Kitty Surprise

Let me tell you about one of the best birthdays I've ever had.

 I was turning ten and hosting my first party with friends from school. We Went to Chuck E. Cheese's, then back to my Grandma's house to watch movies, eat cake, and open gifts.  All I wanted was Kitty Surprise.  Do you remember that amazing (yet slightly bizarre) toy?  It was a plush cat with a Velcro-closed belly filled with kittens.  The Hasbro commercial (which, sadly I could not find...you have let me down, Youtube) opened with a stirring question: "How many kitties are there inside? There could be three, or four, or FIVE!"  This left young girls in a cuteness induced frenzy, causing desperate parents to open Kitty Surprise in the store and fill her womb with additional kittens, stolen from another stuffed Kitty mom.

Doll bunk bed prop courtesy of Rob's nieces.  Kittens, courtesy of Momma Sparkle (to make sense of this, keep reading)

*Interesting fact: you can thank previously mentioned parents for the packaging that is currently used for toys.  You know, those boxes that take forty five minutes and every tool on a Swiss Army knife to penetrate?*
My wonderful Grandma found me a Kitty Surprise (unopened, with all her kittens still inside).  Sadly, Kitty only had three babies, but I used her Velcro sealed uterus to hide candy and money until I moved away to college.

Now, here's why that story is relevant: This year, I ALSO got a Kitty Surprise for my birthday!
Someone called the Humane Society and made an appointment to bring in a stray cat and her kittens on my birthday.  Because so many strays with kittens have been dropped off recently, and they were running out of foster families to send them to, Patrick volunteered to bring her to our place for a few weeks.  When Mommy cat arrived, she had five little babies of her own (about two weeks old) and- SURPRISE!- she had taken on another litter of four kittens! Nine Kittens!  The second litter was only three days old and must have been abandoned by thier mother right after birth.  This sweet kitty brought them all back to her den and cared for them right along with her own babies.  She doesn't make enough milk for nine hungry mouths, so twice a day, we have to bottle feed them for extra nutrition.

They are so tiny!  The little family lives in my studio (yes, another job for the Room of Requirement: kitten nursery) in a big plastic dog carrier.  They will stay with us, just for a few weeks, until they are ready to leave their mom and be adopted.  At the Humane Society, each will get vaccinations and spayed/neutered before heading off to a home.  The momma is incredibly nice...well, to people anyway.  When one of our cats was sniffing around her carrier, she jumped on him, like a boss.  He hasn't gone back in the room since.  I wanted to name her and the kittens after characters from The Golden Compass, but Patrick convinced me that we should give them names from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  I'm not really into the show, but apparently, its very popular with people of every age, especially those of you that spend a lot of time online (you know who you are).  We named the mom Twilight Sparkle, because of her pretty, sparkly eyes.  The others will be determined once we know if they are boys or girls.  Unlike Kitty Surprise, these babies didn't pop out with pink or blue bows around their necks.
***If you would like a crash course in the My Little Pony culture, watch this video, courtesy of my friend Matt.
***You can also take this quiz to decide which Pony personality you have (you're welcome)

*UPDATE - all nine kittens ~ and the momma cat ~ were adopted

And now...to show off my moderate computer skills, check out this montage of adorable kitten pictures! 

(literally, I had to Google 'slideshow' to figure out how to do this)

 

This story was featured on the blog Love Meow.