Chantilly Lace, Muffets mother, gave birth to two kittens on the 27th April, 2006. This was Tilly's third litter, we didn't expect any surprises, but boy, did we get one! Instead of the normal litter of 4 or more kittens, Tilly only had two. One boy (Little Boy Blue), normal sized, and one teeny tiny girl.Chantilly Lace and the father, Magic, are both pure bred Devon Rex. Neither have had any problems with their offspring before.
At birth Muffet weighted around 80grams. She was TINY. Her brother was a nice healthy weight, with a nice fluffy coat, but Muffet was totally bald.
And she didn't grow. Every day we expected that she would no longer be with us, but she proved amazingly strong for her size. She could push her brother, who was easily three times her size, off the nipple, and when they were resting she could roll him over just by bumping into him and pushing. She never had any trouble finding a teat, and her suction was good - but she wouldn't GROW!
On the third day, when it was obvious that there was nothing much wrong with her health, I went and bought some milk substitute and started helping by giving her extra feeds during the day. I used an eye dropper because all the baby animal milk bottles were way too big. Three eye dropper fulls would be all it would take to fill her up. As soon as those three dropper fulls were gone she would just put her head straight down and go to sleep.
Her poor little body was just skin over bones, you could see every knob on her backbone. But she hung in there, fed off her mother and fed off the eye dropper and stayed with us.
Her brother helped to keep her warm. You could usually find them laying like the picture on the right - with her draped over his back, using him as a very lumpy mattress.
At one week old her brothers eyes started to open. I fully expected it to be another week before Muffet followed suite, but she surprised me, and on day 10 her eyes started to open as well. It was a little frightening - they bulged out so much that I thought the eyes might pop out completely! But they didn't (phew!).
Although her brother was so much bigger she tried to keep up. When he started walking, she started walking, when he started playing, well, she was having enough trouble trying to keep up with him walking. But she tried, the poor little darling.
Around this time something about Muffet started growing - her ears! They grew very large for her little head and she started looking more and more like Yoda every day. She has that "inner wisdom", or maybe it's just that she is full of milk...
In her forth week Muffet finally started to put on some weight. She went up to almost 160grams, the weight of a one week old kitten.
We started to notice other things about her as well. Her ears are oversized, but maybe she will grow into them. Her legs are very short. One eye is larger then the other, giving her a very "Marty Feldman" look - so much so I wrote this little song...
(to the tune of "Betty Davis Eyes")
Her hair is hardly there
Her ears a huge surprise
Her paws are always cold
She's got Marty Feldman eyes
Watch here for updates!
September: On the 27th Muffet will be 5 months old. At the moment she is still small enough to be held in one hand, as long as it's not a small hand! She can't jump up on the windowsill unless there is something in front of it to help her up. She gets most annoyed when her mother and Licorice jump up places she can't reach!
Muf has also taken to sleeping in. It was 11am before she got out of bed yesterday, and that was only because I went upstairs and CARRIED her down! Then, around 5pm, she wakes up and belts around the house with Tilly and Lickie, trying to keep up. They have dinner at 6.30pm, wash, sleep until 9 or 10, then another hour or so playing while we try to sleep! Oh, I want to be a cat!
I must try to get a photo of Muffets teeth. She has tiny teeth! Like a little kitten, although it doesn't stop her devouring raw chicken legs at an alarming pace! She loves chicken and milk, those are her favourite foods.
I now have a mailing list for Miss Muffet. You can discuss Muffet, or your own cats, show photos, and I'll let you know when Muffet's site has been updated there as well. Join here
Previous Updates
Today (July 7th, 2006) we took Muffet for another weigh in. Today we took Muffet to be weighed. The nurses who hadn't seen her all ohhhed and ahhhed - we took her in her handbag and they didn't expect to see a cat in such a small bag!
We went into the room with the scales and weighed her. She is now 450grams, last weight was 370 so she is doing well! All the nurses piled into the room as well. I asked if she was big enough for her vaccination and the nurse said she would ask the vet (Marcus). She said "can I take her with me?" so of course we said yes and nurse, kitten and handbag disapeared upstairs to show the rest of the staff.
While they were gone we went into the waiting room where three kittens were running around loose. I said "how old are these ones?" The nurse said "10 weeks" I said "WHAT! The same age as Muffet?" She laughed and said "Yes". Of course I had to get my camera and take a photo!
It's so hard to believe that kitten is 10 weeks old! I'm use to Devon Rex's and they are small cats anyway, I've forgotten how big other breeds can be!
So now Muffet is vaccinated, gets her booster in 4 weeks and then she can safely play with other cats and come visiting with us!
And yes, she cried when they gave her the needle, it was heartbreaking!
All in all she is a lovely little kitten, despite her differences - or maybe because of them?
