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scattered shoes, kicked off in the
entrance hall.
    By the time he reached the bathroom upstairs,
Chloe was kneeling on a cushion by the cat's makeshift bed, with
Jennifer at her side.
    "Mum says she'll probably have them tonight,"
Chloe said.
    The word mum rocked Owen like an earth
tremor every time his daughter said it. Even though he'd always
referred to Jennifer as mum when they spoke of her, it had been an
intellectual concept. To hear the name on his daughter's lips, said
so matter-of-factly, made him feel as though he'd fallen into an
alternate reality, one he'd longed for.
    "No sleep for us tonight then?" he
quipped.
    "I'm going to put on my pajamas and lay a
pillow and sleeping bag on the floor here so I can watch."
    Owen caught Jennifer's gaze, and they shared
a mutual smile at the accuracy of his prediction about Chloe's
behavior.
    "Mama Cat needs to be left alone quietly for
a while. Come on, love." Jennifer took Chloe's arm and stood. "She
has her nice snug box to give birth in, and plenty of food and
water and a litter box out here well away from where the kittens
will be. So she's all set. We'll give her some space now and check
her again after dinner."
    They rushed through their meal, Chloe hardly
able to sit still, her gaze constantly going to the hall door,
while all she could talk about was kittens and what she would call
hers.
    "You do realize the kittens will belong to
the owner of the cat," Owen said. "Whoever it is might want to keep
them all."
    "Don't be silly, Dad. Nobody keeps a whole
litter of kittens. They'll let me keep one."
    Owen chuckled. His daughter could not be
deterred. Anyway, she was probably right.
    As they returned to the bathroom half an hour
later, Jennifer rested a hand on Chloe's shoulder. "You must stay
quiet and calm when we check Mama Cat again."
    Chloe nodded, almost trembling with
excitement.
    "Right. Let me go first," Jennifer said.
    Owen followed the girls and shut the bathroom
door firmly to keep out Paddy, who was furiously sniffing around.
The bathroom was quiet. Jennifer put a finger to her lips and knelt
by the makeshift cat bed to run her hand over the animal's
belly.
    "Mama Cat is in labor," she said softly.
"I'll sit here quietly and keep an eye on things. If anything
happens, I'll call you."
    "Go and get changed for bed, Chloe." Owen
forestalled his daughter's objection with a stern expression. He
could foresee a very late night, so it was best she change now.
    Jennifer grabbed the chair from the corner of
the bathroom and set it close to the linen closet. Owen went to
load the dishwasher and returned as soon as he was done to find
Chloe changed for bed, kneeling in her sleeping bag beside
Jennifer's chair.
    It was so good to see mother and daughter
together, a dream Owen had thought would never come true. He was so
engrossed in watching his daughter with her mum, he nearly missed
the first kitten being born.
    "There you are," Jennifer said softly. "Here
comes number one." The little body came out headfirst, breaking its
membrane sac as it was born. The attentive mother immediately
licked her kitten and chewed through the umbilical cord.
    "That's the placenta that's come out now. We
need to count those to make sure they're all delivered," Jennifer
said softly.
    "Wow." Chloe rose on her knees and leaned
closer to see the tiny kitten. "I can't see what color it is yet.
It looks dark because it's wet."
    Owen crouched beside his daughter and put an
arm around her. "Amazing, isn't it?"
    "Awesome."
    The cat strained for a few minutes then
another kitten was born, and within two hours she had safely
delivered five beautiful babies.
    Chloe was wriggling with impatience now. "Can
we pick them up?"
    "No. We mustn't disturb them," Jennifer said.
"They need to bond with their mum and start feeding." She crouched
beside the box and palpated the cat's belly. "She's very tired, but
there's one more to come, I think." She sat back on the chair,
elbows on her knees, watching.
    The