Kittens

Our kitty, Flo, is having kittens. This came as somewhat of a shock to us since we thought she was spayed. About a month and a half ago, several male cats started hanging about doing their strange, bawling mating call. A bit slow on the uptake, I didn't stop to wonder WHY these alley cats were doing their love-sick routine at my house until about four days into it. Suddenly it occurred to me that the only reason these males would be looking at my house for a mate would be that there was one here for them! I instructed Addy to keep Flo in the house for a few days and then it became painfully obvious that she was, in fact, in heat. She sat in the window and mournfully howled to her boyfriends outside, but I was staunch...she was NOT, under any circumstances barring house fire, to be let out. After a few days, Flo returned to her normal placid self and I forgot all about her many suitors and her love lorn moping. Until, that is, I picked her up a couple of weeks ago and felt teats. TEATS! I didn't recall ever having noticed Flo's teats before and, since I've experienced pregnancy myself a few times, I wondered if that could be a sign that she was pregnant. I got onto the computer and did some checking. Apparently, there are a few signs that your cat may be pregnant. Among them are:

-pinking, this is the phenomenon of the cat's nipples becoming pink and more pronounced

-the cat (or "Queen" as many articles refer to a pregnant cat) will usually become markedly more affectionate as well as less active

-obviously, the cat will eventually look pregnant, becoming quite round in the abdomen

-and if you are weird enough to try it, a pregnant cat will lay on her side and be still if you stimulate her nipples (I am not making this up...it was mentioned in 4 out of the 5 articles I read)

Wanting to be a good pet owner, I checked Flo's nipples for "pinking." Sure enough, her teats were pink, but then again, it's not like I'd ever actually SEEN Flo's nipples before. She did look a bit heavier than usual and was laying around a lot, but cats tend to lay around quite a bit as it is, so I didn't think that was a definitive sign. Not desperate enough to try stimulating my cat's nipples, I decided to wait and see. Well, last week as Flo was laying lazily on the couch, I noticed her belly jumping around of its own accord. Either Flo is pregnant or she's re-enacting that scene from "Alien...."

At lunch today we got on the topic of kittens and hence the virtues of spaying or neutering pets. Now, this may not strike you as inappropriate lunch conversation, but then Winnie dropped a bomb right there in Subway. Once she neutered her male Siamese...herself. We were having a good chuckle when I asked the question on everyone's minds, "How? Did you just snip them off?" The answer was no. The truth was much worse. In actuality, she used rubber bands. RUBBER BANDS to neuter her cat. "Eventually they shrivelled up and dropped off," she explained (as if the end result needed any explanation). By now the laughter was uproarious. I poked Jason, "I guess you don't have to go see Dr. Jia!" Laughing so hard my stomach hurt, I continued, "You can just go down to Winnie's for the rubber band treatment." As Jason was not so politely declining, Winnie piped in, "That'd take really big rubber bands!" Does anyone else wonder how, exactly, Winnie would know?