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!

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!

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!

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 :)

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.......

I really should update this more often! We've had amazing weather here for the last week or so - temperatures of 22C or thereabouts, and no rain. It can't possibly last, seeing as Thursday is my birthday that'll probably be when we get a thunderstorm.........

Nina's kittens are 8 weeks old this Friday and it seems that they have all found new homes. I'm debating whether to enter a couple of them in the Burmese Cat Club show on June 28th, but they'll only be 14 weeks and 1 day, so not sure if I should. I have another 10 days or so to decide, before the closing date. I am still finding it difficult to decide which of the girls to keep myself. The 3 blues are all incredibly similar and I still need collars on them to tell them apart.

I've added a few more photos to the web album

Now I need to think of names - I've got several sorted out but can't decide whether to give my girl a Tolkien name (Luthien??) or a spring-themed name (they were born March 21st).



We have no hot water at present - the heating pump finally packed up last Wednesday, a plumber came Friday evening, said it was the pump, gave it a thump and it started working - only to stop about a minute after he left! Repeated thumpings have failed miserably :((
Plumber is coming back to fit new pump tomorrow evening! It will be nice to be able to have a shower and wash up cat bowls without boiling a kettle......

Photos uploaded

I updated my album of Nina & Theo's kittens with a few photos taken last Sunday when they were just over 5 weeks:

Nina and Theo's kittens


And, as promised, I now have some photos from my weekend in Scotland - I've posted them to my picasa web album here:
Scotland April 2008

enjoy!!

AND......... I heard the other day that Teemu is now going to have his registration amended - finally justice (not to mention common sense) has prevailed!!

Burmese kittens

It seems to work! So here is a picture of my current Burmese kittens, taken at 2 days of age. 3 blue girls, a lilac girl, a lilac boy and a cream boy. Doing well so far :))