Mitzi and Trixie, our two sister kittens, are about a year old, as I mentioned last week. And they were also recently pregnant. I say “were”, because both of them gave birth to three beautiful kittens each, within the span of a few days, this past week. You can read the details below, or you can watch a video I’ve put together which includes footage of all six kittens, as well as Mitzi’s birth. If you’re not comfortable watching a live animal birth, then please don’t watch past the first segment of the video.

Given that cat pregnancies last about 65 days, I’m guessing they each met their prince charming sometime in early to mid-March. By looking at the kittens, we can tell Mitzi’s tomcat was striped, and Trixie’s tomcat was black. And we pretty much know who they are, since we saw two tomcats matching that description prowling around our garden these past few months.

Trixie’s tomcat resembled Felix, our own boy wonder. He was all black, except for white socks on his paws and a white-tipped tail. Mitzi’s tomcat was a fairly fierce striped tomcat, quite a large and strong fellow. I think Mitzi prefers striped cats, like her. She doesn’t like Felix very much, although he gets along great with Trixie.

Trixie gave birth first, last Sunday night, on May 16th — the night between Saturday and Sunday of last week. She hid in the cellar, where she found a nice, clean box and she managed quite nicely by herself. In the morning, she showed up for food, minus the big belly. We looked for the kittens but didn’t know where they were until she led me to them. What a relief when we found them! We took the box and Trixie and put them in a nice, quiet storage room next to our house, where she could nurse them in peace.

When we checked the kittens, we discovered she’d given birth to two tomcats who resembled their father, and a striped kitten whose color doesn’t match hers or Mitzi’s or her mother’s, so it’s possible that she may have mated with two tomcats — perhaps even Mitzi’s tomcat.

Mitzi gave birth last Thursday, on May 20th, between 3-4 pm and 8-9 pm. The poor thing was so scared she wanted us to be with her, so she kept hanging around us, and refused to go into labor until we sat down with her. We prepared a fresh box for her, we laid it with some old but soft chair padding, and stood by. She had a really hard time. Her beautiful yellow eyes became red because of the pain. Her water broke, then she had numerous contractions, and was literally writhing in pain inside the box. She lost quite a bit of blood during the birth, but we’re thankful that she’s fully recovered now.

Like Trixie, she gave birth to three beautiful kittens: two boys and one girl, all of them striped all over. The two boys are shades of brown, beige and black, and the kitten has gorgeous white and beige stripes.

We took her and the kittens, and put them in the same room as Trixie. They’re sisters, and they’ve always been close. Even now, when they both have litters, they comfort each other, and will even check on each other’s kittens. We took one of Trixie’s kittens and put it in Mitzi’s box, and she immediately started to groom him, then let him suckle. We’re confident that should anything happen to either mother, the other will take in the orphaned litter and grow them as her own.

If you want to see just how close they are, I’ll soon post a video of the two comforting each other while they were still pregnant. Neither I nor Ligia have ever seen two cats remain as close as they are, even while they’re all grown up.

If you’re in Romania and would like to adopt one of the kittens, let us know. They’ll be ready in a couple of months. I already know it’ll be very hard for us to give them up, but since we already have four cats (Mitzi, Trixie, Felix and Sasha), we’ll need to find new homes for the kittens. Should no takers come forward, it’ll still be no problem at all. There’s a very popular pet store in Sibiu where kittens sell like hotcakes. That’s where we got Sasha as a matter of fact. I’m not kidding you, a whole litter of ’em will be gone in a few hours. It’s in a busy shopping mall, and people just can’t seem to resist free kittens. Yep, the store doesn’t actually sell them, it gives them away after they’ve been checked by a vet. I tell you, when you see an eager young kitten playing around with its brothers and sisters in that store window, you just gotta walk in and ask for one or even two. They’re irresistible! 🙂

While they grow up, I’ll be sure to take lots of photos and video. It’ll be a very, very playful summer for us with six kittens around!