I am emotionally exhausted. I didn't do anything but watch and listen, but holy cow. My heart is wrung out. Evolene the cat on the YouTube live feed gave birth today, and it was dramatic and frightening and beautiful. Her first kitten took forever to come out. By kitten standards, 45 minutes in the birth canal is not a good sign. The whole time that we watched, and Shelly, the world's greatest foster mother, acted as doula, we were steeling ourselves for the probability that the kitten would be stillborn. He was a breech birth, and his tail popped out three or four times before even a foot appeared. Evie struggled mightily with him. Once his front legs were out, suddenly he started flailing, and we were all surprised to learn he was still alive at all. His head was stuck, and the drama and fear increased. Shelly tried to help as well as she could, but there was little that could be done except to wait for one really big push from one frail mama. Those first few minutes had the audience on edge, waiting to see whether the baby would make it. He was tougher than anyone expected, and he breathed and squeaked and nursed like there was nothing unusual about his birth. He will bear a scar forever, though. In the battle to bring him out, his tail was scrubbed raw. I am not certain whether the skin on his tail remains. I didn't hear the details. But I heard Shelly say that the doctors would evaluate what to do about it on Monday.
The next kitten came out in the normal way, but number three was also a breech. She was also considerably smaller than her brothers who preceded her. They were each about 101 grams, while she was a tiny 62. She is every bit as strong as the boys, though. I can't imagine what was going on in that cat's uterus, because the next two kittens were face-first and feet-first, in that order. I had no idea breech births were so common. I'm not sure I've seen a single other one in all the litters I watched from this foster home.
I have to keep doing what I was doing the entire time I was keeping one eye on the kitten birth drama. I have to finish hemming the wedding dress. She's picking it up in the morning, and I have to go around the bottom of the dress one and a half more times. All I can think is that today shouldn't have been an inspirational song, but rather an inspirational speech. To wit: "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility; but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger: stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood..." (Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 3, Scene 2)
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