Molly And The Cat Cafe

23

I lay on my side with my eyes closed, my head spinning. I could feel a dampness spreading across the cushion underneath me, but all I cared about was that the intense pressure in my abdomen had eased. I half-opened my eyes and saw Debbie and Sophie staring at me with identical shocked expressions on their faces.

Sophie clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘Urgh, I think I’m going to be sick. That’s disgusting,’ she said.

Debbie turned to her sharply. ‘It’s not disgusting, Sophie – it’s childbirth, and it’s the most beautiful thing that can happen to a woman.’

Sophie stared back at her, open-mouthed. ‘Mum, Molly’s not a woman, she’s a cat!’

Debbie frowned as she started to peel the rubber gloves off her hands. ‘Of course she’s a cat, Soph. Now stop gawping and get a towel, please.’

Sophie ran into the kitchen and I could hear her rummaging inside a cupboard.

Meanwhile Debbie knelt down on the floor next to the windowsill and stroked me on the head. ‘You saucy minx, Molly. How did you find time for that, eh?’ she chided me softly.

I started to purr. The initial shock of what had happened was passing and, for now at least, I wasn’t in pain. I lifted my head from the cushion and turned to look at the tiny ball of damp fur – my kitten – that was nestling between my hind legs. It was squirming helplessly, so I propped myself up on my forelegs and began to give it a thorough, invigorating wash.

Sophie ran across the café and handed a towel to Debbie. They both watched in silence as I cleaned the kitten from head to tail. Sophie made a gagging sound as I chewed through the cord that still connected the kitten to my body, but Debbie elbowed her firmly in the ribs and told her to ‘Shh!’

When I felt the pressure start to build in my abdomen again, I flopped back onto the cushion, knowing there was nothing I could do to fight the pain that would soon follow. While I waited for the urge to push to seize me, Debbie carefully took the first kitten and wrapped it in the towel, giving it a gentle rub all over and checking inside its mouth, before placing it close to my body.

‘A tabby, Molls, just like you,’ she whispered. Debbie and Sophie were kneeling on the floor next to the windowsill, their faces an equal mix of worry and excitement. I purred at them and Debbie reached out a hand and stroked my head. ‘Keep it up, Molly, you’re doing brilliantly,’ she encouraged. I started to mew as the tightening sensation in my belly started to spread. I felt as if I was being gripped from the inside, and my limbs became rigid. ‘Push the pain away, Molly – that’s what the midwife told me,’ Debbie said. And so I did.

As with the first kitten, the pain stopped the moment the second one arrived. I allowed myself a few breaths before tending to it, cleaning it quickly and efficiently. Although I knew there were more to come, my body seemed to be allowing me a temporary reprieve, and I was able to lie down and recover while my two kittens burrowed deep into my fur to feed.

‘Shall I put the kettle on?’ Sophie asked, looking suddenly drained.

Debbie agreed that tea was an excellent idea. While Sophie was in the kitchen, Debbie pulled two chairs up to the windowsill and lowered the blind in the window. The dusk had turned to darkness outside and the café interior was visible from the street. ‘There you go, Molly,’ she said softly. ‘A little privacy might help.’

Sophie returned with two mugs of tea and they sat down on their chairs to wait.

‘It brings it all back, you know,’ Debbie said wistfully.

Sophie grimaced in a way that implied she’d heard it all before. ‘At least you only had to push one out, Mum. Who knows how many Molly’s got in there!’

Debbie laughed. ‘That’s true, Soph. Although you were so slow to come out – I probably could have delivered a whole litter in the time you took.’

Sophie winced. ‘Urgh, Mum, please can we stop talking about this?’

‘Okay,’ Debbie said, taking a sip of her tea. ‘Nineteen hours, that’s all I’m saying. Nineteen hours. Of pain.’ She smiled into her tea as Sophie rolled her eyes.

‘Oh, all right, Mum. I didn’t do it on purpose, you know.’ Sophie was beginning to look riled. ‘And besides, didn’t you just say childbirth was the greatest thing that could happen to a woman?’

‘I know, love, I’m only teasing,’ Debbie laughed, placing a hand on her daughter’s knee. ‘And yes, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. You were the greatest thing that ever happened to me. You still are.’

Without taking her eyes off me, Debbie took Sophie’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Sophie pulled a face, but they stayed that way, hand-in-hand, watching as I lay listlessly on the cushion. Before long I began to twist and squirm in pain once more.

‘Oh, here we go,’ Debbie said excitedly, putting her mug on the table and leaning forward in her chair. The third kitten emerged swiftly. I washed it and then Debbie rubbed it briskly with a towel and checked it over. ‘We’re like a well-oiled machine now, aren’t we, girls?’ Debbie joked, as she placed number three next to its siblings. There was no time to linger, however, as I was seized almost immediately by the urge to push again, and soon kitten number four had arrived. ‘Look at that,’ Debbie said, when all four were lying in a row, suckling happily. ‘Four matching tabbies. How are we going to tell them apart, Molls?’

I wanted to purr, but could not muster the energy. Delivering the last two in such quick succession had left me exhausted, as if all the strength had been sucked from me. I could feel tiredness like I had never known creeping over me, so I lowered my head onto the cushion and closed my eyes.

‘I think she’s gone to sleep, Mum. Do you think that’s all of them?’ Sophie whispered.

‘I don’t know,’ Debbie replied. I felt her hand lightly press my abdomen. ‘Oh, hang on,’ and she pressed more firmly. ‘Sorry, girls, it’s not time for sleep yet. There’s another one in there!’

I knew that Debbie was right, but the tiredness was so overwhelming that I was powerless to fight it. When I felt the familiar tightening in my belly I had no strength to respond.

‘Come on, girl – you know the drill. Push the pain away,’ Debbie urged, but I was too weak to lift my head, let alone push another kitten out.

I let out a long yowl of pain as a searing sensation pierced me from the inside. My body convulsed with an agony that seemed to fill my entire being, from my nose to the tip of my tail. I felt like I was being consumed from within and could do nothing except succumb helplessly. I collapsed, breathless, my head lolling over the cushion’s edge.

‘Mum, what’s wrong, why is she just lying there?’ I heard Sophie ask nervously.

‘Come on, girl, you’re nearly there.’ Debbie was rubbing my cheek in an effort to wake me up.

‘She’s gone to sleep, look!’ Sophie lifted one of my eyelids, but my eye had rolled up into my head as I began to drift out of consciousness. ‘How will we get the kitten out, if she won’t push?’

I didn’t hear Debbie’s response. Everything fell silent as I gratefully sank into a blissful blackness. I don’t know how long I remained that way, but the next thing I knew I was jolted awake by a searing pain. Debbie was on the floor by the windowsill, her face close to mine.

‘Come on, Molly, you can do it!’ Her voice was loud and commanding.

Pain pulled and tugged at every fibre of my being, and I wanted nothing more than to fall back into the delicious darkness of sleep. But Debbie seemed determined not to let me, rubbing me between the ears every time I closed my eyes. Buoyed up by her dedication, I summoned the energy for one final push. In my exhausted state it took longer than before, and I was aware of Debbie and Sophie holding their breath as I bore down one last time.

They both gasped as my fifth kitten emerged. I collapsed back onto the cushion and panted for a few moments, ecstatic relief mixed with exhaustion flooding through me. I was too weak to prop myself up, so Debbie tended to the kitten, then held it in front of my face for me to see. ‘A bit of a bruiser, this one. Must have smarted a bit. Good on you, girl!’ she said in admiration. I looked at the kitten. He was twice the size of the others and, unlike his siblings, jet-black with a white blob on his chest. Just like his dad, I thought with a smile.

Before long all five kittens were feeding contentedly. Debbie ran upstairs to find a bottle of champagne, surprising Sophie by giving her a small serving of her own. They clinked glasses but, before taking a sip, Debbie shouted, ‘Hang on a minute, we mustn’t forget the proud mummy!’

A couple of minutes later she placed a saucer of cream on the windowsill next to me. I purred my appreciation but, before I could even take a lick, I fell fast asleep.