In the past month, I had three female cats give birth to litters of kittens. The first one is doing just fine, but the second two -- hell no.
About a week ago, the second cat delivered her litter on the back porch. Unfortunately, none of the family knew she'd delivered them there, and so, when we let the dogs out to roam around out back, they ended up killing all but one of the kittens. The survivor was then abandoned by its mother, who only started taking an renewed interest in the kitten after it was too late; it died, probably of dehydration/malnutrition.
A few days after that, the third cat went into labour. As she was in my room, I figured they'd do fine, but the first kitten came out hairless and stillborn. The second kitten, like the first, came out hairless but it was alive. But then the mother got the idea to take the kitten and move it; she ended up losing it, and I suspect one of the goddamn dogs must of snatched it before I could catch up with the mother.
I figured that was the end of it, but it turned out she hadn't finished delivering; almost a week later, two days ago, she delivered two more kittens. Unlike the first two, these kittens weren't bald, and as both the mother and the second cat who had lost her kittens seemed to be taking care of the little guys, I figured they'd survive unlike the others.
I don't know what happened, but both females stopped spending a lot of time with the two kittens, and its possible they were still born prematurely like the other two before them, because now one's died and the last one isn't far behind.
I like cats and I like owning cats, but when shit like this happens, I just feel like it would be better to have no pets at all.