Mewsings

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

2011-12-27T11:47:00.000Z

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!

2011-04-29T15:53:00.000+01:00

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!

New Asian Litter

2011-03-20T13:35:00.000Z

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.

Snow!!

2010-12-03T22:19:00.000Z

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!

One Kitten still to find a home!

2010-11-19T14:18:00.001Z

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!

Just a thought........

2010-09-05T17:42:00.002+01:00

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

Lots of news......

2010-07-25T15:25:00.001+01:00

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!

Ocicat Kittens!

2010-06-05T18:41:00.002+01:00

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!

2010-06-05T18:41:00.000+01:00

Kitten news

2010-05-22T14:37:00.000+01:00

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!!

2010-04-10T22:50:00.001+01:00

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!

2010-03-25T15:39:00.001Z

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.......

Another boring update

2010-02-01T16:22:00.000Z

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!

A wonderful opportunity!

2009-12-14T15:13:00.001Z

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.

Vervain Laurelin

2009-12-13T12:15:00.000Z

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...........

What a relief!

2009-11-04T20:29:00.003Z

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!

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

2009-10-18T16:30:00.005+01:00

.....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

WIKANIKO

2009-10-06T16:09:00.007+01:00

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

2009-10-06T16:00:00.003+01:00

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.

Depressing thoughts

2009-09-16T10:45:00.003+01:00

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.

2009-08-04T12:04:00.003+01:00

I had to have Rusty put to sleep yesterday at 10.15am :(

He was 7 years, 1 week and 2 days old - I wanted him to live at least twice that long. He had been seen last Tuesday at the Queen's Veterinary Hospital (Cambridge University) where they diagnosed some sort of spinal tumour; we could not afford the MRI scan (approx. £1600) to determine the exact cause of him losing the use of his legs and in any case any surgery would have been extremely risky (not to mention expensive). Many thanks to Gordon my vet and Wendy the nurse for their kindness yesterday morning.

Rusty was my example to potential kitten owners of the joys of Burmese neuter boys. I have no reds or creams left, for the first time since 1988. Not a good situation.

In fact I now have "only" 13 cats (including Sophie the Asian kitten who I didn't really intend keeping) - I don't think I want to be left with that number for too long........

Teemu went to his new home last Friday, Theo went in May, Kimba earlier in July. Just one (Burmese) stud boy left now, for the moment (although Dexter is more than likely capable, but the only potential queen for him has never called - at the age of 14 months!)

HOT, HOT, HOT

2009-07-01T18:24:00.002+01:00

It is HOT!!!

and we have a Wimbledon semi-finalist - c'mon Andy!! (he shares my birthday)

first time since Tim Henman in 2002. Can he reach the final??

End of an era

2009-06-18T15:05:00.003+01:00

Definitely past time for an update!

Douglas finished his last A level this morning (chemistry) so this means that I will never have to do another "school run", after 12 years :)

Well unless you count the drive to school in August to collect the results........

Cherry's kittens are all spoken for except for Sophie, who has now turned out to be silver, and may well end up as a Burmilla rather than a ticked tabby - if she does not find a home I might not be too bothered as she would be quite a good outcross for Dexter.

They will be going to their new homes over the next couple of weeks, I've got loads of toys etc on order from Ebay to go in their "kitten packs".

Eagerly anticipating next Monday, the start of Wimbledon 2009 and a real chance of a British winner for the first time since 1936!!

http://www.wimbledon.org

http://twitter.com/Wimbledon

very happy.......

2009-05-04T15:31:00.002+01:00

......because Greg has mated his first girl since his arrival........ pity she's not one of mine, but at least he's shown what he can do (I am impressed - he is almost as quick as Elmo!)

Hoping that Nina will call again soon as I have high hopes for potential kittens from the two of them.

Back, finally....

2009-05-03T22:02:00.004+01:00

I wish I could be bothered to keep this more up to date!

Quite a lot has happened since my last post - had a great weekend in Scotland over Easter for the show, weather was fantastic and hotel was lovely. Cats not bad either! Only downside was the horrendous journey up on Good Friday, taking 8 hours instead of the usual 6. With 2 cats in the car that wasn't much fun, although they were both very quiet - the stress was too much for me though!

Greg my new Burmese boy arrived at the end of March and is wonderful - couldn't wish for a better temperament in a stud. He does spray a lot though - despite his previous owner saying he didn't! He is certainly the worst sprayer of any boy I've owned.

Cherry's kittens are lovely - I'm really pleased with the type, just disappointed there are no silvers :( Hopefully the blue ticked tabby boy will be shown as a neuter, I think he is the pick of the litter. (bottom left in the pic above)

Kittens 11 days old

2009-03-17T15:09:00.005Z

I took some more pics of Cherry's kittens today :) I wish the mackerel pattern on the blue girl would show up in the photos but I can't even see it visually now - her tail is well ringed though!

Good match on Sunday BTW - well worth staying at home for......

Excited!

2009-03-14T22:30:00.004Z

I went to see my new Burmese stud today - he is a 3 1/2 year old chocolate boy called Greg. I am really looking forward to bringing him home - he is a lovely strong, muscular, well balanced boy with a wonderful temperament and superb short coat. He should be a great match for my girls - can't wait to see his kittens. I took my camera then stupidly forgot to ask if I could take pictures! Never mind - all will be revealed soon enough and I'll put his pedigree on my website. It's a very nice pedigree with a mix of recent and older lines - a good outcross for my girls and not above the average inbreeding for UK Burmese.

Am not now going to the Asian BAC meeting tomorrow - so I won't miss the England / France match after all! Of course I may well be wishing that I had missed it by this time tomorrow.........
If England can keep 15 men on the field for the whole match that'd at least be an improvement. And thankfully we won't have the dreaded Kaplan refereeing (as he did the Ireland/Scotland match today!)

Cherry's kittens are a week old and seem to be doing well - all have at least doubled their birth weight and some have their eyes open. The blue Self girl has a ghost mackerel pattern - and it's a genuine mackerel with narrow stripes!!

Gold Top?

2009-03-10T20:18:00.002Z

I wondered if Cherry is producing it, her kittens have all put on approximately 20g today. All seem to be doing well so far - can't wait for their eyes to open so I can start to get an idea of the overall type. Will post more pics later in the week.

As I'll now be at home most of the weekend, I should hopefully get everything up to date with BAC paperwork and the Lincoln schedule - plus I'll also be able to watch the England/France match (I might regret saying that on Sunday)!!

If you shop online........

2009-03-08T17:56:00.004Z

I have added a new link under "Sites to Visit" - take a look, it's a great way to earn a bit of money whenever you shop online. You get cashback if you visit your regular shopping sites via Greasy Palm, and if you shop online as much as I do, it soon mounts up!
You can then refer your friends and earn even more :)

Blog settings updated

2009-03-07T20:01:00.005Z

Have been discovering a few things in Blogger today - you can now subscribe to this blog via RSS, and/or become a "Follower" if you so wish. I'll be publishing my show reports on here starting with my next show (Camcat) so if you'd like to be updated with new reports as soon as I upload them, subscribe to the RSS feed in google reader or alternative. (see RSS link on right hand side)

Kitten pics

2009-03-07T16:03:00.006Z

Here's a couple of pics of Cherry and her kittens taken this afternoon. The blue Self certainly stands out :)) Typical - I should have got 50% silver and 50% full expression colour, I don't think there are any silvers and only the one full expression......... sometimes I wonder whether it's worth it!!

Cherry has her babies!

2009-03-07T09:52:00.002Z

Good news - Cherry had her babies last night between 10.30pm & 1.30am.......... 5 kittens, 3 boys / 2 girls. Colours still to be decided once I get a look in decent daylight, but I know for sure that the last born is a striking blue Self girl - the first one ever for me!
Dad (Kimba) was with Cherry in the early stages of labour but beat a hasty retreat once things got a bit hectic............

Pics to follow later, I hope :)

Endangered Scottish Wildcats

2008-12-20T16:42:00.005Z

Having finished my show reports (48 cats to write up, how do you describe a Burmese 48 different ways???) I was catching up with reading today and was very concerned to read in the FAB Journal (Cat Care) that there are only around 400 Scottish Wildcats left and that they could be extinct in 10 years' time. I had no idea the situation was so dire and I'll certainly be joining the Scottish Wildcat Association when they open for membership next year (they're still very new so still getting charitable status sorted out etc)

Anyway I spent this afternoon on the SWA website and will be buying the DVD in January when it goes on release. More people need to know about this - the Wildcat can be saved, but it needs action - and money.

I hate Christmas

2008-12-11T19:15:00.003Z

It took me several attempts to spell the stupid word!

It always seems to creep up too quickly. Today I finally made the effort to order various items that have been requested, with the predictable result that amazon.co.uk was out of stock. I know I've left it far later than this in previous years, just goes to show that 99% of the British public order Christmas online nowadays. With a bit of searching I did manage to find alternative sources and desired items (with one exception) have been ordered. I really don't see the point, it's all such a vast waste of money.

We went to the Lincoln Christmas Market last Sunday. It is supposedly the largest in Europe, had never been before (despite it being the 14th year). It was freezing cold (hovering around zero C) and the stalls were mainly selling tat - not nearly enough quality stuff. Far too many stalls spread over too wide an area, all around the cathedral and in the castle courtyard. Also far too many people, making it virtually impossible to look at anything properly. The best bit was the orange sunset, making the cathedral glow beautifully, and the moon in a perfectly clear blue sky. IF we go again it will be after 4pm on the Sunday, when there are less visitors and of course everything looks better after dark with the street decorations etc.

On Saturday it was the BCS Show, where I was gobsmacked to have 8 Brown and 6 Lilac kittens to judge, plus a fair few adults and neuters. Can't remember seeing 8 Brown kittens at a show for years! Lilacs I'd expect, but never Browns. I have no idea if I got it right, it was virtually impossible to choose between most of the kittens. Went to see some of Theo's kittens after the show - very nice indeed. Also heard of a possible litter which might produce a potential stud - watch this space!

Anyway, I must get on with writing the critiques - have only done one kitten so far, need to do 8 or so cats per day to get it finished by this time next week!

Mewsings

2008-12-09T14:25:00.001Z

Glitter Graphics

Asian & Ocicat Kittens

2008-12-01T18:27:00.006Z

I took some photos of the kittens at the weekend. They are all together now, it seemed by far the easiest option and fortunately Rio & Evie get on well, although Rio is leaving most of the work to Evie now! Rio can't bear to miss out on what might be happening upstairs......... (not a lot, apart from piles of sleeping cats on my bed)

Well I was right about the All Blacks - but that referee!! He is ALWAYS biased against England, it's blatantly obvious. What can you expect from an Irishman with a French name?? Wales had a great game against Australia, there were even a few tries!

I am back - finally

2008-11-26T14:03:00.002Z

aargh! I must keep this up to date more often.

Anyway, as you'll have seen from my website, I have now joined the ranks of successful Burmese breeders - it only took 18 years! Still, I think that having bred through 8 straight generations before achieving something on the scale of BOV Burmese kitten at the Supreme Show, is far more satisfying than simply buying 2 highly inbred kittens, putting them together and creating an instant Grand Champion. At least I can hold my head up and say my lines are reasonably outcrossed - and that I never breed a litter without serious consideration of the parents' pedigrees and degree of relatedness.

After the success of Saturday, I had a disappointment on Monday when I heard that the potential Burmese stud I was hoping to import had been identified by his vet as having a very small hernia - no-one else had noticed it even by the age of 12 weeks! So of course he is not suitable for breeding and I have to go back to the drawing board re. finding a suitable boy with a decent pedigree. I will get there in the end - the breed desperately needs new lines in the UK and no-one else seems even slightly concerned :((

Saturday's excitement made up in a small way for the sadness of the previosu weekend - we had to say goodbye on Sunday November 16th to Rosa (Vervain Coraldawn), 14 year old red Burmese girl and the 3rd generation of my line. She had a suspected intestinal tumour and despite a bit of a rally after antibiotics and steroids, went downhill and developed renal failure. She went to sleep very peacefully at the vet's and I'll be collecting her ashes later this week - another casket to add to the 4 already on the top of the kitchen cupboards. Cherry is Rosa's great-great-great granddaughter.

This coming weekend I don't have to go anywhere! Yippeee - can stay in bed till after 8am both days, and watch England being crushed by the All Blacks (well, only the highlights as the live stuff is only on Sky - ridiculous!!) It hardly seems a year since they achieved the impossible, they've already lost to Australia and South Africa on the last 2 weekends........

More very soon - that's a promise!

Back at last!

2008-07-02T22:17:00.004+01:00

Not quite sure why I haven't been here for so long - Lincoln show tasks have taken over for the last couple of weeks, and there've been various other complications such as judging, poorly kittens and kids, not to mention the arrival of a new litter of Asian kittens on June 9th, rapidly followed by Evie's premature delivery of one (dead) kitten 10 days early :(

I took 2 of Nina's kittens to the Burmese Cat Club show last Saturday, and both did very well - 2nd in their Opens, and placed in all misc. classes. Cherryplum (lilac) was 1st in the breeders class - she will now be staying here. Her half sister Tehya was BOB lilac kitten and runner-up to the overall BIS kitten!

Wimbledon is on and I've managed to watch a few matches - Andy Murray's win over Gasquet on Monday was incredible, pity he couldn't repeat it against Nadal tonight! The final looks predictable yet again.......

HACKED!!

2008-05-31T19:33:00.003+01:00

I WAS HACKED!! Have been online since 1995 so I suppose it had to happen sooner or later......... at about 1.30pm today I received loads of "undeliverable mail" messages, and it seems that someone had hijacked my email address to send out a spam mail about some Chinese electronics supplier! This went to everyone in my contacts list, which is a LOT of people. So apologies if you were one of the unlucky ones.............
I checked for viruses and spyware - nothing at all, which at least reassures me that Zone Alarm is doing a good job. Problem is that my mail account is now locked and I cannot send anything. According to the help files it should only last 24 hours or so - I do hope that's the case.

Kittens are doing well and 2 are now over 1kg. (they were 10 weeks old yesterday). First vaccinations last Thursday and no apparent problems thank goodness. It is now extremely difficult to get good photos as they just will not stay still long enough - they have the run of the house during the day now, and have found several cosy places to sleep (when they do sleep!)

I'm hoping to get some help tomorrow so I can get some decent pics to post on here, so watch this space!

2008-05-13T15:35:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-29T17:27:00.006+01:00

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!!

Back from Scotland!

2008-04-24T14:55:00.004+01:00

Back home after my long weekend in Scotland and just taking a break from writing up my reports from the Shorthair Cat Club show. I had a wonderful time staying with Valerie, Cameron & their gorgeous daughter Tegan, in Birnam - we visited Scone Palace on the Friday, then drove up to Culloden on Sunday. They have a new visitor centre at Culloden (new since I was last there in August 2006) and it really is impressive. This time we had a guided tour of the battlefield with details of the battle positions and tactics - fascinating stuff but depressing when you realise what a huge disaster it was for the Highlanders. Then we visited the Clava Cairns, ancient standing stones about 8 miles from Culloden and the setting for an important part of Diana Gabaldon's stories. Hopefully I'll have a few photos to post later.

Nina's kittens are doing well after a bit of a setback last week - Nina developed mastitis just before I was due to leave, which was rather scary as I thought I wouldn't be able to go. She refused to let the kittens suckle for 2 days, as it was painful for her, hence became totally engorged with milk, and one nipple looked quite badly damaged - I was worried she'd end up with a huge hole like I've heard has happened to other queens. I started her on Noroclav and luckily the kittens were just starting to get interested in solids - at 7am on Thursday morning I persuaded them all to eat some pilchard, but had to leave things to Graham, who normally takes little interest in the cats! He did very well though and managed to keep them going by syringing Liquivite into them several times on Thursday and Friday (they were drinking water by themselves anyway) and by Saturday Nina was recovering and letting them suckle again. By the time I got back Monday evening she was almost back to normal and the kits had started putting on weight again (they had lost 20-30g each). Now they are all eating solids really well and have put back all the lost weight and more. Fingers crossed there will be no more setbacks!

Again, more photos of the kits to follow soon, once I get organised!

Catching up again

2008-04-10T15:35:00.002+01:00

Doesn't time fly?! Nina's kittens are 3 weeks old tomorrow and they are doing very well. They're all well over 300g now and some of them look really beautiful - I don't know how I shall decide which one to keep. I'm very pleased with them - I think they're probably the typiest Burmese kittens I've bred so far.

You can find all the photos I've taken so far on my picasa web album

I went to the GCCF Council meeting yesterday - the fate of the Official Journal has finally been decided, and by a very large majority we voted to continue with Our Cats. We learned that the title is being sold in August to Axis Cook Management Ltd. so that will hopefully remove the doubts that existed regarding the financial status of Our Cats. Let's hope we never have a repeat performance of the last 9 months which really showed GCCF in a bad light.

I do have one more moan about GCCF though - I had a letter last week to say that Teemu could not be transferred to the Supplementary Register because he was registered before the Ocicat registration policy was amended!! Talk about bureaucracy gone mad - it was ME who discovered the error in the policy in the first place, and brought it to the attention of the BAC - there is NO WAY I am going to be penalised for this. The BAC Secretary will be writing to Executive Committee to sort it out. Even though I don't want to show Teemu, it is the principle of the thing that's important here.

That's it for today!

Latest kitten photo

2008-03-29T01:37:00.000Z

Here they all are - photo taken this afternoon. I tried to get individual shots of each kitten but that wasn't too successful. As you can see, they're looking quite fat. Only 2 have even got one eye open yet, lazy things! All are around 170-180g now.

Kitten progress

2008-03-27T22:57:00.000Z

Nina's 6 Burmese kittens are starting to open their eyes - I will take more pics tomorrow. One of these days I will get adventurous and shoot a video - not sure my camera is quite up to it, probably time I got a new one! That's Nina on the left BTW, last November.

Updating

2008-03-26T19:13:00.000Z

OK, now I've got this sussed, I'll continue to post here rather than on livejournal. For anyone wanting to read past entries, the link to my LJ blog is http://kozykatz.livejournal.com/

My last entry on LJ was just before the February Council meeting - well that was a bundle of fun (not). But at least the Ocicat registration policy was restored to its former glory, and therefore Teemu is now eligible for the Supplementary Register, as are his kittens. I wrote to the GCCF office the day after the meeting, requesting that he be transferred - I have yet to receive a reply, so no change there then!

One of those busy weekends coming up - judging at Stevenage on Saturday, staying overnight then on to Slough for an Asian BAC meeting on Sunday. Hope I survive!

Burmese kittens

2008-03-26T12:07:00.000Z

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 :))

trying a new system...

2008-03-26T11:58:00.000Z

After a long absence, I'm trying a new method which in theory at least, will integrate the blog into my website. This is like venturing into the unknown so if it works I will be amazed!