Willa

Willa's story is a heartfelt one. A story of pain and triumph. A tale of hurt and happiness. We received a phone call about a mama cat who was friendly but outside nursing several babies. This address happens to be right within a colony that we have already fixed 42 cats and have been cleaning up over the course of the last few years. Luckily, we do not believe there is a huge unaltered colony forming; however, an irresponsible owner allowed their cat to get pregnant and dumped her outside and did not want her back, even when made contact with about returning her spayed. There obviously has to be a boy lurking around in the area and we are going to make attempts to capture him. The good Samaritan who was able to help Willa get to safety placed each baby with her in a carrier she donated to us. She had seven babies. We suspected that they are all from different gestational periods. What is that you may ask? When unaltered male and female cats are outside, they reproduce at an incredibly rapid rate. Regardless of genetic relation, males will mate with females even when already pregnant. This means that one tomcat is able to impregnate one mama cat with one or multiple kittens while another tom cat could also tag her and get her pregnant with one or multiple kittens at the same time. Being born at different gestational ages is not good as some can be premature (undercooked) and some can be full grown for birth. The ability to produce a litter of kittens fathered by more than one tom cat is called superfecundation. Some of them are a tad older and stronger while others are smaller and weaker. This is probably because the larger were born on time and the younger were born early all in the same day. Mama Willa worked so hard on her babies! Poor girl was starving and did not have enough milk. We worked tirelessly to save them all by supplementing with formula. A few did not make it. Despite Willa's depression for her losses, she cared for the rest of her children with so much love. She is now allowed to stop being a mom and has the permission to be a cat! Willa cannot wait to be adopted from PURe Joy Cat Cafe!