Welcome Bebop!
Greetings, Kitten Academicians!
Aw, kibble again? I asked for filet mignon!
Bebop is the Academy’s latest attendee, and she arrived from the Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Control Shelter in West Virginia! They sent her to the Danbury Animal Welfare Society, who we are partnered with, on May 16th. DAWS checked her out and determined (via ultrasound) that she is pregnant, they estimated 6 kittens to be delivered in roughly two weeks.
Since she arrived she’s been a very fussy eater, so we brought her in to AristoKatz for an evaluation and Dr. Katz confirmed (via X-ray) that she has seven kittens and thinks they may arrive sooner than DAWS suspected! We also did all the tests and her results were normal for a pregnant momcat, so we suspect the fussy eating is just because she’s uncomfortable and seven kittens take up a lot of space!
She’s a very lean mom who weighs in under eight pounds even with a belly full of kittens. We’re working on helping her bulk up for the delivery. So far her favorite activities seem to be observing the neighborhood through the window, and finding the coolest spot to lie on the floor.
Bebop had an orange dad!
The gene for orange (sometimes called red or yellow) cats is dominant and exists on the X chromosome. Pure orange female cats like Bebop can only happen when they inherit two of the orange genes. This makes them a little rarer than orange boys. It also means the only kittens they can have will be orange, calico, or torties. If dad was orange too, then all the kittens will be orange. The Spruce Pets has an excellent article about orange cats that goes into some detail about this.
Here’s some initial photos of this beauty. We promised some photos of the Faculty but we’ll provide those in a future post - Bebop deserves her own!
