Sunshine the rescued cat momma
Written by ©Heather Christenson (flickr: Crackbonkers).
Sunshine was found by an employee at my vet clinic, she had been hanging around an apartment complex. She was very thin and very obviously pregnant so she took her in. They were unable to find a foster home to raise the kittens. A friend of mine that works there decided to see if I had an interest in fostering Sunshine and the kittens as I had been starting to look for another cat to add to our household.
We lost our 19 year old cat and our diabetic cat last year and our remaining kitty has been pretty lonely, they were all very close. We do have 6 dogs though, so we really wanted to find a kitten or cat that would work well with our crazy household. Raising a litter of kittens with the dogs sounded like a great idea to find the right personality to fit in. So the current plan is to keep a kitten or two and find homes for everyone.
Beautiful Sunshine
The hard part is that Sunshine is a very young mom, probably 8 months old. Shes a sweetheart, but doesn’t take mothering too seriously. She is too young to be a mom and she’s obviously never been in a house before, this has not been easy for her. But the positive side of that is that she absolutely has no problem with the dogs hanging out with the kittens, so that’s been great to have that early socialization.
Kittens are 4 weeks old now, it’s been quite fun watching them grow, not something I’ve done before. Their names are Isis (dilute torti), Brahma (light dilute), Budda (darker dilute), Dio (long hair orange), and Pax and Ra (short hair orange). Getting bigger all the time!
Photos courtesy of ©Heather Christenson from Oregon (flickr: Crackbonkers, Heather’s blog).
Check out more photos and stories of Sunshine’s kittens here.
Sunshine when she was pregnant
Sunshine trying to climb up the bookshelf
Jump!
Sunshine nursing the babies
Bonding time
Sweet little babies
Fierce cat mama
Adorable big round eyes
Playful teen mama
One of the babies
Babies grew bigger
Sunshine the lovely cat mama
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Poor thing! Glad that she found a soft place to land, and the kittens will be so much fun. Good luck with finding them great homes…and not keeping them all!
Beautiful mama cat! How lucky she is to be with you. Her babies are precious and look happy and well fed. I wish them all lots of happiness, where ever they may go.
What a beautiful girl Sunshine is! Love the tufts of hair coming out of her ears. The kittens are sooooo cute! I wish them all the very best. Are you keeping Sunshine too?
CUTE!!!
The babies are so cute…just like their Mamma!
The babies are so adorable!! I'm sure everyone will love them!!! I would LOVE to have Sunshine, she's just so beautiful!!! Too bad I'm already maxed out on kitty babies
What beautiful kittens and Sunshine is a sweetheart too.
I'm thinking you should go to plan B and keep Sunshine. She is just a kitten herself and doesn't seem to mind the dogs. She is absolutely precious and would be a great addition. >^..^<
She's soooo beautiful! Those eyes and that belly!! Wow! Lovely family!
She's so beautifull! That is very similar to what happened with my cat Hannah. I hope Sunshine and the babes find their forever homes! i think sunshine might be part norweigan or maine coon based on her ear hair. what a percious family!
What a beautiful young momma and how sweetly your story about her is written! So much love and compassion in your expression. POoor Sunshine – but she turned into a good mommie. Just a fantastic feline family!
Aw..that's so sweet. Despite being so young herself (she's still a baby!), she looks like a great mom in the pictures (nursing, cuddling with her babies). The babies are adorable, just like their mama. Good luck to you and hope it will all work out for everyone!
A heart-warmingstory…such lovely kitty-kats…would love to see them…I'm guessing that you live in the wonderful USA?, while I'm in England…wishing all the very best to all the furries…
Poor little Mama Sunshine carrying all those kittens when she was just a frail, young thing! Thank you for saving all of them.
Thanks for saving them, little Mama is beautiful and her babies are extra special!
aawwww… what a graceful mom!!!
she's gorgeous..but spay and neuter to help stop the teen kitteh pregnancies.
sunshine really has amazing eyes!
Such great pictures and super cute kittens, I bet your a proud grandma
I love her great ear tufts!!
I hope she is getting spayed? poor baby herself doesnt need to go through that again -kittens are beautiful! would be hard to let them go!
We started with Risa cat. Several months later we acquired Maxie Mutt–a gorgeous black & tan cocker from the pound. Then came Coco
Chanel & shortly after 5 week old Alesandro who was adopted by Coco! I fed a feral not realising she was pregnant until too late! Tabi, now 3 legged, was one of her kittens that someone attacked breaking her right femur and dislocating the hip so badly, the leg had to be amputated. Yoda & Micki from Litter 2 were given away but brought back due to one of the son's bad asthma attack. I tried again to catch Sascha who by now had had Litter 3. Instead I caught Little Bit. Those all reside in the house.
Outside we have 2 from Litter 1, 3 from Litter 2, and 3 from Litter 3. Sascha has disappeared but Morris the big daddy of many of the cats comes to have meals with us. All the females have been spayed and 2 of the males neutered.
To top it off, someone dropped 4 kittens 4 months old in our yard almost 4 weeks ago. The vet took one but I have the other 3. In the past year we have had 9 cats spayed, 2 neutered, 1 dog spayed. Our cup overfloweth! It is never dull here but I could really use some friends to adopt some of the dear beasts!
Sunshine is a real beauty, tall and slender, and her babies awwww… so cute!!!
Beautiful family ♥
Sunshine's eyes and ears and body, she is gorgeous!! Where are you Heather? I'm in Ohio. If you aren't keeping her, I'm very tempted to… although there are already 6 rescued kitties in my home!! You won't have any trouble finding home for her beautiful babies. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the pics of your dogs that are so wonderfully protective of the kittens. Handsome doggers too. You have a terrific pet family!!
beautiful mama
Wow, 6 kittens is a lot for such a young mother! I'd be happy to have a dog babysitter for each kitten too…
How precious those kitties are and Sunshine is so lucky to have been rescued by such a loving person. Good luck with your brood. Hope you find good homes for the kittens you give away. >^..^<
They're all sweet!
I love the picture of her at the bookshelf!
Sunshine is beautiful. The six kittens are adorable – I hope they are adopted by someone like you.
You sound as if you are having a blast with your clowder. Lucky them and the very best of luck to you.
Sunshine has the perfect name! Love the ear tufts!
Sunshine has got very long hair from her ears. That's pretty rare, but she look really gorgeous in the picture when she was pregnant.
Her kids are very lovely too.. Sweetness overload! haha
What a beautiful cat – how does one pick only one kitten!?
They're so cute ^_^
Thank you that you've rescued Sunshine, really thank you.
If it were me, and rest assured it has been me, lol… i am currently owned by too many to admit to- all rescues, including my 10 week olds and their rescued mommy Cupcake, I wouldn't be able to part with any of them. finding a good home is always an issue for me, though you may have a lot more luck
These are some adorable babies, and a precious momma!
Cats are soo cute when they are little
Such A lovely cat she is
JUST GORGEOUS!
Pregnant Sunshine looks like she swallowed a softball!
And her babies are sooooo cute…