Mama Cat Nuzzles New Kittens with Tenderness After Emergency C-Section
Some birth stories are filled with loss, but for new mom Frankie, hers has a silver lining. The cat mom recently had her kittens via c-section, but during the surgery tragically lost two of her litter. The loss has to be tremendous — even for a cat. But thankfully Frankie's foster mom found a good way to help her feel better.
It takes a special kind of person to foster an animal, it takes another to go the lengths that Barb Hun did for Frankie after she'd given birth.
Even before her c-section, Frankie came into Hun's care "extremely ill and very pregnant." So when it came time for her to deliver her kittens, the cat needed an emergency c-section. In total, Frankie had five kittens, but two of them passed away. Even with three healthy kittens, something was missing.
Related: Cat Claims Foster Kitten As 'His Baby' and We're in Love
Miraculously, someone at the rescue messaged her and told her they had two kittens who needed a foster home — the exact amount that Frankie lost. It was fate! The video shows Frankie meeting her two foster kittens for the first time.
It was like the kittens had always been her's — something that people in the comments section noticed right away too. "She says 'what new babies? These are my babies,'" wrote one woman. "She’s like I knew I was missing two," another person agreed. While a third person shared the sweetest sentiment. "Somewhere over the rainbow bridge is a Tabby mama looking after two little void babies," they commented.
Can you imagine? We'd really like to think that the mama in Heaven is taking good care of Frankie's kittens.
What a Mother Cat Does When Her Kitten Has Died
Though cats may not recognize their kittens when they've grown up, they do know what to do when they're babies. And that includes knowing what to do when a kitten was not strong enough to make it through birth or has died.
Cats lick their newborn kittens to help get them to start breathing. They also need to get the fetal membranes off their kittens, which is also why they lick them clean. Interestingly, cats will still lick their kitten even if it's stillborn so that they can try and get the kitten to respond and start breathing.
A cat may also hide her kitten so as to keep it a safe distance from her other kittens if it died from a health issue. She might also bury her kitten and then focus on her living ones. Very infrequently, a mother cat will eat her kitten. We know, it's pretty gross to think about. She'll do so in the rare circumstance that she needs to hide evidence that she's given birth from predators or to get nutrients. Again, this is not very common, but can happen in certain situations.
We can all be thankful that in this situation none of those scenarios happened. And we have every confidence that Frankie will the best mom ever.
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