Pour a Beer Out for Apollo.

UPDATE AT THE END
I can't really even attempt to be funny about this... I'm pretty upset I guess. I slept in the living room last night with the family in case Patches needed help or anything and around 2 or 3 I heard the kittens squealing so I got up and found Patches sitting by the heater. She looked pretty.... out of it, I guess? "Listless" is what they say online.

But what was weird was that I noticed she would tense up and have a contraction. She'd had the babies 20 hours earlier, so I thought that was odd. Anyway, I put her back with the babies and checked on her again this morning. She was still having the contractions and when I picked her up I figured out why: there were baby feet dangling out.

She had a dead kitten stuck in her birth canal and couldn't pass it. His little legs were hanging out, but I didn't to try and 'help' for fear of hurting her more. She was in pain and this had been going on for long enough that Gordana gave me the number of a vet in Skopje who called the mystery vet in Vinica.

Long, awful story short, I had to hold Patches down while the vet pulled the little guy out. Patches was stressed to the max and so it wasn't easy, and both of the legs came off. Vet had to go digging to eventually pull out the entire baby kitten (he was black and white) along with the afterbirth.

So anyway. I'm really, really grateful for Gordana's help along with the two vets... God knows I couldn't have done that alone. I appreciate all of you LURKERS out there who have been my kitty 911s and helped me. Patches is doing good now... I was worried yesterday because she wasn't eating or drinking much. She darted the EFF away under the couch after the vet was done with her, but I just put her food and water under there with her and she's put away 100g of wet food, an egg yolk and is working on a plate of dry food. And she's meowing to the babies.

Hopefully this is the last trauma in the Ray-Patches household for a while... but thanks to everyone who has wished us well or helped us when we needed it.

UPDATE Patches is doing really well now, as are Starbuck and Boomer. She spent about 1/2 an hour under the couch cleaning herself, and she ate quite a bit when I put her food down there. She started meowing back to the kittens, which she hadn't been doing before.

I left her alone, but soon enough she finished eating and hopped back into the box where she's been since I updated last. She moved the kittens last night to the box my fan came in (it's tall and skinny and in the corner-- she feels safer there), and the box is just big enough for her to lay down on her side with the babies snuggled up against her belly. She's a milk producing machine, and both babies have been eating happily and sleeping.

As my mom said this morning: "Nature is very strong." Yes it is-- whew! I know this was a downer post, but once Starbuck and Boomer get to growing, look forward to lots of videos!