Three weeks ago, when Abet’s friend Mario, a fellow cat-lover and the one who gave us Josie and Ludwig, came over to pick some stuff up, he saw Phoebe and exclaimed that she was pregnant. Abet and I were in shock and in denia! How could that be? She’s only six months old and looks every bit a baby! She can’t be pregnant!
We then recalled that three weeks before that, during Earth Hour, Phoebe managed to escape. She was gone for less than two hours and had a scratch on her face when we found her outside our door. Other than the time she crawled out our window and into our neighbor’s window, that was the only time she got out. As it turns out, that was all the time she needed to get knocked up, because sure enough, a few days after Mario ‘diagnosed’ her pregnancy, Phoebe’s belly grew bigger, and her nipples swelled and turned pink, a tell-tale sign of feline pregnancy. I checked Sophie’s nipples regularly last January after she escaped to mate, so I know how preggy kitty nipples look like.
It took days for the fact that Phoebe was pregnant to sink in. Abet could barely accept the fact that Phoebe went in heat at 5 months, much less get pregnant at 6 months. We joked that maybe God was preparing us for a daughter–and that this was a lesson (to lock our future daughter up, maybe).
Our concern then was if Phoebe was old enough safely carry babies and give birth to them. She’s so young and so tiny. We considered having her spayed which would terminate her pregnancy. I asked for advise over at the Cat Care Philippines group on Facebook, and while some commented that indeed she’s too young, I learned that yes, it’s safe for cats to give birth at that age. However, someone from CARA commented that the most sensible thing would be to have her spayed now. After much drama (from me!), Abet and I decided to have her spayed. I already called CARA for their schedule and was supposed to bring my kitty there last April 29. But after even more drama (from me again!), we decided to let our Beefy cat have her babies. We just couldn’t bear the thought of an abortion.
And so, there we were, at peace with Phoebe’s pregnancy and excited to meet her kitties. We agreed to keep all her babies, unless she has an all-black cat, which we would then give to Mario. So just imagine our surprise when last Wednesday, our cat started going in heat! Pregnant cats are not supposed to go in heat! I read that they may display signs of being in heat like becoming more affectionate, but what Phoebe went through was a full-blown heating period, complete with manliligaw kitties right outside our window every single night. The funny thing was that her belly kept getting smaller and smaller with each day of her estrus (heat) until it went back to normal size.
Funny. Phoebe had a false pregnancy. After all the drama and crying over whether or not to get rid of her babies, there were no babies pala. I didn’t realize that hysterical pregnancies also happened in cats, but apparently, it does. It’s more common in dogs than in cats, though. A false pregnancy happens when the cat releases an egg for no reason, or if the tom (male cate) she mated with had been neutered or is infertile.
We’re sad but at the same time relieved that she’s not pregnant. And we did learn our lesson, so she’s getting fixed next week after Uma and Sophie (we only have one cat carrier so we can’t get them all spayed at the same time). Also, because we realized that we can still afford to take care of another cat, we’re getting another rescue cat soon. The new cat is now at my parents’ house, we can’t wait to bring him over to ours.
Hay, Phoebe. You never run out of ways to keep us entertained.
We finally have a Christmas tree over here at Casa Mesa. Our very first Christmas tree together! *yipee* It’s a bit late, I know, but you know what they say: better late than never.
