Birth

It is quiet a long time since the birth of my three children; my youngest is fast approaching 12, and is already very teenager-ish! However we had a multiple birth in our house 6 weeks ago, at which the eldest two acted as midwife (if it’s a boy is it midhusband??) and learnt some valuable life lessons, which I thought I would share with you.

My beautiful ginger tabby went into labour in the 30 minutes I had between dropping my youngest (the teenager-ish one) of at school at 6.00am for a week in France, and being picked up for my 26 mile walk along the Clarendon Way. This is Jenny’s third litter, so I was reasonably relaxed.

I had regular updates from the kids, and they expanded their knowledge of reproduction:

“Were we made in sacs?” …. Yes, you developed in a sac called the amniotic sac.

“Did you eat the placenta when we were born?” …. No, but in some parts of the world, they do. “arghhhhh”

Jenny had five healthy kittens, all ginger (no prizes as to the colour of the Dad … a lesson in genetics!). Three girls and two boys.

All the children had another valuable life lesson three weeks later, when my 20 year old ginger and white tom – Mungo moved on to cat heaven. He had lived a full and exciting life, but it was a wrench for all of us; he was pre-husband and pre-kids.

Within a three week period we had completed the full circle of life.