Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Another year comes to an end......

Here we are nearly at the end of 2011 -  yet another year I'd rather not have experienced......

Still, one good thing has been achieved with the setting up of my new business - now I need to get it fully established and earn some money!

I would like to share a few photos of my current kittens -  5 chocolate Burmese,  and 5 Ocicats (4 blue; 2 classic & 2 spotted - and a tawny spotted)

They are now old enough to receive visitors,  so please feel free to contact me if you're considering adding to your family!






Friday, 29 April 2011

The Big Day!

So the Royal Wedding has come and gone - what a marvellous spectacle it was. Britain at its best!  

It's time for a kitten update.  Sadly, things did not quite go according to plan and only 2 kittens survived of the 5 born.  These are a boy (chocolate) and a girl (brown).  I'm still not 100% sure of the patterns but I think the boy will be ticked and the girl silver shaded.   They are very pretty :)

Here are some recent photos.

Brown silver girl with mum Sophie

Chocolate boy
There's some news of an anticipated Burmese litter too -  Cherry (lilac) and Errol (chocolate) are expecting babies around June 14th (chocolate or lilac are the possible colours).  Errol is the boy I imported from France last year and this will be his first UK litter.  He is only very distantly related to Cherry,  so this is a very nice outcross.  I'll post further updates soon. The 2 Asian kittens will be available to new homes in June -  I've decided to stop breeding Asians for a while until I can bring in some "new blood" -   for the last few years I've wanted to breed Burmillas specifically, but my current cats don't seem to want to co-operate!


Sunday, 20 March 2011

New Asian Litter

We have a new Asian litter at Vervain -  it's been a very long time since the last Asian kittens, because I've been determined  to breed purely with the aim of producing full expression silver and smoke.   Therefore,  Dexter (Vervain Eldarion, black smoke) was mated to Sophie (Vervain Sophie-Elisabeth, brown silver ticked tabby) and the result was 4 kittens born in the early hours of March 17th.
Sadly I missed the births-  I checked Sophie at just after midnight when she was showing no apparent sign of labour -  then woke up at 3.30 am to find all kittens clean and tidy!
Even more sadly,  one of the kittens has since died for no apparent reason although Sophie and her friends took to moving them several times on the 18th and I suspect some damage may have been done.  Thankfully the 3 remaining kittens are now settled and putting on weight well.
I think we have a black silver (girl),  brown silver (girl) and bumese colour restriction chocolate silver (boy).  The boy who died was a chocolate self.
Here is a picture of Sophie with the 4 kittens taken on the 17th.

Friday, 3 December 2010

Snow!!

This week has seen the heaviest snowfall I can remember -  I was 8 years old in 1963 so in theory should be able to remember it but certainly don't have any memory of snow higher than my boots, as it is here at present!

It started last Friday night -  by Saturday morning there was 2-3 inches,  and I was due to do a stall at the Methodist Church in Retford; luckily I did get there and back safely,  also to Friesthorpe for another event on Sunday.  Then all through Monday & Tuesday we had another 10 inches at least - Tuesday morning was unbelievable as far as getting out to the cattery was concerned.  The stud boys are thankfully very snug and warm,  in fact they're better off than we are!  There hasn't been another heavy fall since Tuesday but a few showers,  and of course the temperature has not gone above freezing so nothing has thawed at all.





I was intending to go to the Burmese Cat Society Show tomorrow but travelling would be far too risky and the roads are predicted to be very treacherous.  Other shows had been cancelled earlier in the week.  Thank goodness our trip to London was last week!  
We've had no mail or other deliveries since Monday - I'm waiting on a delivery of raw meat for the cats,  and various other bits and bobs,  goodness knows when anything will get through.  Luckily we do have enough food to last a while!



Friday, 19 November 2010

One Kitten still to find a home!

I never expected to be posting again about available Ocicat kittens -  yes,  I still have 3 of them at almost 6 months of age.  Reluctantly I've decided to keep two -  Zelda (Sielun Veljet) the tawny classic girl,  and Teazle (Shamrain) the chocolate spotted boy who was very ill at 14 weeks but amazingly made a complete recovery with no clue as to the cause of his illness.  Thunderstone,  the black silver classic boy who really should be THE example of correct classic pattern,  is still here too and despite several enquiries, no-one seems to appreciate his stunning looks!


 I hope to show Teazle and Zelda in the New Year,  it is now over a year since I last showed a cat and I'm not even sure I'm confident enough to try it again........

Other news is that I was approved for promotion to Full Judge by the Ocicat BAC,  but for some strange reason this did not get onto the Council Agenda,  so I have to wait until February 2011.  I was also recently approved by the Russian BAC as a PJ and again that will hopefully be actioned in February.

And the very exciting news - apart from it being the Supreme Show tomorrow, which isn't all that exciting as I have nothing entered yet again -   is that Ross and I are going to the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 next Tuesday - if my intuition is right,  we'll be seeing Federer v Murray :))     Will report further next week!






Sunday, 5 September 2010

Just a thought........

Anyone want a stunning Ocicat kitten?  4 still available, 2 (classics) definitely showable.  Actually I'm thinking I might keep Thunderstone,  a black silver classic -  I have literally never seen such a perfect pattern. He will be neutered,  but showing a neuter is still a good way to demonstrate the qualities of the parents :))

Vervain Thunderstone



Vervain Sielun Veljet



Vervain Indica


Sunday, 25 July 2010

Lots of news......

Quite a lot to catch up on!  Firstly and most exciting,  I was finally able to bring my new Burmese boy home last weekend.  Eros de Grainoge had travelled by car all the way from Perpignan when I met his "courier" at Thurrock Services last Saturday.  We then had a further 3 hour journey home!  However, he is settling in and certainly has a very good appetite -  he couldn't have much fresh or canned food in France due to the heat,  so he's enjoying the food here :)
He is still very shy and is changing his coat at the moment - his front half is new, sleek coat but the back half is still fluffy kitten coat!  Goodness knows what effect the change of climate will have,  but hopefully his colour will even out to a nice pale milk chocolate eventually.




I have kept a chocolate boy from Molly's litter -  his name is Sid (Vervain Mocha-Sidamo) and he looks quite promising so far -  I would like to take him to a show or two if I get the chance.  Here is Sid -  I love his wide muzzle, and his nose is short although he does have the dreaded roll-off! Eye colour & shape not bad either :)




Alice's kittens are 7 weeks old now and doing well -  they are eating well and very playful.  I'll be getting them vaccinated at the end of this week if all goes according to plan.   My main concern is being able to find homes for them,  as I've had no serious enquiries so far,  but then I haven't actually advertised them yet!  







Finally -  Greg has been neutered and has now gone back to his previous owner, Lynn.  I took him there last Thursday and was astonished to see that he seemed to recognise the house -  he walked straight out of his carrier and headed upstairs,  ignoring the 2 large Irish Setters!   It has been a great privilege to have owned him for the last 15 months -  I have very rarely met a stud with such an amazing temperament.  I'm so glad he is now going to have a lovely life as a pampered pet!

Saturday, 5 June 2010

Ocicat Kittens!

I'm so pleased that my first Ocicat litter since October 2008 has arrived!  Alice has 5 beautiful babies,  born in the early hours of this morning.  The biggest surprise of all is that 3 of them are classic tabbies -  I have never had anything other than spotted kittens and I certainly didn't antiicipate that Alice would carry classic.  She appears to have inherited it through her grandmother's line.

There are 3 boys (2 silver classics and a chocolate spotted) and 2 girls (tawny classic and black silver spotted)

They were all a good weight at birth (mostly over 100g) and seem to be doing well so far.  Alice has had a lot of help from my lilac Burmese girl Cherry (again,  somewhat unexpected because they are not normally the best of friends!)

Here are the first pics of the new arrivals:




Ocicat Kittens!

I'm so pleased that my first Ocicat litter since October 2008 has arrived!  Alice has 5 beautiful babies,  born in the early hours of this morning.  The biggest surprise of all is that 3 of them are classic tabbies -  I have never had anything other than spotted kittens and I certainly didn't antiicipate that Alice would carry classic.  She appears to have inherited it through her grandmother's line.

There are 3 boys (2 silver classics and a chocolate spotted) and 2 girls (tawny classic and black silver spotted)

They were all a good weight at birth (mostly over 100g) and seem to be doing well so far.  Alice has had a lot of help from my lilac Burmese girl Cherry (again,  somewhat unexpected because they are not normally the best of friends!)

Here are the first pics of the new arrivals:



Saturday, 22 May 2010

Kitten news

After saying last time that Spring had arrived,  I can now say that Summer has arrived, albeit probably only temporarily.  We have bright sunshine and a temperature of about 23C here today.

Molly's kittens are looking very promising -  there are still 3 boys to find homes for (2 chocs and a lilac) -  I am very tempted to keep a boy,  as Molly will be spayed shortly.  Can't decide between the 2 chocs however! 
















Also,  there's good news about Alice - she is finally pregnant and kittens are due sometime in the first 2 weeks of June.  Unfortunately I'm not 100% sure of the dates as she was mated numerous times over a period of 2 weeks or so!  She does look a reasonable size so I think there could be more than 2 kittens - now that will be a novelty after my last 3 Ocicat litters of 1,1 and 2.  It would be amazing if there were any classics,  but I really don't think Alice carries the pattern.  Will still be interesting to see what colours she has -  at last the chance of something other than tawny!!




Saturday, 10 April 2010

We seem to be in Spring mode -  can't quite believe it after the winter we've just had!  The house martins arrived 2 days ago and immediately investigated last year's nest......   I do wish they'd find somewhere else!

Molly's kittens were 3 weeks old last Thursday and had already started climbing out of the kitten box -  they are now in the small pen in my bedroom and today I took some more photos.  They look very promising,  in fact one of them is really quite extreme in type,  but going by years of experience I know his nose will get longer.........

I've put 20-odd of the photos on Facebook,  but here's a few to be going on with :)












Thursday, 25 March 2010

New Burmese Babies!

Molly gave birth to NINE kittens last Thursday night (18th March) - sadly the final little girl was stillborn and the firstborn boy died within 24 hours,  but the remaining 7 seem to be doing well so far.

There are 2 girls (both lilac) and 5 boys (3 chocolate, 2 lilac).  Molly is a wonderful mum and seems to really enjoy having the babies.

Here are some photos taken at 3 days old.

 


As you can imagine, it's not easy to tell them apart, hence the coloured "collars".

I will post more photos as they grow.

Oh and as a follow up from last time,   Alice did not become pregnant, but hasn't called again since Mickey mated her -  ho hum.......




Monday, 1 February 2010

Another boring update

Christmas and New Year have long gone - goodness knows where.  What has happened since I last wrote?

We had more snow than I've seen in the 17 years I've been here - about 6 inches, between 4th and 7th January.   My car was crashed (not by me) and we decided not to bother repairing it,  so I now have a Toyota Yaris - thankfully pre-2005!   Impressively economical - approx 60mpg!  Anyone want a 10 year old Honda Civic - dents in front left wing and door,  otherwise in reasonable condition apart from slight rust - runs very well,  never had a problem.  Full tank of petrol too! 

Mickey,  at the age of 5 months, successfully mated Alice and I should know at the end of this week if she is pregnant.  Molly and Greg may also be expecting babies in March.

Andy Murray got to the final of the Aussie Open only to lose to Roger Federer - tragic :(

I am still trying to get people interested in Wikaniko,  can't believe how apathetic everyone is -  I can only assume no-one cares what damage they are doing to their bodies and the environment :((   oh well,  at least I can be glad I'm using the best products - and at wholesale prices!

Monday, 14 December 2009

A wonderful opportunity!

Join Wikaniko today!

If you like what we are doing, why not join in the fun yourself?

There are two ways that you can benefit from helping us in the quest to create a gentle revolution.
The thing to bear in mind is that we do everything honestly, ethically and legally. It is often too easy to get carried away on the thought of making ‘big’ money, or in a desire to get out of the money trap that some people find themselves in – often through no fault of their own. Yes, you can make extra income with Wikaniko. Yes, you can save money with Wikaniko. And yes, you could make a substantial income with Wikaniko. Our goal is to become the giant in the eco revolution, and we will only accomplish that by doing it properly from the beginning.

Let’s now explore the ways that Wikaniko can help you to both reduce your outgoings, and increase your incomings!
First of all, the simplest way is to become a Customer Member

Registration is FREE and you receive discounts and incentives etc from time to time on the products that you purchase. Furthermore, you can take part in the WiKanDoIt series, where you can get a weekly green task to carry out. This builds up week by week until you realise how well you are doing. 20 or 30 small unnoticeable changes built up over the weeks will add up to a massive improvement – especially for your wallet. There are rewards and incentives along the way too!
How To Become a Customer Member
Simply click on ‘Products’ on the menu bar. This takes you to the Shop, where you can purchase some wonderful products.

When you go to the checkout, you will be asked to register your details (in order that we can process payment and send you the products)
Simple.
Secondly, you can join as a Wikaniko Distributor.
(You cannot be a Customer Member and a distributor)

The Distributor opportunity is very simple to understand.

1) It costs £48 inc VAT.
2) You reduce your outgoings by buying the household products you normally buy, at wholesale instead of retail.
3) You help save the planet along the way.
4) You make an extra income by offering the products to others, to help them become greener
5) You build branches in other areas by introducing people to the opportunity, and you make an override on what they do, by helping them to build a great future for themselves.
6) You enjoy your life, free from financial worries, and at the same time have a true sense of purpose.

How great is that?

However, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary! So there is effort involved. There is work to do, and there is stuff to learn.
If you want to have a go, though, we’ll teach you along the way, using some of the best training ever created. You do the training in the comfort of your own home, and at your pace.
We don’t have fancy meetings, conventions or boring classroom style training involving travelling many long distances, increasing your carbon footprint, and taking time out of your precious day (which could be better spent spreading the word about the great products you offer) We teach you through online training and local Home Meetings.
We show you things that will accelerate your business growth in fun, non confrontational ways. We take your brain out, dust it off, pop it back in and fill you full of ideas that make you so excited about your future that you can’t sleep at night.
We show you the ‘12 Routes to Market’ – in other words, how and where to offer your products to get the best result.
We show you ways of attracting loads of distributors to your business – even if you don’t know anyone.
We put you with a Team Leader, who will also help you along the way.
We help you build either a regular, nice part time income, or the business of your dreams. You can have a rosy future – all you have to decide is what colour red to choose.
Who knows what you would be capable of, if only you had the chance? The hardest thing about Wikaniko is trying to say the name properly….
So join in the fun today, either as a Customer Member or a Distributor. (Don’t be concerned. We only want volunteers, not conscripts. So there’s never any pressure to do anything. We are so laid back, we’ve replaced our office chairs with couches…..)


Statutory Warning
It is illegal for a promoter or a participant in a trading scheme to persuade anyone to make a payment by promising benefits from getting others to join the scheme.

Do not be misled by claims that high earnings are easily achieved.

Sunday, 13 December 2009

Vervain Laurelin

Nina's kittens are 14 weeks old today and are total hooligans - we get woken up between 5 and 6 every morning when all 6 of them realise that they're hungry,  but there's no food available so they decide to visit the litter trays instead.  Usually the one nearest to me :(

They are all now spoken for and I finally made my decision as to which of the chocolate torties to keep.  She will be named Vervain Laurelin, the name I was allowed to have back from GCCF when I lost Pebbles to a severe heart defect back in 2004.  Laurelin was the Golden Tree of Valinor,  poisoned and killed by Ungoliant, then watered by the tears of Nienna, thus enabling her to produce her final fruit,  which became the Sun.   Seems somehow appropriate...........


Wednesday, 4 November 2009

What a relief!

I am just so glad I've finally taken the plunge today and resigned as Secretary of the Asian Group Cat Society - things were intolerable, with no communication whatsoever, and no feedback.
Hope they manage to find someone else to do the job!!

Such a shame, I've been a member of this club almost since it began in 1984, it is very sad to see how it has deteriorated over the last 10 years or so :(

Who knows what will happen now? Hopefully something positive..........


BTW kittens are all doing well and I only have the Bombay girl from the older litter still left to find a home!

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Just when you think things can't get any worse.......

.....they do, big time :(((

Nina, mum to 6 super Burmese kittens, died last Sunday night. Post mortem showed that she had a perforated intestine, but why or how it happened remains a complete mystery. She was fine on Friday afternoon, dead by 11.30pm Sunday night. So quick and so very strange. Unbelievable. Yet another huge vet bill and yet another casket for the top of the kitchen cupboards - the 3rd in less than a year..............

The kittens are doing OK although they were very confused for several days, and none of the other girls wanted to take them on. However this weekend both Nutmeg and Cherry have been washing them and lying with them. Nutmeg is their great great grandmother and of course Cherry is their half sister.

The 6 orphan kittens


Cherry doing her bit


R.I.P Nina - Vervain Nienna - 6.2.07 - 12.10.09

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

WIKANIKO


2 weeks ago I signed up as a distributor with Wikaniko (acronym for "we can eco"), a new UK company dedicated to providing eco friendly products and services. I came across the opportunity quite by chance, via HTMail (I usually delete everything I get from them as I only want the payment for reading their emails!)

Wikaniko started in September 2008 and is already growing rapidly - there are over 700 products available, many of them are things you'd buy regularly anyway, like cleaning products, bin bags, toiletries etc. All delivered to your door! There is also a range of organic makeup, lots of great Aloe Vera products and so much more besides. I can't see how anyone could fail to be impressed. The website also has an absolute plethora of useful information to help you "go green" and save money.

Visit www.greenandpleasant.biz

for further information and to buy products.

Kittens and Future Plans

Well, Molly has made a good recovery from her surgery - it's nice to see her looking a bit plumper, and running around again! 3 of her kittens are booked, but I have been let down by someone who was interested in the Bombay girl, persuaded me to send photos (by post!) and promised a deposit which has never arrived. I suspect it was a young girl who was somewhat optimistic that her parents would actually fork out for a pedigree kitten! So back to the drawing board on that one. Ticked Tabby boy is still available, too.

Nina's Burmese kittens are doing well and have been moved into the big pen in the kitchen today. They are looking very promising type-wise and I know I'll be tempted to keep one, probably a choc tortie, but the chocolate boy looks absolutely stunning!

My intention to import a Burmese boy next year is progressing well, and it's looking like he will also be chocolate, if all goes according to plan. I shall look forward to applying to register him with GCCF - can't wait to see what happens! As there are no US cats in his pedigree, other than the original UK imports, I can't see how any objections could be raised.

Will do another post abuot a very exciting business I have recently got involved with.

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Depressing thoughts

Well, Nina had her kittens on Sept. 6th - 6 babies, nice mix of colours. 2 choc torties, a lilac tortie, lilac girl, red boy and choc boy. All seem to be doing well so far. Must take some pics soon. That's the good news.

I've had no luck at all in selling Molly's Asian kittens, they are now over 10 weeks old and I've had just one enquiry which came to nothing. I can't afford to get them vaccinated, registered or neutered, but will somehow have to manage to do all these things fairly soon........

On top of the expense I had with Rusty last month, I am now facing another huge vet bill for Molly, who has had an intussusception necessitating emergency surgery on Monday afternoon. I'm expecting to be able to bring her home later today, but the bill is likely to be almost £500........

I am currently trying to find a job for the first time since 1992, but there's not going to be much chance at my age :(( especially when I have no skills other than in laboratory work and those are so out of date as to be useless.

Just to make things even worse, Andy Murray lost in the 4th round of the US Open and is back down to no. 3 after only 5 weeks or so at no. 2!!

Douglas goes off to Uni on Sunday so it's going to be very strange with no-one around for 90% of the time.