Our family has grown by 20 feet! AHHHHHHH!

Well, our cat had her babies on Monday night (it was our family home evening activity). As with all things in the Bolton home, it had to be a bit more exciting than your average ordinary event.

ACT 1: Water Works
We have pretty much kept Paistry (as Aly calls her) down in the basement since we noticed her protruding belly. Her and our other cat Tootsie (the hag) fight like you would not believe and so it was just easier to keep her out of harm's way.

On Monday, when the girls got home from school one of the girls went to check on her and let her out of the basement. As Aly was doing homework in her room, she noticed that Paistry was acting funny, going from bed to closet to under the dresser in quite a dither. Then Aly noticed that she was leaking water.

This is where I enter the picture, as I see Aly carrying her like a poopy diaper and yelling at someone to open the basement door. Aly set her in the box in what will be our play room in the basement. We had prepared for this day by setting up a scrap piece of carpet and a box with what I thought were old linens, but the girls used some of my towels and one of Bay's blankets. ARGGG!

ACT 2: Cat Scratch Fever
About a half an hour later, Aly decided to go and see if Paisley was really in labor and to check on her. Aly did not know that our other cat, Tootsie, had followed her downstairs, and as she opened the door all hell broke loose. She was caught right in the middle of a major kitty smackdown.

We could hear her intermittent shrieks of terror, but did not know what in the world was going on until the 2 cats came flying up the stairs. Once they hit the linoluem floor, Tootsie slid out of control and hit my little accent table, which came crashing down. One of the legs busted in half and scattered all the knick-knacks everywhere. Aly later said of her experience that it was like she was a human cat scratch pole. They had really nailed her. She was bit 3 times, one on the ankle, one on the leg and (believe it or not) one on the side of her neck and yes, that happened while she was standing up! All she could do was freeze and scream. Poor thing!

So, I was trying to figure out what just happened and take care of Aly when Jen calls and I started telling her all about it. I whisper to Baylee to go check on Paisley, as I needed to know if she was in the basement so that I could get the other cat out of the house. Baylee never came back, but I didn't notice because of all of the commmotion going on. I put Tootsie out and was talking to Jen and checking Aly's wounds and then I hear it: " Mom, mom, help me!"

Baylee had been stuck in the basement with Paisley attacking her for about 10 minutes. Every time she moved to try and get out, Paisley would lunge at her again. Paisley apparently thought that Bay was going to let the other cat in again. I quickly told Jen, "I gotta go!" and went down to save Baylee. Paisley had bit her through her shoe! Crazy damn cat (I think it should be permissible to swear when you are telling stories about animals attacking your children)!

Act 3: Angie Bolton, Cat Midwife. Call Anytime!
It took a while before any of us dared to venture down into the depths of the lions den. But when I went I was well equipped with a broom to be used as my weapon only if neccesary and a dust pan as my shield. We had a really hard time locating her, but we finally found her in the girls old barbie house located in our furnace room. I do not know why I didn't think to move her at this point but I didn't, we just turned tail and ran up the stairs because we were afraid of her.

Aly braved it again and went to check on her, and sure enough she heard little baby mews and came to announce it. What a horrible spot she had chosen to give birth, the bottom of the barbie house was about a foot wide, deep and tall and way back in the corner surrounded by things ready to fall over. I called the next door neighbor to ask for some advice and then decided to transfer her to the box and shut the barbie house for business. I moved her just as she was giving birth to Kitten #2, and the kitten fell on the cement floor, and Paisley did not know what was going on. She had chosen this spot intentionally and did not like me changing things up and at such an inconvenient time. I put Kitten #1 and slimy Kitten #2 in the box and Paisley still didn't care, if I wouldn't let her have them in that side of the barbie house she would just go in the other side! I had to finally lift the barbie house and dump her (gently) and put the house up against a wall so that there was no possible access. She finally accepted the box.

We kept vigil by her side the rest of the night and she was so funny about needing lots of encouragement from me everytime she did something motherly. She would lick one and then put her head up for me to pet and tell her she was doing good. The girls thought this was great and now call me the "Cat Whisperer." She had Kittens #3 and #5 with no problems, but Kitten #4 was breech and gave her trouble. After she tried 3 times to have it, I finally stepped in and helped her by pulling it out. All in all it was a neat experience to share with the kids. We were all sad that Kent missed out on it.