Pallas was rescued from a farm, and was pregnant when she came here on April 13. On April 30 she gave birth to four little tabbies.
She was a sweet and snuggly kitty when she came. Even though she hadn’t had much experience with people, she loved to cuddle and to be brushed. But, interestingly, as she got closer to her birthing date, she got more and more defensive and suspicious of us. She was clearly conflicted, as hormones argued with her own nature. She would want you to pet her, and then start to glare at you. We’ve had protective moms before, but Pallas is in a class by herself. It got quite scary! You could see her instincts prompting her to not trust, and yet she really wanted to bask in the attention. It was a confusing time for her, and for us! The instincts started winning, and she did actually jump at George a couple of times. We felt like lion tamers when we went in to feed her! She’s shown here in the friendly phase.
She had her kittens in the corner, the “Jiro Palace,” and we shut the gates and left her alone. Feeding her was a challenge, and I’m afraid she didn’t get her litter box cleaned very often. She was more suspicious of George than me, so I put food and water in for her. With new kittens she was always hungry (although she always had dry food), so that helped – she would focus on the food instead of attacking me. A couple of times I stepped over the gate and peeked at the kittens, but she raised them without my help for the first three weeks.
I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Challenging for us – but so hard for her too! She was so conflicted and didn’t know what to believe. Eventually, after a couple of weeks, I could pet her head again – but only if she was eating.
Her kittens here are three days old. I had to distract her with one hand long enough to take the photo with my other hand.