In November?

Life is full of surprises. We were focused on my darling Jossan and did not expect much from our (slow to become an adult, an eternal junior 🙂 ) boy Funtes.

Funtes, summer 2016

Yes, both Electra and Claire were in heat (with 2 weeks apart, Electra first) and they both were given privacy with Funtes, but we did not notice a single mating. Well, maybe he prefers to date while his humans are at work.

Electra, October 2016

Electra, Jossan’s daughter from her last litter, seems to be pregnant. I do not know for sure if it is a phantom pregnancy or a real one, but she should be about 5 weeks pregnant now, and went up about 350-400gr, so this could be for real! In that case, we will expect kittens between Funtes and Electra in the middle of November!

Jossan is perfectly well now on the outside, I am spoiling her to bits. Breakfast in bed and all she wants. She is tolerating her Metacam well, no side effects. I hope it works and that she will be around for many years to come.

We checked Leroy, Albert and Maven’s blood values recently. They also passed their yearly physical exam. They are well, and have no signs of arthritis or kidney failure or something bad. Good! Here are Leroy’s blood chemistry results, Albert and Maven hade similar values. Leroy is ground for our breeding, so I am happy that he is going strong, still. He is turning 10 this December.

Miii was tested earlier this summer, also all well, but she is a bit overweight and we are struggling with that.

The war I may not win?

I wonder if this is a war we may not win. We have certainly lost a few battles and the things did not turn out as I expected.

I had to mix the first batch of medicine against TF with a protection mask on my face and put in the cats’ mouth. It took about 2 hours every day to medicate them all. They of course did not like that. Sometimes they drooled. It did not taste that well, perhaps. But maybe it was not THAT bad, since the most were not drooling or spitting it out. The medicine we got was ‘produced’ in Sweden, but actually it is just a cheap powder for birds, 10% Ronidazole that they imported from Germany, repacked it, and sold it to us about 70 times the commercial price in Germany. But what were our options? Ronidazole is obtained only via license in Sweden.

The powder made for birds was not the appropriate form to give to cats; it is the very formulation that scientist and one of the world’s most famous researcher on TF in cats, Jody Gookin is against, since you cannot guarantee the dose that cats get is exact every time. Some cats get cured from it, some don’t. I read about cases on German discussion boards where cats died. Ours did not have any side effects, and I am happy for that, although they did not get cured.

We tested the cats as a part of the study we are in 2 weeks after the finished treatment and only Claire and Miii were negative. All six kittens were still positive and also four of our big cats. So, only 2 out of 12 cats were negative after a 2200 EUR treatment (20 000 SEK) and a lot of time and effort from our side! That felt like a disaster.

I saw no pattern there. Claire and Jossan were isolated with the kittens, and Claire licked the small bottoms all the time, so she should have been positive. But, she was not. (It could have been a one-time thing, but she was tested a month later, and she was still negative.)

Also, Maven, who is not a Siamese, has her own toilet box (she likes Pee-Wee, Siamese hate it), got really bad and she was alone in one room, since poor thing had watery diarrhoea.

Two-three kittens got a bit better at start of the treatment, but after a week they started having soft smelly stool and blood in it. I tested them immediately after the finished treatment (that test was not a part of the study) and they were positive. 😦 Ronidazole just did not seem to work. I wondered if TF our cats had was resistant to the medication, but then, Claire and Miii got negative. They could have gotten TF-negative on their own, though, that is not impossible. They got it 5-6 months before the time they got retested, and sometimes cats can get rid of TF on their own during that time (9 months in average).

But no kittens could move to their new homes, since their owners-to-be already had other (TF-free) cats and I also wanted to cure the small and big ones.

To cut the story shorter, and omit many details – the new medicines were ordered, our veterinary found the new company that could get it for us, this time in capsules, from England, good form (100% Ronidazole). Surprisingly enough, they were cheaper, and although kittens got up in weight (the dose is proportional to the weight, the dose is 30mg/kg, so if your cats weigh more, you pay more), we paid about 75% of the price for the first batch. And the form of the medicine was good, and capsules are so much easier (and less risky for my health) to give.

Our veterinary suggested that the kittens should move to their new homes and be medicated there, to minimise the risk for re-infection at home, since we had so many cats. At the same time, it is not a good way to bond with your kitten you’ve just got with putting the pills every day for two weeks in its mouth. I proposed to the future owners of the kittens who had homes who waited for them to get them immediately after the treatment was done. There were risks, but also, it was better for many reasons – if someone else at home still had TF and its quantities grew again, the cured ones could get it back. The cats were isolated, but not one and one, we found that pretty much impossible.

One owner to be took her kitten 4 days before the medicating was done, and finished it at home. Another couple took their kitten home immediately when the treatment was done. One decided to wait. One was travelling abroad, and could not pick her kitten. One kitten’s future owner changed her mind (not because of TF, but because of a beauty fault that the kitten developed; she was supposed to go into her breeding program). Dexter we did not have heart to sell.

As I write this, I am still waiting for the results of the tests after the second Ronidazole treatment. The cats at home had an occasional diarrhoea after the treatment, but right now they seem fine. The two kittens that moved are well in their tummies, and no foul smell, and the cats that they live with are also well in their tummies. No matter what the results of the tests are, I would have made the same decision as the ones who took the kittens did, but I did not want to decide for others. There was not right or wrong here, only “risky in this way”, or “risky in that way”. My other option was to find new homes to the kittens where there were no other cats, but their future families opted against it. And that was not the option I would be happy about either. The homes that were waiting for the small ones were the perfect homes.

It is a very hard situation, emotionally, and in many other ways, both for us and the owners to be; they waited for their kittens for so long, and then I did not have good news for them after the first treatment, and we had to wait for a long time for the medicines to arrive, just to go through all of it again. Our veterinary was fast to obtain all the licences, and to help us, but that is the procedure – it takes time. So bad. I did not think this will be such a nightmare. I thought we were prepared.

The kittens who moved are very loved and happy in their new homes, Tsuki and Ender (called Ozzy now) moved. The kittens that stayed are also loved here, but they will need to move to their new forever homes soon. Our big cats are okay with the small ones still being here (they are six months now!), except for Jossan that occasionally hisses at them, saying that it is time they move, and Claire that became angry recently and thinks they should move. It is normal reaction, they are moms, and in the nature they should push out their small ones out of the nest at some point. Albert and Leroy think that it is good that they are here, we should have 200 cats, they love cats! Maven and Miii are okay with them, they play and run around gladly with the small ones.

All the kittens on the cat tree

The kittens are big and beautiful, you would never think that they had (and maybe still have) that parasite. We love them so much, and we hope that this nightmare will be over soon.

Dexter, Elric, Eleonora and Electra

Electra

 

More about TF and what might help a bit (besides medicines)

After I wrote my blog post yesterday I kissed the kittens good night and cleaned the litter boxes. And there it was, a cow-pie like poo in one of the ones that the kittens use. So it starts. 😦 And this morning there was an another one. Good that we will start with the medications tomorrow.

TF (tritrichomonas foetus) lives in large intestines, where all the nutrients are already absorbed when the food remains come there. What happens there is that the part of water is taken back to the body and if a cat has TF which causes diarrhea, the water that would otherwise go to the body comes out and the cat can gets dehydrated. So, if a small kitten has diarrhea from TF (or anything else) – hydrate, hydrate! Give the kitten a lot of liquids!

If it is a bigger kitten it may be enough to drink milk, water or or water with electrolytes, but a smaller ones will need extra liquids under their skin. I read about that and that is why we had two veterinary clinics informed about the possibility that our kittens may need re-hydration if they get Tf and we could come there with them urgently without waiting to help them. But no one got it until now. And it is not a diarrhea, but it is more watery that the normal stool. That is exactly how our bigger cats had it at start when they just got TF. It normalized with time. Leroy had the most of problems, but that I solved at the end with help of coconut virgin oil supplement and low fat food.

The thing is that TF ‘eats’ fat. All kind of fat except dodecanoic acid is promoting TF growth. And that is very interesting; dodecanoic acid (“laurinsyra in Swedish”) is as effective as Axilur (Panacur) against Giardia, another protosoe that is similar to TF, but lives in small intestine (our cats are tested negative to Giardia, and we never suspected it, but since we tested against many things, we checked that, too. They had ‘only’ TF, nothing else).

Here is a link to the study: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17146659 : “Dodecanoic acid appeared to induce trophozoite death by accumulating within the parasite cytoplasm resulting in rupture of the cell membrane.”

The dose of cold pressed coconut oil for the cats is 1/4 teaspoon (or 1ml) 2 times per day. Also, low fat diet is beneficial when fighting TF. That is what stabilized Leroy’s tummy at the end! I found that Royal Canin Light and Brit Care Light were good for that. But any dry food with under 10% fat should be good. I got a tips from Denmark also that Royal Canin hairball dry food also works in stabilizing TF caused diarrhea.

Good we will start our treatment soon!

P.S. I am in no way associated with Royal Canin or any other cat food manufacturer. I do not write about any cat products in order to advertise them. I only write about what I believe and see works for my cats, in order to help other cat owners out there, if possible.

The kittens are getting bigger

The kittens are getting bigger. They got their second vaccine, and chip recently. They also passed the big health check.

The fur babies have been growing nicely and there were no problems with them, except for an urgent trip to the veterinary last week when Elric threw up a lot and went down in weight fast (I weigh them often, every day during the first few weeks, then every second day or so). It turned out that he managed to swallow 5-6 cm semi-elastic straw that belonged to the brush used to clean the fireplace. We are not sure how he managed to chew it and swallow it, but he apparently did. He threw it up in one of his throw up attacks, so we saw it. That was shocking. So many questions in our heads when we saw it. But we did not say much, I took the phone and called the veterinary to announce that we are coming urgently and what the problem was.

Elric got help fast when came there. He got a lot of fluids under the skin, medicine and he recovered fast. Still, it was a sleepless night, watching over him. If he continued to throw up, we were to drive to the hospital for an operation. Luckily, he had already thrown up all that irritated him, and it did not damage his stomach and intestines. The brush is now locked in the cellar where kittens never go. We are not 100% certain that the thick hair straw he ate came from the brush; it could have been the new kitten furniture, but we threw away the straw in our hurry to get ready to drive to the hospital, and we do not know. We removed that furniture as well, just in case.  Elric is completely fine now, and the biggest kitten in Jossan’s litter. He likes to eat, apparently. 🙂

Elric, Leroy’s grandchild, he likes to eat. 🙂

So, now all are checked, no defects or health problems. Dexter/LillMupp suffered a minor injury on his tail during the birth, which looks like a little knot, but he has no pain and I do not want to operate it (since that would cause him pain). He is charming with his little ‘knöl’ close to the tip of the tail. He is special. ♥

Here is a video with little Dexter:

And a video with a few of the other kittens and big cats:

There are more pictures here.

And what about TF (tritrichomonas foetus)? Our big cats had it for some time now (almost 5 months I think), but stopped showing the majority of the symptoms; only sometimes their stool smells foul, acidic in a way, but they had no diarrhea and did not go down in condition. The small ones had no problems except from when they turned about 10-11 weeks. Or it was not a problem, really, but my nose detected TF smell, how I call it, in their stool. But I did not feel it for all of them. Then we sent the samples for analysis with PCR method that looks for the parasite DNA and we got an answer that all of them had it. They are symptom-free carriers (or – symptom-free… for the most of time, yes, besides that smell).

The good things about the kittens is that they are well; they did not have diarrhea and are growing as they should. I understand that many breeders and owners can miss the signs of TF and mistake it for a slight tummy disturbance. But not all cats have it that easy and are symptom-free. Some have chronic diarrhea and can with time develop anal incontinence. They can get various inflammatory conditions and get depressed. Some go down in condition as well, depending on their overall health status.

And about having TF mistaken for a sensitive tummy; well, there are not so many sensitive tummies around as one may believe! We had a few litters during these years before we got TF in our cattery and NEVER had bad tummies, and those kittens ate many different kinds of food, changing often, eating various stuff at the same time, licking whatever they saw etc (we cleaned and steamed, but you cannot sterilize the whole house, they will always find something to chew on). And we never had an upset tummy, except once when Claire ate some sand, but that went over in a few hours. We did take her to the veterinary to get some extra fluids under the skin though. When they are small, kittens can go down in condition fast, it can be a matter of hours, so one has to react immediately.

So, I am  a bit skeptical when people talk about bad tummies when they get their kitten home. It could be stress and food change (hopefully you did not change food totally at the same time when the kitten moved to the new home?), or it could be something else, like TF or giardia. The causes vary.

We will start to treat TF on Saturday, in two days, with Ronidazole that we waited for a very long time (7-8 weeks, and we still haven’t received all the doses). Or veterinary ordered it promptly, when we got the kittens and they turned 4 weeks, but since it is a medicine that is obtained on license in Sweden, for some reason it takes weeks and months to get it. I will be updating the blog about how the treatment is going and with more facts about TF and the view on it. Now the kittens are old enough to get the treatment and we will finally treat both them and our big cats. All are in good health, and have good weight (some more than just “good” weight; yes Leroy, I am talking about you!) and that is positive.

Kittens

Here is a glimpse into their everyday activities!

Merry Christmas!

This year we got no snow for Christmas in Stockholm, and it is unusually warm for December here, so I did not realize that the holidays were approaching so fast. We usually have kittens during the summer, this is the first time we have litters in  winter. Now it is all about them, besides our work. I did not make Christmas cards this year either, but today I realized that it is okay – we are like parents with small childen, they come first, and other things can wait. I should stop stressing about all the other things that much.

All the kittens feel great, Jossan’s five, and LillMupp, or Dexter, Claire’s son. When it comes to TF, they probably did not get it yet. We separated the litter boxes and are trying to keep them uninfected. How much that is possible, I do not know. They feel good, have good stools and I do not notice any odd symptoms. Our big cats feel good too. The medicines are ordered from abroad via our veterinary, and we are a part of the study within SVA (Swedish Veterinary Institute), where our cats will be tested 5 times, once before, and 4 times after the treatment. It all feels good.

I did make one e-card, with little Dexter, or LillMupp, which is his nickname. The photoshoot itself took about one hour, with the most of the pictures looking like this:

Merry Christmas according to LillMupp

and then we got this one, which is our ‘official’ Merry Christmas card this year:

Merry Christmas!

Also, here are the portraits of Dexter (LillMupp), 7 weeks old, and Jossans kittens, 6 weeks old:

Etsuko, 5 weeks old

Electra, 5 weeks old

Elric, 5 weeks old

Eleonora, 5 weeks old

Ender, 5 weeks old

Dexter, 6 weeks old

The Army of Clones gets bigger

(about Jossan’s secret plan to take over the world)

Jocke and I are just two ordinary people who have cats (or the other way round), live with cats and adore them. But at the same time, we are fascinated by Siamese cats and we have a cattery registered in FIFe. Sometimes we have kittens available to loving permanent homes. We feel that others should have as amazing cats as we have and we work hard to preserve health and all that makes Siamese cats so special. But before all, we love our furry family members all the same, Siamese or not.

Boys who never become full fledged studs, but live happy pet lives, and yet manage to become fathers to one or two litters before becoming neuters are extremely beneficial for their race. If it was not for them, there would be a couple of so called ‘matador’ studs per generation and all the queens would be mated to them which in the long run would lead to diminishing of the genetical diversity in the whole population/race and that is ultimately a bad thing. That would give us cats with poor immune system that are more prone to get sick and live shorter in average.

But not only for the greater good, but also because he was such a beautiful kitten, and one of Jossan’s big and happy babies (the Army of Clones, she might say), we are delighted to announce that one of the Jossan’s babies from the C-litter, Casper (now called Imre, and apparently, not a baby anymore) became a father at Malviken’s cattery, at Sunne, Sweden.

July 29, 2013, 8 (yes, EIGHT!) adorable Siamese kittens were born at Malviken’s, pure Siamese for many generations.

S*Malviken’s Maria Nyckelpiga and her kittens, one day old, photo by Kristina Norderup

Here you can follow their development (in Swedish).

Now they are three weeks old and lovely, healthy and growing well. Imre is now a happy neuter. Many congratulations to Imre’s Mom and Maria Nyckelpiga’s Mom to their (and our) ‘grandchildren’! There are 3 white boys, one white girl, and 3 boys and one girl with points. Here is a few pictures that I borrowed from Kristina Norderup (S*Malviken’s), with her permission:

Casper’s and Maria’s kittens: the pile of cuteness, 3 weeks old

3 weeks old

3 weeks old, and ready to take over the world

Proud father, SE*La Voix Casper

Casper, 3 weeks old, June 2012 (If you wonder about his manicure – no, he did not catch and kill anything before the photo shoot; his claws were painted red with a nail polish in order to distinguish him from his other white siblings)

In the living room

Jocke took beautiful pictures of the kittens today. Their individual portraits are here (today they are 10,5 weeks old). Here are some of the rest of the photos.

When they are sleeping, the kittens look like angels!

A white Siamese kitten, sleeping

The same story is when they are tired (that is the only way to get portrait pictures, if we are lucky):

Claire, sleepy

This is an attempt to take a portrait picture gone wrong. Charlie woke up totally and started jumping around:

Charlie: “Oh, look, a tail!”

Charlie: “I must fly!” (Look at that lovely baby tummy!)

Corto, waking up…

White siblings, trying to kill each other

Charlie, trying to kill Chloé

Chloé and Charlie, again, this time not fighting.

Albert, “the floating head”, peeking from behind the curtain, discreetly watching the small ones.

Albert is going to have surgery tomorrow at Buba’s. The bone he dislocated in April did not jump back and it is risky to have it stay that way; he risks a possibly serious injury if he runs into something with his chest. Also, he is not comfortable (even less than usual) being lifted. We hope the surgery goes well.

Our little gremlins

They are small kittens, and we must feed them after midnight as well! They eat wet food several times a day, and their dry food is always in the bowls. There is no help – they are growing and need to eat, so the food must always be available. Am, whose fault is it that they turned to gremlins and just stayed that way?!

Little gremlins. They are looking at you.

This is how it looks after they all got tired and fell asleep in different places in the living room after running around for hours.

Albert, Charlie (the little one), Miii and Jossan

Calvin and Casper

Chloé, Corto and Claire’s leg in the back

Kittens, 8,5 weeks

The kittens will get their first vaccine in two days. They have developed their little personalities more. We got one ad out two days ago, and we hope to find the right homes for them. We took individual pictures of the small ones, after many, many attempts and described their personalities in a few sentences here.

And, we have a hall of fame; the pictures we got in the process of trying to get good pictures of the small ones. The best we got can be seen here.

Calvin	Charlie	Corto
Casper	Chloé	Claire

And these are the funnier ones:

Casper: “I can fly!”

Chloé, Bucky The Siamese cat (Get Fuzzy) in real life

Corto, the Honey Badger. It is almost impossible to get a sharp picture of him.

Claire: “You said – what? WHAT?!”

Siesta

Jossan and the kittens are taking an afternoon nap.

A Siamese pile!

7 weeks; gremlins

The kittens are turning into gremlins. They are adorable, but their ears are in that unfortunate bunny phase. They also move around in large numbers and attack various moving and still objects.

We have decided upon the names for the kittens. The girls will be called: Chloé (seal point) and Claire (white). We picked French girls’ names we liked most for them and thought suited them.

The boys will be caled: Corto (lilac point), and the white boys: Casper, Calvin and Charlie, as in: Corto Maltese (Jelena’s favorite comic), Casper the friendly ghost, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, and Charlie as Charlie Brown.

The white brothers – “The monster must die!”

Casper – “Hmmm, this room is new for me.”

Charlie – “Do I look like I have time for posing? I must run!”

Corto to Chloé: “My toy!”

Another time, another place… Again – MY TOY!

Claire – “Gracious? Who, me?! Always!”

Calvin as Dr Jekyll

and – as Mr Hyde

White in focus. Six weeks pictures.

The light was not good to take individual pictures of the kittens today (and for many days actually), but yesterday Jocke took a few pictures of the kittens (and Albert is in the background on two of them).

Resting on their favorite blanket. 6 weeks old.

The kittens are almost done with potty training. The success rate of hitting the box with paper or wooden pellets is about 80-90%. They are still pretty small and quite clean, but sometimes they make mistakes.

Their mom hated the sand and we had to remove it and replace it with pellets. The edges were sharp for the little paws, I think, but that was the best non-clumping sand we found.

It is important not to put clumping sand or pellets in kitten’s sand box. When they are small they may ingest it (they try to eat whatever) and if the particles they ingested are clumping, they can get serious health problems and even die. Be careful! (This is important only for very small kittens, no kitten older than 8-10 weeks will try to eat sand. They do not move from they mom anyway until they are 12-14 weeks old,).

Two cute siblings and their big brother; evil looking Albert in the background (Albert had eyes like a sad puppy when he was small. The eyes in some Siamese change their shape and become more almond shaped with time).

Resting in the cat house.

Cute little models

Kittens, 4+ weeks old:

Getting a manicure

Blue (or seal) point girl

“Nothing can stop me!”

Kittens’ individual pictures from a few days ago can be found here.

3+ weeks

Hello world, here we come! C litter, three weeks old.

The kittens learned how to get out of and back into the kitten house this week, and the house was put into the kitten play pen in order to calm Jossan down. That will be enough for one, maybe two more weeks, until they learn how to climb out of the play pen as well, and then we will have to remove it.

It is hard to get all of the kittens in one frame. On the picture above the little white girl is missing, she was sleeping in the tipi.

Foreign White girl, 3 weeks old, sleepy

Blue (or seal) point girl and one of the Foreign White brothers, exploring

It got scared! Look at that tail!

Blue (or seal) point girl, 3 weeks old

Two Foreign White brothers, 3 weeks old

Lilac point boy, looks like Leroy when he was small :*

Sunday afternoon; the kittens

The kittens are trying to play with each other, but they fail miserably. They mostly wiggle their legs with very little coordination, but they are progressing fast.

Albert must have noticed his siblings growing interest in play, since he, being such a nice cat he is, brought them several of his favourite toys and left them in front of the kitten house. I doubt though that they will be able to play with those any time soon. What do you think? (Here I did something I never do – arrange pictures. Well, this is an arranged picture – I took one kitten out of the house and put it next to the toys just to show you how its size compares to the toys’ size).

Lilac point boy and Albert’s toys

While I think that our cats look and behave mostly like mini lions, sometimes they, oddly enough, look more like – bats. Those ears!

Little furry white bats sleeping

Here is how it looks when they attempt to play. They usually end up biting their own paws, instead of a sibling’s paw or ear, as they first intended; and occasionally they end up on their back and cannot turn back for some time… well, it is a beginning. Soon they will be everywhere!

Trying to play, ended up on his back…

Day 16

The kittens are growing. Now they can hear and they are trying to walk. We tried to take individual pictures of them several times, but they protest and move a lot, so the pictures did not turn out that well.

Here are some pictures we managed to take last Thursday, when they turned 2 weeks. The kittens are very similar in their type and looks. We believe that we have three Foreign White boys, one Foreign White girl, one blue point girl and one lilac point boy.

Blue point girl and one Foreign White boy

Last week when we weighed them one evening (we weigh them twice a day), Albert ran into the kittens’ room, really worried because one kitten cried and protested loudly when I weighed it. He stopped thinking that they are scary small weird smelling creatures, and he started licking and comforting his small yelling sibling.

Albert loves his siblings

Since then, he behaves exactly like Leroy – he is also the best nanny one could wish for. Jossan is so happy, she is just purring when both Leroy and Albert are with her and her kittens. Also, she goes out more often and leaves the guys to take care of them. We are so happy that we have so gentle and caring cats!

Our hippie cats, everyone is taking care of the small ones

Miii and Maven do not enter the tipi, but Miii guards the room. Maven is just curious. I know she licks them and cares for them when she can, but Jossan is not too happy about either her or Miii doing that at the moment, so they try to stay away from the small ones for now.

Day 16, Albert is baby sitting

Big tipi again

Jossan and I had a difference of opinions which ended in moving the kittens back to the big tipi (we did that on Friday). I also removed the small tipi from the room. She told me “Blahblahblah…” and was not thrilled with what we did, but – the kittens went unequally up in weight, since not all of them could nurse when they wanted to – there was not enough space for her to stretch. Now, a day after we moved them, they went back to going well and equally up in weight, so Jossan just has to accept she does not know best all the time. Neither do we; we humans and the big cats have to cooperate.

Two moms!

But, there are advantages with the big tipi; Leroy can come in and lick the small bottoms and the rest of the furry balls. My impression is that the kittens understand that Leroy is mom with no milk, but they do not yell that much when he licks them. It is okay. All of them have opened their eyes.

Nursing and being cleaned at the same time!

Everyone is resting

C-litter, one week old

Yesterday Jossan did something we did not think she was capable of; she moved the kittens! She moved them to a much smaller tipi, that Leroy usually uses when he is in the kittens’ room and watches them. Now it is crowded, but she is happy and we let them be this way for now. We may be puzzled why she moved her kittens, but she knows why.

Smaller tipi – much better!

We think that we have one seal point girl, one blue (maybe chocolate) boy and three white or lilac boys and one lilac or white girl. The seal point girl was the first one to open her eyes. The others are still opening them.

Seal (or blue) point girl

C-litter, day 7

Kitten, one week old, sleeping on Jossan’s back

White and seal (or blue) point girl, one week old

Kittens, day 2

The kittens are getting bigger, and have lovely small rounded bellies. Jossan has enough milk, and we feed her in the tipi, about 6-7 times per day with egg yolk and cat milk (once in the mornings) and wet cat food.

Kittens, C-litter day 2

Leroy is following us to her room and watches the kittens patiently. He loves the small cats and wants to lick them and takes care of them. They are too small, still, so he is with them only when we are there. Otherwise, he would lie all day in the tipi with Jossan.

Leroy licks kittens

Leroy sniffs a kitten

The kittens and Jossan are now in the smaller tipi, that keeps warmth better, but in a few weeks they will move to the bigger one and then Leroy can lie with them (and Albert).

Kittens and Jossan’s paw

Jossan and the kittens, day 2

B-litter has moved out

All the kittens have moved out; Blanche three weeks ago, then Bea two weeks ago, Belle 10 and Balthazar 9 days ago. We miss them a lot, but how happy we are to receive updates and pictures about our small darlings. It is going well for all of them.

What happened with Balthazar?

We were worried about Balthazar, but now we feel that he got the home he was meant to live in from the start. His humans love him so much, and he got a 2 year old Bengal cat, handsome Doyle, as a friend! Those guys are both so pretty and I got tears in my eyes when I saw the videos and pictures I got from their ‘mom’:

Safe distance, after a few days of 'hide-and-seek' (all the pictures and the video in this post are taken by Mikaela, the kitties 'mom')

This is what I found online about Bengal cats:

Bengals are highly intelligent. They like to have close contact with people and are very entertaining, because they love to play and will find something to occupy themselves. They bond strongly to their owners, either individuals or whole families, in an almost dog-like fashion. Many learn to walk on a leash, to fetch, and to ride in cars. Bengals love water. They like to play in it or with it and many join their owners in the shower or bath tub. They are not lap cats. Though a favorite person is allowed to hold his or her Bengal for a while, the Bengal prefers to sit on or near “his” person at his own discretion.

We met Doyle before Balthazar moved and he was so nice; very curious and friendly and vocal, which I liked, but he did not like to be lifted. When I tried to lift him the first time he was a bit surprised, but only said one little : “Ugh”. The next time I tried to do that (to feel his weight) his meow was more complaining, so I put him down and just petted him. He is a very nice cat, and I love animals, so it was an amazing experience for me to get social with a Bengal cat. 🙂 He seemed pretty intelligent and his non-verbal communication was quite developed. It is race- and individual-specific, but you also can see when people worked with their animals; their psyche, comprehension and communication skills are more refined at animals that got a lot of time and care.

"Talk to the paw!"

"YOU talk to the paw!"

Doyle was (of course) scared and cautious and loud when Balthazar moved in, and so was Balthazar; Doyle was the biggest cat he’d ever seen! It took them a week after one hissing_hiding_and_being_scared_but_oh_so_curious start until they became best friends.

Little wonderful white Balthazar, he got his perfect home for good. Many thanks to his humans for all the love for the little one and the good home they gave them (and all the pictures! :))

Doyle and Balthazar sleeping together in their cat tree.

Albert’s beautiful offspring

Here is a few pictures of Alberts pretty kittens, First, the kittens from NO*Aceso cattery, in Oslo, Norway. On the picture (taken about a week ago) they are almost 10 weeks old:

NO*Aceso A-litter (picture by Janne Flusund)

And, the five small ones, in Viska’s cattery, Åkersberga, Sweden! Now, they were a bit harder to get together for a picture, since they were all over the place. They are 3,5 weeks old, and already have reading as hobby!

"We love books!" (picture by Monica Lindgren)

"Catch us if you can!" (picture by Monica Lindgren)

One of Albert's and Dixie's white daughters. A doll! (picture by Monica Lindgren)

Albert is neutered. The kittens turned 13 weeks and started moving out.

So much has happened lately.

Albert is neutered.

He will be fertile for a few more weeks, but his spaying is an irreversible process. It was not an easy decision to neuter Albert. He did not spray, and he was such a dream to have as a stud, but he got interested in Jossan and having him fertile would mean that we would have to keep him and Jossan separated during the time we are not at home. That is not an option. Physically it is possible, our house is big, but we do not want our cats to live lives like that. Pets come before breeding.

And he did get two litters of gorgeous kittens; four kittens in Oslo and five in Åkersberga, close to Stockholm.
So, he is neutered; our happy cuddly white cat.

B-litter turned 13 weeks

And they learned how to fly:

I can fly!

Belle and Blanche playing nicely

Blanche barks at the toy, and Bea aims to kill it, silently.

Belle, Blanche, Balthazar

11 weeks (part 4: the girls)

"My toy!" (Belle and Beatrice)

Blanche

Belle

Blanche

11 weeks (part 2: reflections)

The kittens were curious about the table in the guest room. They were a bit surprised with their reflections. Earlier there were stuff on it, so I guess they did not notice how funny it actually is.

The kittens saw mirrors before, and they were a bit excited about other cats back there. 🙂

Beatrice, 11 weeks

Balthazar (front) and Blanche

Belle

Balthazar (front) and Blanche