Domino is the lucky runt of the litter

MOLLY is a pretty black and white cat. Sally, her owner, had chosen to allow her to have one litter of kittens. She was pregnant, and the kittens were due to be born any day. Sally had organised a kittening box for her cat, in a utility room in her house. There was plenty of bedding, an infra-red lamp overhead to give extra warmth, and a nearby cat flap to allow Molly to come and go as she pleased. Molly enjoyed sleeping in her new quarters.

One morning, Sally did get a surprise, but it was not what she was expecting. Molly had vanished. Sally went on a hunt outdoors for her cat, calling her name, and listening for a reply. She searched her garden, but there was no sign of Molly. Then she took a torch to check under her garden shed, and sure enough, Molly was there. She had found a dip in the ground under the shed, and she was curled up there, looking watchfully back at Sally. She had a litter of tiny new-born kittens beneath her.

Sally knew that this outdoor nest was not the best place for them. She reached in, and at arm’s length, she was able first to grab Molly, and then to pull out each of five small, wriggling, newly born kittens. She carried them all in to the kittening box indoors, and she locked the cat flap so that Molly had to stay there.

An hour later, Molly had not settled: she wanted to go outside, pawing at the cat flap. Sally opened the cat flap, and watched carefully as Molly bolted out through it. She went directly to the dip in the ground under the shed, and she was sniffing around, and pawing. Then she grabbed something in her mouth, and came out again. She went straight back through the cat flap, and into the utility room. Sally followed her. Molly had returned to the kittening box with a tiny white kitten in her mouth. It was lying motionless, and at first Sally thought that it was dead. But then she saw that there was movement of its chest wall. It was breathing, but not moving in any other way.