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. Continue reading →