Day 2 - Piper is okay, Nature's tragedy

Taken at a later time after posting today.

Before I begin this post, I'd like to say that my sweet little Piper is doing fine. She is sitting on my lap as I type. Unfortunately last night around 3:30 am, we had a very upsetting thing happen. Piper miscarried her babies and they all died. She's recovering from the tragedy well, she's curled up on my lap. I have to stop every other sentence to pet her. Let me start from early this morning.


I woke up at 3:30 am on Monday morning 3/14/11 to Piper digging in the litter box. I was glad she used it, but it was smelly. I went to the bathroom, got back into bed and she came up and curled up on the bed. She seemed discontent and moved to the other side of me, on top of my pillow. She got down and started rooting around, in a corner behind my basket of magazines. She was digging around and I thought that I needed to just move them and she would curl up and sleep there. But then something clicked in my brain. She was restless and seemed to be "nesting" in the corner. Both signs of labor. I got up, turned on the light and looked down in the corner. I noticed she was cleaning, licking and eating something. It was brown. I thought she had pooped on the floor and was trying to bury it. But something didn't seem right.


I went to get my mom and told her Piper was hiding and trying to eat something but I didn't know what it was. Mom took one look and all I had to ask was, "Is she delivering?" My mom nodded and went to get my dad. Piper was aborting her babies. Only 40 days along, she was barely half way through her pregnancy and still had weeks to go. Both my dad and I had read about cat labor online and knew that the signs were right and she was having her babies too early. Unfortunately, unlike human babies who are born premature, these fetuses had not developed and were dead.


We made Piper as warm as possible, heating up blankets and towels to keep her warm and help her through the labor. We consulted a friend who has dealt with numerous cat labors and did quick research on the Internet. It seemed that Piper was going to have all of the babies right then and there.


The labor process took until 5:30 am, 2 hours from the starting point. It was devastating to see Piper trying to do exactly what a mother needed to do to help her kittens after labor. Not having been experienced with cat labor before, we had trouble distinguishing what was what. You think it would be pretty obvious, but the fetuses were barely formed which made it hard to figure it out. She ate and drank a little bit while she was in labor. Once she was done, she got up onto my bed and curled up. She continued to purr, as she had during the whole labor.


Piper was exhausted from two hours of labor. I have no idea if it was painful for her, but she was a great mother, even though she miscarried. She is as sweet as can be. She curled up with me as I tried to fall back asleep around 6 am, not being successful until 7 am. The whole thing was gut wrenching. The most important thing for everyone was that Piper was okay. She was and continues to be.


This blog was meant to tell the tales of our first pregnant cat fostering. Even though she lost the kittens, I plan on continuing this blog because Piper is an extraordinary cat. She continues to the absolute most loving cat. Please check back to her on her progress!