Lucky

This little girl in the last picture is "Tails"

**I'm a ROCK STAR**

I'm not normally one to brag. The fact is, I haven't done that many cool things in my life. I haven't done much to "save the world" (although I have lots of ideas!!) and almost all the things I imagined myself accomplishing by 30 have gotten lost somewhere along the way - but I LOVE raising my kids, so that's all OK. Anyway, last week I was a ROCK STAR! Nope, no joke.

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About 9 weeks ago a very emaciated, sickly looking, flea infested cat (could it have been the warm winter keeping those little buggers alive?) adopted us by hanging out on our deck, swishing between our legs, and winning our hearts. We took her in, de-fleaed her, bathed her a million times... she even had a lollipop stick stuck in her fur!! We named her Lucky because we felt pretty lucky that she chose us. She is absolutely the sweetest, most gentle and laid back cat I've ever met. She's just the addition our family needed:-)

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Well.... when we went to see the vet, it turned out that Lucky had already gotten "lucky" with a tom cat and was pregnant. I didn't think there was much hope. She was soooo skinny. But, we fed her the premium over-priced food, gave her vitamins, and supplemental kitten formula to help with milk production. (Did you know that stuff costs more than real baby formula?)

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When labor time came along over Feb. vacation, there was a problem. If a kitten has a broken sac or is lodged in the birth canal for more than 10 minutes, it's at risk of dieing. The first kitten had a broken sac and her tail was cold and hanging out of the birth canal for more than 40 minutes!! I thought for sure she was dead. Since I was in the bedroom doing Lamaze breathing with Lucky in her nest, I called Chris for internet tech support. Following his directions, I waited for a good contraction, and then used sterile gauze to "grasp, rotate, and pull in the direction of Lucky's hind legs." After successfully pulling the kitten out by her tail, and realizing she was cold and still, I then roughed her up with a washcloth, sucked the fluid out of her nose and mouth using a baby sucker, and even breathed little breaths in to her face and gently pushed on her chest. I did "kitty CPR" and it worked!! She started breathing and crying in a few minutes!! Her name, of course, is Tails.

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The next two came uneventfully, with just a little help from me, but by the last one, our teenage mother cat was tired and her mothering instincts still weren't fully developed because she's so young. She just popped out number four, the orange boy, and left him alone in his sac. I got him out, roughed him up a little, and then convinced Lucky to finish her job. It's been a week now, and Lucky has learned to be a great mother after much tutoring (For example, we had to lead her back to the nest repeatedly to nurse because she felt like going outside to play once she was "lighter" and able to run again!) All four kittens are thriving and have doubled their birth weight. It looks like they are all going to make it:-)

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So yeah, there was a time before kids when I wanted to go to medical school. But I got to play animal obstetrician and do CPR on a 4 oz. kitten in front of my kids. How cool is that? For me - much cooler than going to med school and probably missing out on having kids, or getting to spend very little time with them. I was just looking at our thriving little bundle of kittens and thinking about my kids, and I realized (again) that I didn't give up any of my dreams by having children early. I just changed my dreams. I'm not missing out on anything. Sometimes I get down and think I'm not living the life I once imagined for myself, but then little things remind me that at 18 I could never have imagined how much my family would mean to me, and how much joy my children would bring to my life. That doesn't mean I won't continue to pursue my own educational and career dreams in the future, when my twinkies get older and go to kindergarten. But... it does mean that I'm happy right now to be a stay at home mom and a kitty saving rock star:-)