A woman who rescued a cat that seemed “larger than normal” was stunned when she woke up one morning to discover that she had in fact been pregnant—and just delivered five kittens.
Several weeks ago, Talai Payne from Utah rescued the cat named Nala, along with a male cat named Rajah, from a warehouse. At the time, the two cats were incredibly malnourished and in need of love to help them trust again.
While she “questioned” why Nala was quite a big cat, Payne told Newsweek she wasn’t certain why.
But a month after bringing Nala into her home, the reason became clear. Payne awoke to find that she no longer had just two cats—and now has a whole family of seven.
@talaikay / Instagram
“I rescued her and Rajah (he is the dad) from a warehouse as they were being starved and malnourished,” Payne said.
While Payne noticed Nala was “larger than normal” she had no idea what was to come. “Little did I know that I was actually adopting a family,” she added.
Nala is said to be doing very well after delivering her five kittens, who all survived and are also thriving.
As for Payne, she has finally gotten over the surprise of walking into the room and seeing the aftermath of the surprise birth. She had just woken up in the morning and saw Nala sprawled out on her new cream-colored couch with the new litter, which was covered in blood stains from the delivery.
Payne continued: “Momma and the babies are all healthy and getting bigger by the day. I’m honestly so in love. It’s been such a joy to help care for them all. My cat is the best mom, so she does most the work and I just check in every now and then to make sure they are all fine.”
After the surprising experience, Payne shared a video on social media (@talaikay on Instagram and @talai.kay on TikTok) of the new additions. Alongside the clip, she wrote: “RIP the new couch, but what is my life.”
The post went viral with over 5.2 million views on Instagram and 895,600 likes on TikTok at the time of writing.
Payne is taking care of all the kittens for now, but once they’re ready to leave Nala’s side, two of them will be going to a family member. She hasn’t decided what to do with the remaining three, although she’s definitely considering keeping the them.
For anyone who was concerned about the state of her couch, Payne also shared a follow-up video showing that it was perfectly fine after a thorough clean. No one would ever know that Nala had delivered there.
Indeed, it’s not every day you find out that your cat was actually pregnant and has just given birth by surprise. The viral video has left social media users in shock since it was posted, leading to more than 800 comments on Instagram and 390 on TikTok.
One comment reads: “a bunch of kittens for a couch seems like a fair trade honestly.”
Another person replied: “thank you for saving her, she gave birth in a safe place.”
While another Instagram user wrote: “There could be always another couch, but these babies are priceless.”
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