Only One Survived

I stayed up with Harley as long as I could and had to put her in the toilet off the laundry as she was bleeding a bit and wouldn't stay in the bed if I moved away from it.  She must have settled down but at 3am I was woken by a loud mewing, loud enough to wake me through my closed door and the hallway and bathroom in between where she was.  I went out and she'd had another kitten, that was who was making the racket and he was lying on the tiles and Harley seemed agitated.  I picked him up and he seemed fine so I rubbed him down and gave him to his mother and went back to bed.  When I got up at 7 she had had another one who was lying dead at the edge of the nest.  The other one was cleaned up and feeding from his mother happily.  A few hours later Harley asked to go outside but soon enough wanted back in and was discharging again and had the fourth kitten on the kitchen floor.  He never even took a breath poor little mite.   The placenta didn't come away and I encouraged Harley to stimulate him and which she did but he didn't stir and I had to deliver the placenta myself.  She chewed through the umbilical cord and I sadly wrapped up the little body and buried him up the back with the other two.  It occured to me how tough I've become, there was a time I would not have been able to cope at all with dead kittens.  Josh was with me for the last one and he also surprised me at how brave and philosophical he was.  We both cried in each others' arms but went about doing what we had to do.  So little Lucky, as we've christened him seems healthy and active and is feeding very well.  Harley doesn't seem to have any ill effects and is eating and toiletting as normal.  Trouble is all the animals have fleas including the kitten now and we quickly did some research and found that we could put a little of the flea powder on him without harm which we did and on Harley and in the bedding.  Tomorrow I need to get some Frontline for Harley and we'll bomb the house when we go to Wagga, leaving the cats in the laundry or the cat hut.

I feel like I've been hit by a truck.  I can't understand what went wrong with the other kittens and why they died.  She gave birth easily to four healthy kittens earlier this year.  They needed a little help from me and one was breach but they were all fine.  I've had lots of cats and they've had litters and I've only ever lost one kitten.  As soon as little lucky is ready to leave us Harley will be going right to the vet for spaying.  I feel really bad that she went through this as we didn't get to her in time between when she weaned Noah and got pregnant again.

Got a phone call from the local police to say they'd caught Emily downtown and did I know she wasn't at school.  It's the last day of term today and I told them yes I did know.  The lovely young constable asked me if I knew that if a child was caught not in school without an adult present it was considered truancy and we could be fined $1100.  I said I did not know that but that it was a great idea.  I texted Emily and told her to come home right away.  It's a fairly new law apparently as the constable said she'd just come back from maternity leave and found out about it.  Thank God for our police I say.  I often see kids wandering around during school hours and if the cops are going to be on their backs they might think twice about wagging school.  I will never be fined as I doubt a judge, having heard our history would ever accuse me of being a negligent parent as far as the kids being in school goes.  I've complained long and loud about Em's reluctance to go to school and it's all down on record.  But it put the wind up Emily which is exactly what I want.