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If you happen to be one of my Facebook friends, you will already know that I not only love cats, but I have had my share of cats as well. Cats have been a part of my life... More

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Bill Kochman

August 15, 2021 10:32 pm

THE ONGOING SAGA OF BILL’s “REVOLVING FELINE HOSPITAL” Dear friends, while some of this will be a recap of things I have shared in previous posts and videos, I wanted to give an explanation and an up... View MoreTHE ONGOING SAGA OF BILL’s “REVOLVING FELINE HOSPITAL” Dear friends, while some of this will be a recap of things I have shared in previous posts and videos, I wanted to give an explanation and an update to those of you who may be more recent friends of mine, and who may be a little confused regarding how many cats I actually have. This post will also contain the latest news about OB, Mischief and their nine kittens. First of all, no, I don’t really run a feline hospital. It just seems like I do, due to all of the cats I have taken care of since November of 2020. So let’s begin. On November 7, 2020, I took in a few-months-old kitten who I eventually named “Mischief”, which is a name which she rightly deserved, as time would eventually reveal. Mischief belonged to a litter of four kittens who were born under the stairwell in our apartment complex. Their mother was a stray, black female cat, or queen. By the way, here on Guam, we refer to neighborhood stray cats as “boonie cats”. We likewise have “boonie dogs” … lots of them. When the kittens were at best 2-3 months old, the landlord took away both the parents, as well as their litter. I was told that they were taken to a farm to help take care of the brown tree snakes. However, as I explained in my “The Story of Mischief” post quite some time ago, what the landlord failed to realize is that he had missed one of the female black kittens. About two days after the feline family had been taken away, I heard the most pitiful, little meow coming out of the nearby bushes. Of course, it was very hungry and very dehydrated Mischief. While I initially fed her outside at first, that little girl quickly grabbed my heart, and I officially took her into my home on November 7, 2020. So, Mischief grew up in my home from a very young age. Despite all of her shennanigans, we grew very close, and she would sleep in my bed quite often, sometimes on my chest. The next major development occurred on April 8, 2021. There was another black, female cat outside, who I would eventually name “Obsidian”. Obsidian — or OB, as I call her for short — was in a very advanced state of pregnancy from one of the neighborhood tomcats who I call “Whitey”, because he is pretty much all white, and quite the chunky guy. Living as a boonie cat can be a pretty rough life. Unless the neighbors have compassion on them and feed them, boonies survive on whatever they can catch, such as lizards, moths, praying mantises, katydids and other bugs. Just as I had shown Mischief compassion when she was a young kitten, I chose to do the same thing with Obsidian. I didn’t really want her having her litter outside where some of them might not survive. So, on April 8, 2021, I took her in as well … and boy was my timing perfect! Five days later on April 13, 2021, OB gave birth to a litter of four kittens underneath my bed. Because OB is all black, while Whitey is all white, the four kittens — who I would eventually call the “Gang of Four” — turned out to be tabbies, with black spots on their lighter-colored bellies. I would eventually call the only female in the litter “Prima”, because she was the first kitten to climb out of the birthing box. As it turned out, all was not well in Bill’s Revolving Feline Hospital. You see, from the day that I first invited Obsidian into my home, she and Mischief just did not get along. I mean they were downright hostile to each other, and got into some serious but short-lived cat fights. But something else was happening at the same time. Mischief’s female hormones were activating, and she was going nuts because she wanted me to let her go outside so that she could mate. I mean she was climbing the front door, all the way to the top, because she was so desperate to get outside. Well, after watching the hostility between OB and Mischief for a few days, I realized that it just wasn’t going to work out to have them both in the house at the same time. One or both of them was eventually going to get seriously hurt. So, between that, and the fact that Mischief was dying to go outside anyway, even though it really broke my heart, I gave Mischief her desire, and I let her return to her previous life outside as a boonie cat. She had been with me for five months by this time, she had matured with me, and as I said, we were very close. It was like losing a human child. This happened just a few days after Obsidian’s litter was born in April. So, for the next few months, I enjoyed watching OB’s kittens grow. OB was an excellent mother, and watching the Gang of Four play with each other and romp around the house, really brought me a lot of joy. During this period — and as I continue to do to this very day — I was also feeding Mischief and the other cats outside. This included Grump, Charcoal, Whitey, Tiny and any other stray cat which might sneak up for a bite to eat by my door. Then the next development occurred. While I was always trying to be careful, when the Gang of Four were not quite two months old, OB quickly dashed out of the house while I was putting food outside for Mischief and the other outdoor cats. I knew that she still longed for her outdoor life. I mean, she had carried her litter for two months, and then she had nursed them in my home for two months. So, I think she was yearning for a breather. So, I started letting OB go outside whenever I fed the outdoor cats. However, I kept the Gang of Four inside, because they weren’t even a full two months old, and they were not yet ready to experience outdoor life with all of the larger cats around. Of course, after being out there for an hour or more, Obsidian would always come back inside, because she knew that she still had a litter to care for. Earlier I mentioned Grump. He is an adult, scarred, black tomcat who has been in his share of fights. I named him Grump because even though he enjoys eating the food I leave out every day, even after a number of months, he still doesn’t fully trust me, and will back away from me, or even hiss at me on occasions. Well, Grump and Obsidian have always gotten along, and he may even be the father of some of OB’s previous litters before I took her into my home. He also has a strong libido, and is always after the girls. As it turns out, after two months of being pregnant and then nursing her litter for two more months, Obsidian was ready to lay in the hay again, and that is exactly what those two did … right by my front door. So, on June 9, 2021, OB became pregnant again. This time by Grump, and not by Whitey. That is in fact how I was able to estimate OB’s due date to be August 10-15, being as feline gestation is about 60-65 days … and she was right on target, as you will see momentarily. Well, with Mischief being outside, I knew that she too would become pregnant for the first time soon enough. It took about a month longer than I expected, but by July 17, 2021, Mischief was in quite an advanced state of pregnancy. As I mentioned earlier, Obsidian and Mischief did not get along from day one. Surprisingly, they are the only two that don’t. In fact, Mischief was very much afraid of OB, and apparently understood her intentions long before I did. During the time when they were in the house together previously, Mischief would growl whenever OB would get near her. So I erroneously assumed that she was the aggressor, even though OB is older, bigger and stronger than her. I mean, OB knew the tough, outdoor life, and knew how to fend off other cats, while Mischief had been raised inside with me for five months since she had been a kitten. But then my eyes were opened when I caught OB stalking Mischief, and aggressively going after her and trying to pick a fight with her. I think that is why Mischief would growl at OB. At any rate, as I was saying, by the third week of July 2021, Mischief was outside and quite pregnant. As I had done with her the first time around when she was a kitten, and then with pregnant OB as well, I really wanted to bring her back inside so that she could have her first litter in a safe, quiet place. But the problem was that she was still very much afraid of OB, and refused to even step into the house. So about the second week of July 2021, I decided to slowly coax Mischief back into the house by using a well-known feline weakness against her. That’s right, folks! No cat can refuse a freshly opened can of tuna! Nya-ah-ah! ? Thus, little by little, I used Mischief’s love of tuna to slowly bribe her, until she finally had the confidence to come into the house and walk into the kitchen to eat. Finally, on July 17, 2021, I closed the door behind her, and once again she was an indoor cat. But don’t think it was easy. I had Mischief inside again, but she and Obsidian were far from bosom buddies. The hostility and mistrust between them was still there. I had to work to try to bring some level of peace between them. One thing I did was to start leaving both the kitchen and the bathroom lights on at night. That way, if one or both of them went out to eat in the kitchen, or to use the litter box in the bathroom, they wouldn’t surprise each other in the dark and get into a cat fight. Something else I did was to scold OB whenever she appeared to be ready to run after and attack Mischief. I wanted to make it clear to her that such behavior was simply not acceptable. She eventually came to understand this. After getting Mischief back into the house, the first three nights were the hardest. For me personally, it was like walking on egg shells, just never knowing when OB and Mischief might go at each other, and even worse, possibly hurt each other. After all, they do have very sharp claws. There were some angry growls and quick, loud challenges during those first few nights, which I was concerned might bother the neighbors. However, eventually they settled into this state of low-key aggression and tolerance of each other. Mischief would still growl if OB got too close to her, but there were few paws extended with sharp claws ready to strike. Regarding OB’s four kittens, Mischief didn’t care for them either at first, and she would warn them to stay away with a low growl. However, she gradually came to accept them to a certain degree. Ten days after I brought Mischief back into the house, she had her first litter of five kittens on July 27, 2021, under my bed against the wall. As you will recall, OB had likewise given birth under my bed five days after I had brought her into the house, over three months earlier. Then the next important development occurred. By this time, OB’s kittens — the Gang of Four — were exactly fifteen weeks old … and some of them had plans of their own. You won’t believe what they did! To my surprise, some of OB’s kittens started stealing Mischief’s newborn kittens from underneath the bed, and then carrying them out to the living room in order to play with them! What?! ? Of course, aside from the stress and problem that this would cause for Mischief, I was also concerned that OB’s kittens might get too rough and hurt the newborns. By this time, I had already made the decision to put the Gang of Four outside when they were 16 weeks old. At fifteen weeks old, they were already weaned and doing well on solid food and water. But because of the problem with them stealing Mischief’s kittens, I was forced to make a quick, tactical decision, and so I moved the four kittens outside a week earlier than expected. This was on July 27, 2021, the same day that Mischief’s kittens were born. Oh well! As I had been with Mischief when she was a kitten and growing up, the Gang of Four and I have also been very close. So, it should come as no surprise that they were not happy with suddenly being put outside. Oh how they have whined to be let back in again over the past 19 days, even repeatedly climbing the screen door. To say the least, it has been hard on my heart, and there is a tinge of guilt. But what could I do, given the situation? Thankfully, they have begun to settle down some, and have pretty much accepted their outdoor life now. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I feed them well everyday, and I make sure that they have plenty of water. I also go outside when I can and give them love and attention so that they know that they are still very special to me. As I mentioned in previous posts, they also have the original water-proofed birthing box out there with a soft towel in it, so that they can get some protection from the rain. We are in the middle of our rainy season right now. So, with the Gang of Four outside over the past nineteen days, that has just left OB and Mischief in the house, along with Mischief’s five 18-day-old kittens. One other thing which I have been doing to force OB and Mischief to trust each other more, and to get along, is that I have been feeding them their daily ration of chicken breast in a small enough container so that they are forced to be head-to-head. It has been pretty successful. Sometimes they will eat the chicken together with zero aggression between them, while at other times one will wait for the other to finish eating first. One other thing worth mentioning is the fact that the closer OB got to her delivery date, the more moody she became. In fact, she became absolutely hostile towards her previous litter. That is, to the Gang of Four. Whenever I would open the front door to feed the Gang of Four and the other outdoor cats, OB would just start screeching and growling at her four kittens through the screen door. In fact, sometimes, even after I closed the front door, she would still be growling and upset for a few minutes. I think she was even mad at me, because on one occasion a few days ago, she even scratched my hand. And that brings us to the latest news, which as you will already know from my previous post about six hours ago, is that OB gave birth to four kittens during about a two hour and fifteen minute period, during the night of August 15, 2021, beginning at about 8:45 PM. But as I said earlier, it was NOT as I expected it to be, and I was quite surprised by the way that it happened. As I related earlier, OB had her first two kittens under the bed, as she lay right next to Mischief. In fact, Mischief’s kittens were crawling all over OB, and even nursing from her, as she gave birth! Not only that, but Mischief was helping to clean OB’s newborns, and letting them nurse from her! But the strangeness does not end there by any means. Right in the middle of her delivery cycle, OB went out from under my bed, and went into the birthing box in the living room. So, as I mentioned previously, I carried her two kittens which were under the bed, to the birthing box. After that, Obsidian gave birth to two more kittens in the birthing box, making four in all, just like last time. Now here is a piece of crazy feline news I haven’t shared yet with anyone, because it happened about three hours after I made my last post on Facebook. At 2:20 AM Monday morning — or about three hours and twenty minutes after the last kitten was born, I heard one of the kittens squealing loudly under the bed. So, I grabbed my flashlight and got out of bed to investigate. Mischief and her five kittens looked fine and peaceful. I think one of her kittens just stirred and squealed because it couldn’t breast feed. So then I went to check on OB and her four kittens in the birthing box in the living room! WHAT?! Obsidian was nowhere in sight, and two of her kittens were missing from the box! So, I went back into my bedroom and used my flashlight to check more carefully underneath the bed. Lo and behold! There was Obsidian with her head resting on Mischief! Remember; these two queens have hated each other’s guts, yet there they were together! Well, I went back out into the living room, and a few minutes later, OB came out, grabbed newborn #3 from inside the birthing box, and carried it back under the bed. I waited for a while to see if she was going to come for #4 as well. Maybe she just didn’t realize that it was still out there, so I picked it up and took it to her in the bedroom. She picked it up and carried it back under the bed with the other three newborns. So this is just one crazy feline scene which I would have never imagined happening. I honestly don’t know how OB and Mischief are going to work this out between themselves. It will be interesting to say the least. Well, it is now just after 7:00 AM Monday, August 16th here, and about eight hours after the last of the four kittens were born. I have been up all night, checking on the cats and kittens, reading a bit of news, and writing this story. I was just out in the kitchen feeding OB and Mischief their daily ration of chicken breast. While they were eating, I went into the bedroom to check on the status of the kittens. All nine of them — Mischief’s 5 and OB’s 4 newborns — were all piled together sleeping peacefully. Obsidian’s four are definitely all light gray at the moment, but that could change in the future. As I said, I don’t know how OB and Mischief are going to work this out between themselves, particularly when it comes to nursing the two mixed up litters. Well, OB may have just answered that question for me. Just a few minutes ago, she came back into the bedroom and plopped herself right on top of the pile of kittens, so that BOTH litters are nursing from her … well at least the ones that were able to get to the source, if you know what I mean. Actually, I was going to use the correct “n” word, but then I realized that Facebook’s stupid algorithms might misinterpret it as me saying something nasty, and slap my wrist, delete my post, or throw me in jail. ? Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Mischief reacts when she sees that all of her kittens are nursing on OB. But one of my other concerns is whether or not the four newborns will get enough milk, considering that Mischief’s five kittens are 19 days older, and considerably bigger … like three times bigger! It is amazing how fast they grow at this stage of their life. By the way, I was going to try to make a quick, short video of the nine kittens piled up on top of each other, but then OB came in and covered up some of them with her body; so the video will have to wait until sometime later. Before I conclude this story, here is one more interesting development. As I mentioned earlier, as the day of her delivery approached, OB became more emotional, and more aggressive towards her previous litter — the Gang of Four — to the point of displaying outright hostility towards them through the screen door. Well, last night, after OB had finished giving birth, I opened the front door in order to feed the Gang of Four and the other outdoor cats and kittens. As she always does, Obsidian walked over to the door. However, this time, she displayed absolutely no hostility towards her four kittens. This morning, about forty minutes ago, after feeding OB and Mischief, I likewise gave the Gang of Four their ration of chicken breast mixed with dry food. Once again, OB walked over to the screen door and displayed zero hostility towards her four kittens. So, maybe her hostility was just a temporary emotional thing due to the fact that she was soon to give birth, and she was simply in protective mode as her delivery date grew closer. Who knows. Well, this story has grown quite long, but I hope you cat lovers enjoyed reading it. I will also be posting it on my Christian Social Network in “The Cat Lovers Club” group. That’s about it! Feel free to leave your comments in the comment section below. Thanks!

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Bill Kochman