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I am so very sorry to tell you that at 1:15 on Saturday morning, Natalie passed away.
October 21, 2023 – August 17, 2024.
This post details what exactly happened in the time leading up to that; it might be difficult to read (I know it will be difficult to write), so if you’d rather just look at the pictures and call it a day, I completely understand.
Natalie went into labor around 6 pm. I could tell right away that she was having contractions, and I was prepared to do whatever she wanted – some laboring cats want company, and some want to be left alone. She went into the crate and stayed for a while, but when I got up to leave the room, she came right out of the crate and tried to follow me out the door, scolding me the entire way.
So I stayed.
She eventually came out of the crate and joined me on the couch. I thought maybe she would have her kittens on my lap, so I put some washable pads on my lap and cuddled her. She stayed in my lap for a while, then wanted to be between my legs and the back of the couch for a couple of hours. And then she moved around the room.
She hung out in the loaf pan for a bit.
She snoozed on top of the crate for a while.
Then she returned to the crate and stayed there.
She was very clear that she wanted me in the room, and not only in the room but right next to the crate. She didn’t want to be petted, she just wanted me there for company. If I moved, she’d open her eyes and look at me to be sure I wasn’t going anywhere.
I tried not to move too much.
Close to midnight the contractions intensified, she started pushing, and at 12:15, she gave birth to a perfect brown tabby boy.
She cleaned him and then cleaned herself, and they curled up together.
She left the crate to drink some water and use the litter box, and I took advantage of that to change out the soiled bedding.
The kitten – who I have named Carmy – nursed well.
Around 2 AM, she started having contractions again. She wanted me in the room still, so I stayed. It seemed as though every time she was going to start pushing, the contractions would kind of stall out, and she would snooze for a while.
I finally decided that this was going nowhere and it was time for a vet. I got her to the vet’s office as soon as they opened – I kept Carmy with her, because I could see that she took comfort from him – and they took them back and said that they’d call when they had news. So I came home and straightened up the foster room and focused on things I needed to do for the Forgotten Felines auction, and waited…
In the early afternoon, Michelle called. They had done a c-section on Natalie. She had one single kitten inside, and though it had a heartbeat at first, it passed away shortly after they pulled it out. That kitten weighed nearly 1 pound.
A normal newborn kitten weighs 1.8–5.3 ounces (50–150 grams). Carmy weighed a perfectly normal 3.8 ounces (109 grams) when he was born. The kitten that she had still inside her was the size of a 1 month old kitten. There was no way she could have delivered him.
So when the vet said that she was “ready to pop” a month ago, that was because they could see a full-term kitten. But for some reason she just never went into labor, and that kitten grew and grew. Cats can get pregnant at different times, which is what the vet theorized had happened here. She would have had to be halfway through her pregnancy with that kitten when she got pregnant with Carmy.
While they were doing the c-section, they spayed her. After some recovery time, they said that I could come get her – and Carmy – and so I picked them up and brought them home. We were home by mid-afternoon, and while Natalie was wobbly, she was able to climb into and use the litter box, and then drink some water. She curled up in one of the pie plates and stayed there. I checked on her frequently, and at one point put Carmy in next to her. He climbed all over her, but she wasn’t really responding to him, so I put him into the crate and left her in peace. She seemed okay – very muted, let me pet her but didn’t really respond it, but she’d had a big surgery and a lot to recover from.
I kept checking on her through the evening, and I started feeling that something just wasn’t right. I talked to Michelle, discussed it with Fred – she’d been through a big surgery, recovering from something like that can be really hard, was it just normal recovery, or was it something more? Finally, I said “I’d rather get her to the emergency vet and find out she’s stable than not take her and be wrong.” So we packed her up, packed up supplies for Carmy (who was in a separate carrier), and headed to the emergency vet.
What I really wanted to hear was that she was stable, that she was recovering fine and that it would just take time. The first thing they noticed was that her temperature was low, so they covered her in warm blankets and rice socks (socks filled with rice and warmed in the microwave.) They did an exam, took blood, and did an ultrasound. The bloodwork showed that she was slightly anemic, and the ultrasound showed nothing concerning. The most important thing to do, they said, was to get her body temperature up. They gave her warm sub-q fluids, and then we headed home with her (and Carmy).
When we got home, I wiped the ultrasound gel off her belly and wiped her feet, and then she meowed and stiffened and had what looked very much like a seizure. We put her in the crate and I watched over her while Fred called the emergency vet. As he talked to the vet, Natalie seemed to come out of it – I was petting her, and she blinked when my hand was near her eyes. The vet said to keep an eye on her and see if it happened again. We got her on the warming pad, covered her with a warm towel, and then Fred – who was exhausted – went to bed to try to sleep.
I fed Carmy, and then went to check on Natalie. I don’t think it had been even ten minutes since I’d left the room, but when I bent down to look at her, it was clear that she was gone.
I think that it was all just too much for her tiny body, the whole experience, the surgery. I obviously never expected this outcome and it keeps hitting me when I least expect it.
I wish that I knew her story, how she ended up on someone’s doorstep looking for help. She had clearly been around people before, she was too friendly not to have been. It seemed to never occur to her for one moment that I wouldn’t love her.
I did, I do, wholeheartedly.
I take comfort in knowing that during the nearly 4 weeks she was with us, she was so loved. I spoiled her rotten – so much Churu! – I snuggled her as much as she wanted to be snuggled, and I just showered her with love every single day. That’s my job as a foster, you know? I loved her so much. She was the sweetest, she put up with my nonsense so patiently, she was perfect.
I love her, and I think she knew that. I hope she did. I miss her so much.
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Currently, I am bottle feeding Carmy. Eventually, we will find friends for him, or a nursing mother with a litter who will take him . He needs to not be an only kitten, and of course we’ll take steps to make that happen, but I need a little time. For now, he’s eating great and doing well.
Natalie is buried in our back yard under a beautiful rose bush; Fred buried her first thing Saturday morning. We didn’t think about the fact that they could have performed a necropsy on her to find out exactly what had happened, and by the time Michelle mentioned it, it was too late. We’ll know better next time.(I sincerely hope that there is never a “next time.”)
I know that some people are curious why Natalie wasn’t spayed. Forgotten Felines prefers not to spay-abort when cats are close to giving birth. At the time we took her, as you’ll recall, we were told that she would have her kittens at any moment. Now we know that that’s because they saw a full-term kitten inside her.
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The Forgotten Felines of Huntsville online auction ended Saturday, and I am focusing on that a lot for the next few days. So there will likely be no posts until, at the very soonest, Thursday. I may post a little on social media, but I am taking a minute to focus on wrapping up the auction and then taking a breath.
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Posted on social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr) this weekend.
Natalie is just the sweetest poser.
I am heartbroken to tell you that in the very early hours of this morning, Natalie passed away. There’s a lot more to the story and I will post it in the blog when I can but right now I just can’t believe that she’s gone.
She leaves behind one tiny, perfect brown tabby boy.
Thank you all so very much for your kind words and thoughts about the loss of Natalie. I am still planning to put up a post about what exactly happened, but the Forgotten Felines of Huntsville auction just ended and my time and energy is being taken up with that right now, so I hope you’ll be patient with me. (To be honest, focusing on the auction is helping a LOT.) Natalie’s kitten, Carmy, is doing very well; he’s thriving, he has OPINIONS, and he is gaining weight. I will give him a million kisses for you all.
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Previously
2023: No entry.
2022: Mike’s expression as he gazes out at the big wide world is KILLING me.
2021: “My butt is CLEAN, you don’t gotta keep looking at it!”
2020: There was a kitten gathering, and when d’Artagnan decided he had better places to be, Aramis gave him the ol’ chomperoo on the butt.
2019: Fleur the cutie.
2018: I was weighing kittens, and my assistant Calais decided it was time to do a little filing.
2017: No entry.
2016: Okay, how many kitten-in-the-sun pictures am I going to post?
2015: Gracie.
2014: Then when he saw that it was just me, he gave me the blinkity-blink Eyes of Love, and went back to sleep.
2013: I don’t know what got Norbie all perturbed, but his expression is cracking me UP.
2012: No entry.
2011: “This platform is too smaaaaaall, and everyone keeps trying to cram themselves on the platform wiiiiiiith me, and I don’t liiiiiike it!”
2010: Comfy, are we, Marty?
2009: “HI lady. You got snacks for me?”
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: We came back ten minutes later, and this is what we saw.