Samantha came back today!
More about Samantha below.
But first about Little Riley. I’ve established a rule with Little Riley now. If she wants canned food, she has to come into the house.
And yes, she WANTS canned food now that she finally knows what canned food tastes like!
But typical of all females, she is still very wary of humans. When she is terribly hungry, she has let me touch her a few times while she comes really near me waiting for kibble. But when inside the house, no, she runs off when I approach. So it’s going to take some time getting her to let me go close enough.
I could try the carrier-and-ribbon trick (which worked even for the most militant cats like Mr Quack and Mr Zurik), but I’d rather not for Little Riley. She will feel tricked just as Mr Quack and Mr Zurik did.
And then, surprise…!! Samantha is back!
She definitely still looks pregnant but not as heavy as two days ago. Could she have given birth to 1-2 kittens and there are still some more inside? I know this happens sometimes – a lapse of 24 hours between births. But she looks as fit as a fiddle, not in any pain or distress at all. I don’t know where her kittens are, but I assume they must be at home or somewhere safe.
Samantha came to eat and then, went away.
It’s not usual for the belly to still be big after a cat has given birth (unlike humans), but I just checked online and that too can happen to some cats.
I don’t think it’s a case of obstructed labour too because if that happened, Samantha would be in distress. We rescued a cat in obstructed labour before. I named her Joanie, a very young first-time mother-cat. Her labour was obstructed for 2 whole weeks and her feeder did not bother until after 2 weeks to casually call me to tell me (Yes, I have no words to describe such a feeder, truly). We rushed there, found Joanie ice-cold by the side of the road, rushed her to the vet’s (almost closing time). The vets said there was no way Joanie can be saved and even if they tried, she might already have brain damage as there were clear signs of sepsis and putrefaction, but we said to try anyway. Two vets operated on her, removed the 3 decomposed foetuses (the first one was trying to be born, but got obstructed and had already decomposed to bone sticking out of her vaginal opening), the insides of Joanie was already gaseous, there was hardly anything left to suture, so the vet sutured her with some fat. Thank goodness he was an extremely experienced Malaysian vet (but he left the country soon after, migrated to Africa). The assisting vet (a most wonderful person) has also left the profession now. Believe it or not, Joanie survived the ordeal. I went to look after her every day at the clinic and took her home after 4 days. Her feeder didn’t want her anymore. As Joanie was recovering, she escaped from my house. I couldn’t catch her back but I did see her in the neighbourhood. You can wordsearch “Joanie” on this blog for all her stories. That was way back in August 2009.
So when people tell me I have no right to interfere with Nature and that I should let animals breed or that I have no right to encourage the neutering of street animals, I want to ask them if they have seen a young first-time animal trying to give birth but failing to do so (this is obstructed labour and in humans, it is fatal).
Some photos of Joanie, from August 2009:
