The Snowball Saga

 

Well, the rest of the story goes a little something like this….

Snowball went on after her weird little ditty of having a premature kitten, to having a weird little litter of 2 more.  They didn’t make it either.  Poor Snowy was having a hard summer.  Then, lo and behold, she had a nice normal litter of 4.  Life on the farm was just as it should be.  Snowy was taking care of those babies up in the mezzanine of our new shop.  I know the guys in the shop just loved to see her licking and feeding those tiny little meowing kittens every day!  (insert sarcasm here.) 

This is snowy with her brother/suspected Baby Daddy, Orange Juice.  He’s a feminine type of Tom.  He’s been known to let babies nurse him.  This is freaky. 

Suddenly, Snowball’s kittens were gone.  We were busy mourning the loss of the kittens here in the house and wondering what we could have done differently, when we received a phone call from our good friends on the other side of the countryside.  They had a MIA mother cat at 5 babies to feed.  Whatever shall they do? 

At this very moment, I heard God say….”tadah!”  So Snowball became the foster mom and head milk provider for these 5 babies that very evening!  It was perfect fluff ball bliss.

Well, little did I know, her kittens were just on a little one day visitation to kitty daycare and now I had strapped our poor ole’ milk maker with 9 kittens!  Like I have said before….she is a good mother and she did her best with our help.  She got extra handy water and soft chewy food by her bedside daily.  That Snowball has a God-given talent and she raised up her littler of nine for a week or more!

Tragically, however  it became too much for her (seriously, I cannot believe I am writing a tale of the farm cat capers here folks:) Three of her four just were not strong enough to fight their way to the top and suddenly passed away. 

Talk about tragedy!  I got the tongue lashing my kiddos for allowing the fostering in the first place and the guilt was horrible for me!  Poor Snowy, a good mom, doing her best.  Her best just wasn’t good enough in such an impossible situation. 

The good news is, the fostered babies returned to their goat farm on the other side of the countryside and are flourishing.  That is, with one exception.  Little Olivia found a new home, here with her adopted sister America (Snowy’s real daughter and sole survivor of the litter.)  They are living in the lap of luxury in the shop, lounging on the trampoline, making piles of furballs on the stacks of old tires and frolicking with their wild cousins in the barn.  The milk?  It overflowith.

The circle of life is definitely felt hard out here on the prairie.  Joys and jubilations are shortly followed by tragedy and then, if you look really close, you can see the meaning of it all! 

 Snowball, sister, you’re the greatest!  I’ll try to get some pics of little Olivia and her sis America for your viewing pleasure.  It’ll warm your heart and fill your soul.