Erm… HELP please!!

[Amanduh]

Cane downstairs this morning to get breakfast, my cat was down the side of the sofa which is unusual, he (lol wait for it) is always in his favourite spot by the doors. As I looked down I saw what looked like mice on the floor and freaked out. After putting my big girl pants on and looking closer… they are KITTENS. My supposedly male, neutured cat (we got him from a shelter) has had four kittens next to my sofa in the living room.
What do I do?! They are feeding, I’ve put some blankets down, left my cat to it… my cat hates beds and baskets but should I get something/a bed for them to snuggle in? Do I do anything else? I’m in absolute disbelief!!

No, her temperament has always been the same

I’m so jealous.

I have absolutely no advice. I’m just so jealous 😂

Regardless of history and how plausible the explanation is, OP have you had your cat's 1 year boosters done yet? and has your cat ever been seen by a vet other than at the rescue?
My advice (if you haven't already done so already) is to register your cat with a veterinary practice and ask their advice. If your cat has worms/fleas or is not properly inoculated these can cause problems for the kittens.

yes to boosters, the registered vet is at the rescue, I’m waiting for a call back from our local vet

I am sure it will all work out fine - just be sure to get her spayed and enjoy the next ~20 years with your 'new' little lady!

What a surprise. I hope that your mum cat has a really masculine name, and you kept it. 😂😂 the kittens are gorgeous!

Ours is very fond of tummy rubs so I know he is definitely a boy (and registered/checked over with our own vet who would have pushed for it if he wasn’t neutered). I would have liked to find kittens when I went to give him breakfast this morning though!

You can pay the cat tax anyway 😂

Here he is. He dances!

Louie my dream cat 😍 Here's Elton he flashes (definitely a boy!)

Excellent cat tax payments keep up the good work.

How are the babies doing OP?

Blimey, what a twist in the thread 😳

Cute kittens though OP.

My second cat was a 'girl' kitten from a rescue - too young to have been spayed, the arrangement was to send confirmation from the vet once this had been done.

Came downstairs a few days after the adoption and found my 'girl' kitten's balls had dropped overnight; 'she' now had the most enormous pair of bollocks!

So rescues don't always get it right.

My hastily-renamed, beautiful black boy lived to the grand age of 19.

My vet cut open my "what we thought was a girl" cat to neuter her and then realised she actually had no uterus as it was a boy! So poor thing ended up with two wounds!

I've had 5 neutered male cats and I can't say I ever noticed where their balls once were. If someone tells you you have a spayed female cat why would you look or know what you're seeing?

Same here. My multiple boys that I've had over the years were all neutered as soon as possible so there were no signs at all. Even with plenty of experience I wouldn't see a reason to not believe I had a spayed girl if that was what the rescue told me.

Even if your cat has a gender neutral name, surely on a vet visit you would be using the cats correct pronouns, or would a vet be worried to challenge you on this.

Thinking about my most recent vet visit with my cat, she was weighed and given the usual health check. I can’t think there was a time when her sex was check or would have been checked.

I don’t think my vet has ever asked me, or inspected my pets genitals unless it’s relevant to the visit, but during other visits my use of the terms him, her, she would indicate what I considered to be the sex of the cat.
I would imagine a vet would correct me if I kept referring to a female cat as him, as a way of politely educating me and hopefully to stop me misguidedly thinking the cat wouldn’t get pregnant.

Vets are used to pet owners' foibles and wouldn't bat an eyelid.

All my cats were "checked" as kittens or at their first appointments - when the youngest went for neutering last year, the first thing they did when they booked him in was double check he actually had balls to remove

They absolutely would over something as relevant as the sex of the cat. They ask the sex when you register a pet, it says it on their records, if you had told them the cat was male on registering and kept continually referring to the cat as male throughout a visit, when it was clearly female (and un-neutered) they are going to out you straight. Anything else is pretty shoddy service.

But after that I don’t think my girl has ever been checked. They know she’s a girl as it says on her notes and they neutered her, but I don’t know if it would be noticed as part of a normal check up.

Hmm, it should be. Mine are all given the once over whenever they go in for their vaccinations, including listening to their heart, checking eyes and ears and looking at their bum area.

There would be no reason for a vet to verbalise the sex of the cat, that information has already been gathered, like the breed and colour. If they notice an obvious error regarding it on their record I'm sure they'd mention it.
Just cause they're not saying anything doesn't mean they've not noticed.