a horrible, physical fight.  This is rare.  I can count on one hand how many times they fought like that.  But it is painful to witness  And they cry when they fight with each other.  Anger might be furious but there are tears on their faces.  Yes.  Even now.

I guessl I feel at a loss here.  What does a parent do?

Well, it is in the wee hours of the morning and there is a Laurel and Hardy movie on.  I love me some Laurel and Hardy.  Bonus:  It is a silent.

I have not had a decent night of sleep in months.  Mostly because we had those 11 kittens and when they woke up, they ALL woke up and it was playtime.  LOUD, running and stirring up things playtime.  They are gone now*.  I had hoped to finally get some sleep and then I got this horrible toothache.  So that kept my up last night.  A month ago was the very unplanned trip to Disney to help my mom deal with my dad who became very, very ill the first night of their vacation.  (he is ok, but he spent the entire week in the hospital and Mom and I did vacation things as best as we could while he was there)

Tonight I woke up to The Fight.

So I am going to do what I ought to do.  Wrap me up in my Snuggie and make myself a marinti.  Four olives thankyouverymuch.

The hell with the time!

* After reading this I think it sounds like we dumped the kittens doesn’t it?  We did not.

This Kittens and The Momcats Thing

So Turbo hid her kittens again. This time she put them under my bed.

Then I noticed that I kept seeing Tommygirl.  A lot.  Way too much in one morning. So who is minding the kittens if she is not?

So I crouched down, and this is no minor feat in this heat with back pain. Lo’ and behold!  There is Tommygirl!!!

Nursing Turbo’s kittens! This just can not be happening. First she moves them to weird places and then let’s her pregnant sister nurse?  I swear by the way she was acting, she thought she had the perfect set up!  Nurse?  Me?  Nah.  I will get some other cat to do it.

That is when the alarms went off in my head.  Tommygirl is due any minute and is nursing.  This has to be a hormonal thing and I am not liking it.

We have got to get this kitten situation under control and STAT!

I don’t want them under the bed where they are already crawling everywhere and soon will be doing their poop and pee there too.

I fixed the closet so only Turbo can get in and the dog stays out. She had already been eyeing that closet the day before, so I figured she might like it.  The room already has food, water and a litter box. (I am going to so hate that part for the next two months.) I readjusted the box in the closet. JA got all the cats/kittens from under the bed.

That was when I noticed it.

Tommycat was in the beginning stages of labor!  AND nursing her sister’s kittens!

Let me tell you it was not easy separating this whole mess.  Turbo did not like it, the kittens were yowling and so was Tommygirl.

So JA quickly got the playpen set up, put Tommygirl in her nesting box and put the box in the playpen.  Fifteen minutes later Tommygirl gave birth to the first of four kittens!

So we have a whole lot of kittens.  Three black and white ones, one gray and white one, four lilac/gray ones and two all black.

The master bedroom is a big old kitten nursery now!   The next couple of months is going to be absolutely nuts!

Kitten Pic Time

I only have a few and they are blurry.  It is rather a challenge to hold a kitten and take it’s pic whilst Mommacat is right by you.  While Mommacat is very gentle with me and let’s me do what I want, she is also vocal.

Very vocal.

And kittens are vocal right back.

And I respect Mommacat’s maternal instinct, so I keep the handling of each kitten to less then a minute.

Afterall, they are only ten days old.

Here is Ralph.  Named after Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary.  Ralph was the first born and I thought of Ralph for a name right away.  (yep.  Minutes into the birth process and I had already broke my rule of not doing anything to get attached since I know these kittens already have homes.)  And also the only one in the litter with these markings.

This is one of the grey ones.  As soon as I tried to get it’s picture, it closed it’s eyes.

There are 4 grey ones in the litter as well as one that is black and white too.  Which BTW is really cute since it looks like it has a necklace and an armband.

That is all for now.  Still waiting for the Mommacat2 to have her litter.

Well. No one told me about this!

In all the help sites for birthing kittens and so on, not one mentions that momma cat will move her kittens a few days after birth!

So now they are under my dresser, next to some shoes.  On a hard floor!

And Izzy is totally enthralled.  He is also very protective and will not allow the other cats through the doorway!

The Kittens Birth (AKA I Know Nothin’ ‘Bout Birthin Babies!)

So here I was, all a flutter and wanting those kittens to be born so much, just so I could see them.

In reality, when I realized the time was near, I got scared.  Really scared!  I mean, what if something went wrong?  (and it did)

Keep in mind, JA was on his way to pick up a playpen for the nest.

Timeline:

5:50 PM

I hear strange noises.  Not loud, but very rhythmic.  At first, I thought they were coming from outside.  I chalked it up to the neighbor’s grandkids making funny noises.  (Having a hearing loss also means having a hard time telling what direction a noise may be coming from)   But wait!  Something about the noise seems familiar.  So I go to the kitchen and THAT is where I hear the noise!  Turbo is calling to me!  I call back and she runs for me.  She wants me to pet her.  She

 lays down and WHOA!  What is THAT?  Clearly something is happening in her nether region!

5:55 PM

I decide it is a good time to again show her the nesting area I prepared for her.  She happily goes right to it and cuddles into a ball.  Meanwhile, I am wishing JA was here with the playpen and getting nervous I am alone.  I make calls and text the family.

6:00 PM

I leave her alone and go get the scissors and floss.  Just in case.  I hear her “noise” and realize she has followed me!   I talk to her and walk back to the nesting area, and again, there she goes, right to the perfect place.  I leave the room once more and yet again, she follows me.

I decide that she clearly wants me with her.  Amazingly enough, there was no panting, no screaming, no plug either that I saw (and I wonder where it is now that I think about it).

So I get a glass of water and settled down.

6:10 PM

JA comes in with the playpen.  I put Turbo in there and she jumps out.  Wants to be in her nesting corner.  She is looking a little fidgety.  I am definitely nervous now!

6:15 PM

Without a single whimper, noise or even any indication of being scared, the first one is born!  I await the Momma meets baby kitty moment.

Nothing happens.

She goes on to clean herself.  Wait a minute!  Isn’t she supposed to clean the sac off so kitten can get it’s first breath?  She is so NOT doing that!  I am scared for sure now.  So I grab that towel I had just for this purpose and do it myself.  I have no idea what I am doing but something HAD to be done!  I get the nose and mouth exposed and hear the sweetest littlest meow ever.  My heart just melts.  Momma looks around and realizes, “Oh hey!  There is something here I must attend to…” and goes for the placenta.  The kitten is now laying face down in all the messy stuff.  It will drown for sure, so I move it to momma’s mouth and finally, Momma does what she is supposed to do!  This one is white and gray.  It is very obvious who the CatDad is.  Yup.  The one who has been hanging around outside for a while now.

Izzy, the curious dog he is, sits right next to me.  He wants to get close but we won’t let him.  She does not seems to mind.  The other cats come in one by one.  JA had forgotten to close the one door.  Izzy will not let them near Momma Cat.  I mean I never saw that side to him.  He became very aggresive.  His attentiveness to the whole process amazed me.  I really thought I was going to have a problem with him.  He gets nuts when there is a new animal in the house.  Instead, he was very calm.  Curious but very sweet and gentle.

6:30 PM

It is obvious another kitten is on the way.  Without a single fuss, just a couple little pushes and here is another one!

She continues like this until there are four kittens.  Then she decides that she does not want anything to do with that corner of the nest and walks to the other corner.  The newborns start wailing for her in teeny meows.  She talks right back to them.  I swear she was saying, “I know my little babies.  Momma loves you soooo much.  But right now, that corner is kinda messy and gross.  I am going to have your next sibling over here.  OK?  I am not ignoring you.  I am just being fussy.”

7:15 PM

So kitten # 5 is born.  The last four are all grey, with a tint of steelish blue? coloring.  She went back and forth between being a good momma to scaring me a bit.  One she completely ignored and I was really worried for that one.  She wanted nothing to do with it.  I had to really get that one going and breathing.  Once she finally saw it, all was fine.  But I can tell you this, it is the littlest one of them all.  She did not clean this one as well as the other ones.  Momma is now settling down and all the kittens are nursing.  It is at this point we moved all the kittens and Momma to the playpen.  Momma seems very content with the cleaner and safer nesting area.  She is purring and nursing all her new babies.

7:30 PM

JA and I leave the new family alone.  They seem to be doing so well.  All yucky stuff gone, area clean, Momma feeding the kittens.  We deem it is time to leave Mother Nature to do what needs to be done.

7:45 PM

We are now settled on the couch.  Izzy on my lap.  Suddenly he jumps off the couch and runs to the bedroom door.  He paces nervously and keeps looking at the doorway.  I ask him if he wants to see the kittens.  He gets excited and I can tell he wants me to go in the bedroom.  I do.  He follows.

Lo’ and behold!  One more kitten still in it’s sac!  How did he know?  I mean really, how did he know?

This one is so spanking cute!  All black but for a white “collar/armband”.  I couldn’t stop laughing at how cute this one’s markings were!

And that is gore-free tale of the birth of the first litter.

Second litter is due next week.

Stay tuned.

World…May I Introduce You to…

 

That was the first one.

Now this…

All in all, she had six!  I saw each one being born.  I had to jump in and assist with the first one since she ignored it at first.  I am not a pro at all with this stuff, so I was all nervous.  The first one, which is the grey and white one up there, I helped remove the sac around the face.  But she ignored it still.  And it was laying in fluid and not breathing.  I rubbed it with a soft towel and it starting crying.  Then mommy instinct took over.

We will not talk about the after birth.  That was just too gross for me.  And I have a tough stomach!

All are grey except for those two on the right.  The little black one’s markings are so cute.  That white band you see on her goes all the way around her neck.  Like a fur necklace if you would.

The interesting part is the how the dog is behaving.  I really was worried he would be a problem. He goes nuts when there is another animal around.  Mainly with having to sniff the animal to the point that it annoys the other animal pretty bad.  But these kittens, he is actually being very protective.

In fact, we thought the birthing process was over and left the room.  It was Izzy who came to me and clearly wanted me to go to the birthing room.  Sure enough.  Kitten number six had just been born!  Still in it’s sac.  That would be the necklace kitty there in the pic.

>Kitten Update

>STILL no kittens yet.  But holy toledo!  Mamacat lets me touch her belly and wow!  Those little kittens are moving around so much!  I feel those tiny legs kicking and moving.  The strength has taken me aback!  There is no missing it.

Any day now.  We have bets…how many kittens?  I say four by the way I can feel her belly.  JA says four.  Tim says five and Mark says SIX!

Soon.  Soon we will know.