Written by Chelsea Templeton
Somehow…some way…our cat Buttercup escaped to the outside world this Spring and became pregnant soon thereafter. We did not find out about the predicament until we came home from a family vacation. Her normal form is thin and petite; she’s all legs. When we returned home, her massively round stomach was a telltale sign of these incoming tiny new lives.
On July 18, Buttercup disappeared. All day I worried about her, fearing for the life of her kittens if she had snuck back outside and were to have them there. July in Dallas is HOT. Surprisingly, she reappeared right around dinner time, belly as thin as before. She had her kittens! But where? After the kids went to bed, Matt and I searched for them for over an hour. At last, Buttercup gave up her hiding place—tucked away in a drawer. (I’ll spare you the details, it wasn’t pretty.) Six perfectly adorable kittens! It’s typical for a cat’s first litter to be somewhere between 2-4 kittens. She had SIX: five boys and one girl. We noticed that three looked very different from the other three. Apparently, cats can get pregnant with multiple litters at the same time. (Poor Buttercup…)
For the next few weeks she would move her kittens multiple times a day. Sweet BC lost a ton of hair—she was clearly stressed but was being such a good mama. Exactly one month after having her kittens, we welcomed our fourth child into the world. Seven newborns in the house was…a LOT. Buttercup continued moving her kittens, beginning to favor the baby’s bassinet and bed over dresser drawers (often the ones holding white shirts, naturally). By Thanksgiving, we were successful in rehoming five of her kittens, keeping the sixth for ourselves. Mr. Tubs, a black and white tuxedo kitten, has become a very special friend to Lyla (4) and Auggie (2). As of Christmas, both Buttercup and Mr. Tubs will officially be fixed… No more kittens in the Templeton household!
