by Marijo Phelps

Created on: March 28, 2010

Mama Fufuka  Kitty (supposed to be Greek for Princess)

We had decided to get a kitten. After we got to the Humane Society I began to think about how the older kitties might be euthanized.

“Hey, look at that Tortie over there, she looks about 9 months old.”

The kitty in question was curious and came to the door of the cage to sniff our fingers and she was purring!

“OK, maybe we shouldn't get a kitten. She's SO unique and seems really smart.”

We took her home to our one bedroom apartment in hot Stockton California, you remember, don't you,  the one with the hardwood floors and no air conditioning.  Stockton, where it never rains from April until October and there is nothing but blue skies.  No clouds, not ever., never. And HOT, did I mention the summer it was 114 at 4PM daily for a week in the shade? Or the time my sister and I fried an egg on the blacktop?

Well, Fu-Fu was quite the kitty.  We fed her on the utility sink after placing a piece of ply wood on top of it. I'd never had a female cat before and had just decided she was gaining too much weight , diet time. She  was having trouble jumping up on the utility tub to get her food, when it occurred to me that maybe she was “with kittens”.  That began the process of scrambling around to see what the gestation period was for cats. 62 days.  She must have been in heat and gotten out and the owners took her immediately to the Humane Society. We had adopted her 60 days prior to that.  Pretty soon it became very evident that SOMETHING was happening.

“Yowl, rorow….. meow.”,was what she was saying as she moved around the kitchen in a very uncomfortable pose. Pretty soon she dropped a little bundle in the middle of the linoleum floor. (Did I mention this was a very old apartment?) The tiny package was totally wrapped in the placenta. Oh, I forgot to mention, I am also an RN.

By that time, I knew the kitten would die if Mama Fu-Fu didn't chew off the band of placenta, quickly. Well, my roommate decided it was probably time for us to go to the Laundromat so I would live through this delivery.

When we came back 1½ hours later Mama Fu-Fu had delivered 3 pretty huge kittens. She had moved them into the back corner of the hall closet, totally ignoring the box with its towel lining we had fixed for her.  She was no dummy, it was HOT and the hall closet at least had a cooler corner.

“Look at those

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