Meet Flora and her kittens! Flora and her female kitten, Snowdrop, are to be rehomed as a pair (pictured next to each other at the top of the page). Flora's two boys, Growmore and Roundup (pictured together further down the page) are also to be rehomed as a pair.
Flora came in to us on Good Friday. She was lost, hungry and very frightened - not to mention in great pain from an horrific collar injury. A collar injury happens when a cat gets one front arm through the collar and it then gets stuck - around their neck and under one armpit. The collar starts to dig into the flesh and can cause incredibly serious, sometimes life threatening, injuries. When we managed to cut the collar off Flora it had cut deeply through her armpit, ligaments and muscles. She had a severe infection and was very unwell, requiring lots of medication and cleansing of her wounds.
As if life hadn't been hard enough for Flora, the delivery of her kittens was very challenging - with 2 of the kittens in breach (coming out backwards - hind legs first) and all 3 kittens being very big. She delivered her kittens on the 5th of May. She cried all morning, ripping up her cardboard birthing box - she was obviously quite unsettled. At midday, her waters broke. But by 1pm there was no sign of any kittens and we were getting quite concerned. We rang the vets and they said to bring her straight in if there were still no kittens within half an hour. With much encouragement and soothing, Flora finally managed to birth a HUGE black kitten just before 2pm … but it was lifeless. We frantically rubbed it gently with a towel and blew into its face - anything to try to kickstart the little baby. Luckily, it responded and spluttered into life. Then we waited and waited some more. By 4.30 there was no sign of any more kittens - so again we rang the vet and she told us to come straight in. An internal exam revealed that a kitten was stuck and so they gave Flora medications to increase the contractions - but it didn't work and so they booked an emergency caesarean for after the evening surgery. Well, Flora obviously didn't fancy that - because while Jacqui waited with her in a back room at the vets, she pushed and squeezed her hardest and finally managed to birth not 1 but 2 breach kittens. Phew!
Jacqui stayed up with Flora all night - just in case there were any more kittens - but Flora was perfectly contented with her 3 huge babies! We named them Growmore, Roundup and Weedall.
Flora has been an excellent mum and loved fussing, feeding and cleaning her babies. She was an upwardly mobile sort of mum, the kind who spent all of her time with the kids teaching them new games; probably a home educator type of mum, you know? She is a smart cookie too and has managed to persuade us all that she must exclusively eat Whiskas Supermeat! Let's hope her kitties don't grow up to be so fussy!!
Flora loves her kittens but also loves having some time to herself - she absolutely cherishes cuddle time with you and you can tell that she will be just the most loyal, loving little friend.
Flora's chest and armpit are still stained from the collar injury wounds and this will probably take up to a year to grow out properly.
The individual pictures of Snowdrop, Weedall and Roundup are at 9 weeks old. Anyone who knows kittens will be in utter disbelief at this stage because they are more than twice the size you would expect them to be! A 9 week old kitten usually weighs just under 1 kg ... but Growmore weighs more than 2 kg, with Roundup not far behind! Even Snowdrop is bigger than you would expect a 15 week old kitten to be. It will be very interesting to see how big they all grow ... we can only guess that their Dad was one of those missing black panthers long rumoured to be roaming around rural Wales!!
Roundup and Growmore are lovely but are very typical boisterous, thuggish boys. They are a bit like a couple of hicks from "The Dukes of Hazzard". The only person they will listen to is their Mum (and maybe they even have respect for her) but most of the time they fly in and out of the catflap, clambering up and down the mesh walls of their pen, jumping off the ledges, mutilating their toys, chasing their sister, greedily scoffing all of the food. Really - no manners!
They will be hard work - but they are a hoot and will calm down as they get older. We are looking for experienced cat owners for this pair; someone who realises how naughty and destructive kittens can be, knows how best to handle them and who won't be phased by them! Growmore and Roundall have HEAPS of energy and are the best of friends. They would hate to be separated.
Snowdrop is the smart one. She is not at all intimidated by her brothers and can out-wit them in seconds. She is much more like her Mum in personality - calm and thoughtful. Flora and Snowdrop are great friends, which is why we don't want to split them up.
If you would like to register an interest in adopting either Flora and Snowdrop OR Growmore and Roundup, then please get in touch.
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