Minnie, the Pregnant Calico

Two weeks ago I received a new foster, Minnie.  One of our foster moms, Tami, found a cat outside her house and took it in.  A few weeks later Skinny Minnie wasn't so skinny anymore.  An x-ray confirmed Minnie was pregnant, but it was too early to get a number of babies.  Tami is living with her sister and her sister's two cats.  It was decided that Minnie would come to my house for the birth, where she would have her own room and almost 24-hour care. Another x-ray yesterday confirmed she is indeed pregnant and expecting six kittens any day.

I couldn't get a good photo of Minnie with her beautiful eyes open.  She kept squinting from the flash, but it makes her look mean, which she isn't at all.  She's a medium-haired calico, and very sweet and affectionate. She has gorgeous markings, and is going to have gorgeous babies.

It's easier to see how wide she is with an overhead shot. Some of that is hair, but only about half an inch or so total. The nursery was vacated by Sprinkles and her six babies to another foster mom, Cheri's, house to make room for Minnie and her six babies.  I see a pattern developing here.

A couple days ago when I went in the closet nursery of Minnie's room, I opened a can of food for her dish and heard the most awful cat shriek, yowl, spit, screech, whatever, and turned to see Lucy standing in the doorway to the closet.  I hadn't closed the bedroom door completely and Lucy, my dog who loves cats, came in to visit and see what was going on.  I think Lucy came within inches of getting her face rearranged by a very protective mama-to-be. Whoa, my heart did a couple flips as I yelled for Lucy to get out and got the bedroom door closed - completely, this time.  That was a pretty exciting 3 seconds.