New Mommy, sort of.

If they survive, these are going to be some of the most maladjusted kittens ever. First, their birth mommy obsesses over them. Then she dies, causing abandonment issues. Then, for about a week, their mommy was a bath towel we wrapped them in to keep them warm and quiet. And now this.

Yesterday the kittens were either cold or lonely and were crying very loudly. I picked them up and put them in my lap, and noticed Smoky was quietly answering their mews with little mews of her own. I invited her up on my lap and introduced them one at a time. She growled at them but was otherwise acting very much like a doting mother. Maybe she's autistic. I put them all in the box and there they all stayed, with her wrapped around them. Eventually she realized it was more appropriate to purr at them than to growl.

Smoky has never had kittens of her own. Hasn't even known the pleasures of savage tomcat love. But now she is their adopted mommy. I guess that makes me and my mom her wet nurses.

She stayed in the box until about 1:30 this morning, when I was awakened by loud kitten cries coming from inside my room. I found Smoky and Houdini in my closet. I put them back in the box in the living room, near the heater to keep them warm. I was just falling back asleep at 2:00 when I heard more cries. This time, Smoky and Houdini were under my bed. Again, I put them back in the box. At 2:20, Smoky and Houdini were in my bed. I decided to let them stay there until morning, and I would deal with it then, but she didn't go back and get the two girls, so I got up and put them back in the box. This time, I shut the door to my bedroom. I couple of times, I heard her scratching frantically at my bedroom door, the way she does at the front door when she sees another cat outside.

They were still in the box when I awoke at 7:00 this morning.

I don't quite know what to make of her sudden maternal attitude. It is possible, I guess, that over the past couple of days the babies' crying triggered some deep instinct in her to take care of the babies. More likely, though, is this possibility:

It is about time for her to come in heat again, and I may have caught her at a hormonally vulnerable moment. This should serve as a warning to my female readers -- you better stay away from me when you're premenstrual, or you may wind up an instant mother of triplets.

It's unlikely, though not unheard of, that she'll begin lactating, so we'll have to keep being the wet nurse. But at least the babies have a mommy. And that's something, even if they don't make it.