Queen of spayeds

When is a spayed not a spayed?

When you bring her home from the shelter as a happy little 'spayed' adoptee and find out she's really a queen, giving birth to 2 kittens 55 days later.

This first photo is Heidi, just getting to know her new home in late February. We were told she was heavily matted and flea ridden when she was relinquished by her previous owners, so Animal Control had her shaved prior to adoption.

While I have owned cats most of my life, I have never owned a pregnant one. Most of the cats throughout my life have been rescues and are usually spayed or neutered when they arrive in their new home or shortly thereafter. Nothing different about this last adoption, we picked up 2 cats to add to our cat friendly household. Both are Persian - a 1 year old male and a 1 1/2 year old female. It was noted the male was not neutered so we got that taken care of within the week. It was noted the female was de-clawed and spayed so she got a basic check up with our vet.

About 4 weeks into getting to know our new additions, I noticed slight changes in the female. Specifically her nipples seemed to be getting a little bigger. I wondered if she had delivered a litter of kittens before she had been 'dropped off' (in the night box no less) at animal care & control . She is also 4 paw de-clawed and by my way of reasoning I thought for sure any owner that would put a cat through that kind of torture would have them spayed right??? And certainly the vets at animal control would know if a female had been spayed? I had to be imagining things. I tried not to let my mind run wild with the 'what ifs'.

She is a small cat anyway - 6 pounds when we brought her home. It was obvious by last week that her sides were bulging out a bit more than would be probable, even after a big meal. She had also become obsessive about being with her humans and oh so affectionate in the last few days. Since we have other cats (3 being male) we closed her off in her own room so as not to feel threatened by the others - not that they are threatening, but they are curious and they all know something is happening.

Late last night her hard contractions started. Her little nose squished up and she cried when the contractions were really strong - I stayed with her, but realized she was in distress with the first kitten as it was taking far to long and as much as she pushed it didn't seem much was happening. About 45 minutes after her hard contractions started, her first little kitten came into the world, a little black tabby - still born. Rather than re-live that sadness, I'd rather focus on the happiness... she had another little one not long after the first one and this one is snow white and appears to be quite healthy. It's been about 12 hours now so I'm assuming she's all done, but I know kittens have been spaced as far apart as 36 hours. Heidi is a wonderful little mother seemingly wrapping her little baby up in furry hugs every chance she gets, it is so much fun to watch.

How does all this relate to beading??? I haven't any spare time to bead!