On Thursday (24th April) night, I was in the middle of cleaning the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters and bagging up footballs and sports equipment that I no longer use for a Boys’ Home when I heard Keisha moaning. I scurried out to find her pacing her cage and making a nest out of the newspapers lining her cage. I gave her a towel to lie on, bit my lip, and waited. And waited. And waited.
At 0125 hours on Friday morning, while I was sorting paper for recycling, a little leg emerged from under Keisha. She gave me a warm, loving look with none of the aggression Halle displays whenever anyone as much as smiles at her precious kittens. Jessica and I crouched by Keisha, uttering words of encouragement.
“Attagirl, Keisha! One – two – Push!” we urged. Keisha gave us another benevolent look and made no attempt to hurry the delivery. She didn’t seem to be in any pain and was not hyperventilating the way we see women do in the delivery wards on TV.
A white kitten appeared and Keisha licked her baby clean. There was obviously more kittens on the way. I tried to make a bet with Jess on the final number of kittens but we had both guessed 4, so the bet was called off because we weren’t about to change our minds.
The second kitten, a dark tabby, plopped out 35 minutes later. Jess and I were still keeping up a running commentary and offering all sorts of advice to Keisha. Halle and Felicity stared in fascinated horror as the second and third kittens emerged. “You’ve gone through this before, Halle, say something! Don’t you have any words of comfort or advice for Keisha?” admonished Jess, while I rolled on the floor laughing.
The total kitten count at 0405 hours on Friday morning was 4, which means both Jess and I had been correct. We should advertise ourselves as feline experts or something. When I left the cats to go to work, both Keisha and Halle’s kittens were nursing peacefully. Halle has 6 and Keisha has 4, which brings the total number of cats in the Officers’ Quarters to 16.
As Reve said, it was meant to be that the cats came to me. Animals know instinctively if they are going to be safe with a person, and I believe all these cats came to me for a reason. Once again, Keisha, Halle and all the street animals under Project Second Chance would like to thank you for your help.
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