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Friday, July 22, 2011

The babies at my house - Manx kittens


There are six new babies at our house.  The mama was a stray who had two kittens when she first came to my house.  A friend (Jill) and I gave her a big job at the time.  We asked her to nurse and help us raise five kittens (along with the two she was already nursing) which had been abandoned by the massive spring flooding in our area.  Jill and her family literally plucked the babies from the flood waters swirling around their house.  Jill's family had to evacuate their home, so we took the babies to give them a chance.  Jill's husband Brian brought them to me in a box via canoe.  The Humane Society was simply overwhelmed with all of the flooding, so we could not take them there.

Well, with this mama cat's help and a few weeks of intermittent bottle feeding, all of the babies grew strong and homes were found for them.

(Dare I tell you what my inventive children named the mama?  Phoopie.  Yes.  Phoopie Cat.  I think they named her that because they want to hear me open the door and call "Here Phoopie.  Come here, Phoopie Cat.  Privately, I call her Thia.)

We called that first batch our "limited edition flood kittens."  Kind people took them in.  (Another one of my good friends, Julie, took two.  I could have kissed her.  :)  )

Jill very generously offered to pay to have the mama spayed, but since the mama is a manx, with no tail, I asked if we could allow her to have one batch of kittens first..  I was dying of curiosity to see if she would have tail-less babies.  The community tom cats were happy to oblige.

Phoopie had her babies a week ago.  Six babies.  And four of them are tail less!  They are so cute, some with long hair and an almost grey/white tabby siamese look about them.  There is one orange baby (already named Quackers) and he has a tail.   These babies are so unique I wanted you to get a glimpse of them too.  So, without further ado, here they are.  Are you ready for the cuteness?  Manx kittens:




Wow.  Nothing so fierce as a one week old kitten, eh?

Same kitten as above.  He looks almost like a little lamb.


Phoopie has taken up residence on my backporch, way back underneath a shoe rack.  Today was the first day I let the children hold the babies.  We wanted to be sure that she had established a nursing relationship with all of them.  She's a pretty good mama to her babies.  It's going to be fun watching these unique little ones grow.  Have you ever seen a manx cat?  What can you tell me about them?





7 comments:

  1. The only cat I've ever had was a Manx. People asked me all the time if I cut off his tail!

    Anyway, Oliver was the best cat God ever sent to this earth! He was sweet, social (he was always in the middle of everything when we had company over) and even tempered. After we moved to Colorado when I was 15, he got caught outside in one of our afternoon thunderstorms and we never found him again. We searched and searched for him and no cat I've seen since has ever measured up to Oliver.

    So, expect great things from your cats- they may be just as wonderful as the Manx I had!

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  2. We had a manx cat and she had a couple litters of kittens. Always, some had tails and some didn't. Ours were gray but a solid soft gray, not striped. The cats seemed to have a good disposition, and manx cats are not common.

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  3. We have a beautiful, Siamese stray momma that mated with a manx and had a litter of four - three tailless and one with a tail. They were all precious. One of the manx kittens, however, had a cat's version of Spinabifida - unfortunately a problem sometimes with Manx cats because their spines don't always form correctly. We had to have her put to sleep. The other two were adopted out. We kept the one with the tail, but she disappeared at about 6 months. We have a lot of critters around that aren't all that nice to sweet little kitties. We still have the mama but she has been spayed.

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  4. What a good mama! And I think I'm already half in love with those kittens.

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  5. Jennifer, I have read that Manx cats are very social - and the mother certainly is. She has wanted, from day one, to be in the middle of the family. Very interesting! Thanks for letting me know!

    Revka - so interesting! See, this mama came with the two babies, but they had tails, so I did not know. I wondered if her tail had been cut off, then - but obviously not!

    Violet - I am worried a bit about two of the babies. Their hind legs do not look very strong. I am feeling a little bit sick about that today, thinking about what may be ahead. I will need to see what the vet says about them....

    Sara - she is! Taking in five orphaned ones to begin with? Going from two nursers to seven? I supplemented with kitten formula, but she did her best. I am pretty sure this will be her last batch....so we will enjoy them and likely keep one, and then find homes for the rest.

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  6. And Violet, they must have been beautiful, unique babies!

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  7. They're so cute! I love the "fierce" photo, check out those claws! LOL

    Did you find out about the ones that seemed to have weaker back legs? I hope they're okay and growing strong!

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