Tiffanie B-litter – cagaran.co.uk

Catching Up

The first update for several months – lots of shows, GCCF centenary dinner and discussion forums, London Pet Show, the Ocicat seminar and several AGMs. Also an update on our breeding plans – Katie and Kia are both pregnant, and Dàrna will be going to stud soon.

Finally, a new update! Apologies to those who have emailed to ask if everything is okay. Whenever I came on to write an update, I found myself just looking at the photos of B-B, and never getting any further. However, I think it’s time to try and move on, so I’ll try to bring this up to date with our news. I’ll break it down into sections, though, so that you can read as little or as much as you want!

Ghost

You may remember Ghost – he was the third of Dàrna’s kittens, and the biggest in the litter. He found a home with a lovely family down in Barrow-in-Furness, who collected him between Christmas and New Year. They breed Chihuahuas, but wanted a cat for their youngest child, Jack. Unfortunately, Jack turned out to have a severe cat allergy (so severe that he was stopping breathing during the night!), and we have therefore taken him back. The improvement in Jack’s symptoms has been almost instantaneous, so there is certainly no chance of him going back home.

We are therefore looking for a new home for him. He is currently eight months old, and sometimes behaves very much like a kitten, but is generally just that bit quieter and less boisterous. His family obviously took great care of him, because he is very loving – his favourite place is wrapped around your neck like a scarf! Obviously, he is used to dogs (all-be-it small ones), but has lived as an only cat for several months, so is a bit unsure of other cats. We are currently in the process of re-introducing him to ours, though, so hopefully he’ll get over that soon enough.

Ghost looking cute in his basket — Ghost in the basket on the scratching post

We will be looking after him until a new home is found, but he is still owned by Jane and her family. Prospective owners are more than welcome to visit him here, but any money would be going to Jane, who is hoping for £250 for him. He is fully vaccinated through to next Christmas and is up-to-date with flea and worming treatments.

Ghost showing off his beautiful plumey tail — Ghost showing his beautiful tail

You can see Jane’s comments on what he is like to live with, on the new ‘re-homing’ page on our website. This page was created purely to help find this beautiful big kitten his perfect new home, so please feel free to send the link to anyone whom you think might be interested in him.

Ghost curled up asleep — Cute Ghost looking very kittenish whilst asleep

The First ‘Cagaran Certificate’ – Lainni’s First PC

Our first litter are now officially adult, having turned 9 months in late March. The Nor’East of Scotland show was held on the 14th of this month, and Lona brought Lainni down to that. She looked lovely on the day, and won her BOB and also the Premier Certificate – the first certificate for the Cagaran prefix (hopefully the first of many)!

Lainni in her pen at Dundee — Lainni in her pen at the Nor'East

I was working on the table at the show, so didn’t get a chance to handle Lainni, but I stopped to say hello whenever I passed her pen, and every time she fell over sideways trying to rub herself against my hand through the bars – what a sweetie. Lona is obviously making a great job of raising her!

London Pet Show

The first London Pet Show was held at Olympia on the 7th and 8th of May. It was the first event of its kind in London, and I hope that it becomes an annual event. The show was split into five ‘zones’ for different types of animal – dogs, cats, exotics, small furries and aquatics. As part of the cat section, the GCCF had been offered a space in which to showcase our many breeds and what the GCCF does.

Richard and I attended on the Saturday, taking Fiona to represent the Asians, and Kia to represent the Ocicats. We were lucky enough to be joined by a second representative in each case – a Bombay alongside Fiona, and a lovely Ocicat (spotted) with Kia. As well as the owners of those cats, Anita came with us to help man both stands.

The Ocicat and Asian stands from above — 'Our' stands from above - the Ocicat is facing the camera, and the Asian is facing away from the camera, behind and to the right of the Ocicat stand. Fi is the little creamy patch in the right-hand pen!

The day was a huge success, with thousands of people coming around and asking all sorts of questions about our breeds. Fiona looked adorable playing with a feather stick in her pen, and talking to people walking past, but it was Kia who was really in her element, thoroughly enjoying performing for the public. We had her out on her harness, dancing around after a feather stick, and drawing a huge crowd watching and taking photos.

She was so relaxed out that she ended up going over to have a shot at the agility, which she definitely enjoyed, though she was more keen on running through the tunnels than tackling the other obstacles – she kept running around the jumps and stairs on one side to go through the tunnel at one end, and then running around the other side to go through the tunnel at the other end!

Kia going through a hoop on the agility course — Kia being shown how to 'do the hoop' on the agility course

I would highly recommend this show if they do it again in the future, and would undoubtedly attend again, even if it does mean a crazy drive to London with cats in tow! I was really disappointed to see that the Abyssinians were not represented at all – the breeders missed a real opportunity to introduce the breed to the public. I would have hated our Tiffanies or Ocicats to be in the same position – the show was just the most fantastic chance to show off our beautiful breeds, and answer the public’s questions on them, and I couldn’t be more pleased that we did it.

Ocicat Seminar

The Ocicat Seminar was held near Banbury on the 15th of May. This was a fantastic opportunity for breeders and judges alike, to gain an understanding of what the Ocicat breed should look like. There were lots of beautiful examples of the breed on show, from a tiny kitten right up to an Imperial-titled adult. The theme/focus of the seminar was the ‘wild look’ that the Ocicat should have, with the day aiming to give an understanding of the Ocicat in general, but in particular how the proper wild look is achieved.

The presentations started with an Ocicat Ivory, which is a pointed Ocicat – these occur occasionally in Ocicat litters, as a result of the recessive pointed gene coming through from their Siamese ancestors. These beautiful cats have most of their pigment restricted to their heads, tails and legs, like the Siamese, but they also usually show tabby ‘ghost markings’ on their sides. In this case, the Ivory was being used to demonstrate how it is not only the spots of the Ocicat that give it the wild look, but also the ‘type’ (the body structure).

Rosemary Caunter (Thickthorn Ocicats) was the presenter, and she started by joking that this was one she had washed the spots off to allow us to see the type without the distraction of the pattern. Using an Ivory was a great way to show that an Ocicat has a specific body type, and should therefore still look like an Ocicat, even if it doesn’t have the Ocicat pattern. Rosemary then brought out her Imperial-titled girl, Thickthorn Lotus Blossom. Lotus is a beautiful chocolate (spotted) Ocicat, and showed perfectly what an Ocicat should look like once you put the spots back on!

Lotus demonstrating the proper Ocicat 'look' and beautiful pattern

Rosemary demonstrating the correct Ocicat head type with Lotus — Lotus being used as a model to demonstrate correct Ocicat head type

Rosemary was followed by Stacie Shorten (Ameeka Abyssinians & Ocicats), who is Kia’s breeder. She was talking about the Ocicat Classic, and how its pattern differs from the Ocicat, but the type remains the same. She used two of her Ocicat Classics as demonstrators – Kia’s mum, Jazzy (Thickthorn Calypso), and Kia’s ¾ brother, Dragon (Ameeka Dragonfire).

Ameeka Dragonfire modelling the Ocicat Classic pattern — Dragon modelling not only the Ocicat Classic pattern, but also that nosey temperament

Stacie Shorten and Ameeka Dragonfire — Stacie demonstrating one of the other major purposes of attending a breed seminar - having a laugh with friends!

Aside from the presentations, we also had a delicious lunch and a good chance to catch up with or meet lots of the other people involved with the Ocicat breed. Breed seminars really are a great place for both gaining a greater understanding of a breed, catching up with existing cat fancy friends and making new ones.

Other ‘Cat Activities’

We have attended quite a number of shows since the Scottish, all the way back in February, with varying success as always.

The Scottish was followed a fortnight later, by the Coventry and Leicester, which is down in Warwickshire. We had taken Dàrna and Xaria, the latter having been entered in this show before she won her fifth and final Imperial at the Scottish. Dàrna won her second Reserve Grand, and Xaria didn’t pick up anything at all, but she’s already an Imperial, so that really didn’t matter. I had an enjoyable morning stewarding for Marlene Buckeridge, though I had to leave her in the afternoon to attend the AGM for the AGCS. Thankfully we had finished most of our classes by then, and I’m grateful that she allowed me to go.

The week after the Coventry and Leicester, we were back down in the Midlands for the Ocicat Club’s AGM, which is always an enjoyable event. It starts with a delicious meal and lots of chat and hilarity, before moving on to the official business. The next week we were south again, though not quite as far, for the Lancashire, which is in Wigan, where Dàrna won yet another Reserve Grand and Best of Breed.

We had also taken Breckin – her first time out as a neuter, and she won the Premier Certificate and Best of Breed. Anita was also there with Keela in what was her first show, since we didn’t manage to get her into the AGCS. Keela looked utterly adorable, and was cuddling up to the judges. She also won her 1st Open and Best of Breed.

At the Lancs show, I was chatting to our friend, Olive Holt (Nemorez Asians and Burmese), and found out that her partner, Ian, was ill. Olive was supposed to be getting two new stud boys from Sarah Davidson (Karakoram Burmese and Asians) in Fife, but since Ian normally does the driving for Olive, and Sarah doesn’t drive, transport for the boys was proving an issue. Sarah only lives about 40 minutes from us, and I was due to be down in Liverpool for a meeting on Tuesday morning.

Since I have had an open invitation to stay at Olive’s virtually since we first met a couple of years ago, I suggested that if I could stay with Olive on the Monday evening, I could bring the boys down then, and drive on from her in the morning. This idea was gratefully received, so we collected the boys on Sunday evening, had them stay overnight in our back bedroom (which isn’t accessible to our own cats), and then I dropped them off with Olive on the Monday.

Ziggy looking pensive — One of the boys, Ziggy, looking pensively at the camera

A fortnight later we had a further reduction in show travelling distance, with a trip to Preston for the Preston and Blackpool. Dàrna didn’t win anything that day, because the awards went to the lovely Freya (GR CH Inyanga Instant Karma), owned by our friend Sue Dykes (Kashi Tibetan Terriers and Kashican Cats).

Fiona, on the other hand, had another exceptional day, winning her 1st Open and Best of Breed, but then going on to take Best Foreign Kitten and then Overall Best Foreign. Joyce Green then shortlisted her down to the last three for Overall Best in Show, finally giving it to the most beautiful and enormous British Black, but in the meantime the stewards had to stand there holding little Fi in the middle, with the British Black on one side and a stunning Seal Point Siamese on the other!

We then had a three week gap before the marathon journey to Devon for the Asian Cat Association show. Once again, Dàrna didn’t come away with anything, but we had rather expected that due to the quality of the other cats and the fact that she was in full season and therefore out of condition.

Unfortunately, Fi was also coming into season for the first time, and decided to shout very loudly whenever she was taken out of her pen. We decided to withdraw her from judging in case her shouting upset the other cats. This was obviously incredibly disappointing in light of the distances travelled, but that’s part of the risk of showing – the cats don’t always do what we want them to! We finished the day with a mad dash back up the road, in order to be home in time to attend the West of Scotland AGM on the Sunday.

Another one-week gap, and we were down to help Shirley show Monty for the first time, at the joint show of the Bedford and District and Cambridgeshire Cat Clubs. This is one of the shows held at the Woodgreen Animal Shelter near Huntingdon, which has to be one of the best show venues, always a pleasure to attend. Monty took his Best of Breed and also another Reserve Grand, which was great, but even better was seeing Shirley and Kili experiencing showing for the first time. Kili was absolutely ecstatic with Monty’s wins, and stood by his pen telling anyone who would listen that he was her cat, with the sort of obvious pride that only a child can display.

The show also turned out to be the venue for one of the GCCF’s ‘consultation forums’ on the proposed changes to the show structure and judging scheme. This was a good opportunity to hear more about the executive committee’s plans for the structure of the show sections (Semi-Longhair, Foreign etc.) and also the alterations that will hopefully be made to the way in which judges are trained.

It was good to see a decent number of people getting involved, and lots of valid questions were asked and answered. These events are being held in various locations around the country, to give the exhibitors from each area a chance to comment – we attended another at the Durham show a week past on Saturday, and a third at the Merseyside on the weekend just gone. If you are involved in the GCCF at all, I recommend attending one – I know that the Scottish one is to be at the Edinburgh show in July, if that’s relevant to you.

The weekend after the Beds and Camcat we didn’t have much travelling to do, and no shows – just the Scottish AGM on the Sunday (1st May). The week after that, however, was the London Pet show, and the one after that the Nor’East and the Ocicat seminar, all of which I have talked about above. That brings us up to two weekends ago (the weekend of the GCCF Centenary Dinner), and the weekend before last (the Durham show), both of which I have talked about below!

GCCF Centenary Dinner

This fantastic event was held at the Belfry hotel near Birmingham on the evening of the 21st May, which was the night of the Suffolk and Norfolk (and Bombay and Asian Self) show at Wood Green. We took Elisabeth down, and had arranged to meet Valerie Sheldrake at Wood Green to collect some more old catalogues, but decided to visit Shirley, Kili and Monty on the way there.

Monty has been living with Shirley since the weekend of the AGCS show in January, because she wanted Kili to experience owning a pet. She and Kili have become really attached to him, and have asked to keep him, which we weren’t sure about until we saw him there. This was the first time we had visited Shirley since we dropped Monty off in January, and it was lovely to see him looking so settled. The bond between him and Kili is obvious – he watches her every move, and even when he went through to the kitchen for some food, he kept dashing back to the livingroom door to check on her!

It is only having seen him so relaxed there, that I realised just how unsuited he actually was to living with us, where he was always slightly twitchy and wide-eyed because he’s not keen on other cats or men, both of which he had to live with here! Shirley’s is actually his dream-home – no men or other cats, so he can be centre of attention, and a little girl who is evidently his world. He was perfectly happy to see us, but his heart is now very obviously with Shirley and Kili, so it doesn’t seem fair to bring him back. At least he’s happy, which is the most important thing!

Durham County Show

Last Saturday’s Durham show was a spectacular success, when I had worried that it would be a complete flop! We took Fiona and Dàrna, as usual, but also Xaria, to ensure that she ‘keeps her paws in’ at shows ready to try for her second UK Grand certificate at the Supreme in November. We gave a lift to Elisabeth, who was taking two neutered boys bred by her, but owned by Karen Hettman – they are Xaria’s great-uncle Stan, and great-nephew Zach.

I was worried that Fi would shout again, which she did, but not nearly as badly as last time, and by the end of the day she had almost stopped completely, so it looks like it has been a hormonal adolescent ‘thing’. She won her 1st Open, BOB and also two 2nds and a 3rd in her side classes.

We didn’t expect Dàrna to win anything, because she is still looking a bit thin and lacking condition due to calling (we’ll need to take her to stud soon), but she gave us a pleasant surprise by winning the Grand and also her Best of Breed, as well as a 1st, 2nd and 3rd in her side classes.

Dàrna admiring her rosettes — Dàrna admiring her Best of Breed rosette - or giving it a good sniff, anyway!

Dàrna kissing up to the camera — Dàrna being adorable and trying to kiss the camera

Zach won his third and qualifying Premier certificate, making him the 15th titled cat Elisabeth has bred, and took two 1sts and a 3rd in his sides. Stan had an excellent day, winning the Imperial (his 2nd) and Grand Premier certificates, and 1st in all of his side classes – a ‘red card day’.

The star of the show for us, though, was Xaria, who won another Imperial certificate and Best of Breed, plus two 1sts in her side classes, then going on to take Best Foreign Neuter, and finally Overall Best Foreign. That’s the third time she’s been Best Foreign, and the 5th time she’s won the level below that. If that’s ‘keeping her paws in’ for the Supreme, she must be planning something big!

BIS judge admiring Xaria's coat — BIS judge, Val Kilby, admiring Xaria's coat

Xaria being judged for BIS — Checking Xaria's profile - doesn't she look adorable?!

Breeding Plans

I can hardly believe we’re back round to that time of year again – it seems no time at all since I was posting that Katie and Dàrna were with their first boyfriends. Looking back, I wrote that blog entry on the 11th of April last year – how time flies!

This year we took Katie across to Sarah Davidson’s, which wasn’t nearly as much of a wrench as last year, since it’s only about 40 minutes away. When we had collected Olive’s boys from Sarah in March, we met Sarah’s other cats, including her lovely spotted tabby Asian boy, Kagura Shogun (the cat in the middle image on the bottom row of photos on her Asian Page). He is a chocolate spotted tabby burmese pattern, with beautiful big eyes and really good size and weight, and carries non-agouti, dilute and the longhair gene.

Since Katie is a black silver shaded carrying non-silver and non-agouti, but probably not burmese pattern, chocolate, or dilute, we should have the same possible colour outcomes as last year – black silver shaded, black silver ticked, black smoke, black (golden/standard) shaded, black ticked and black. This year, the difference is that we should get a mixture of both shorthairs (Asians) and longhairs (Tiffanies), which will be a first for us, since last year’s matings were both Tiffanie to Tiffanie and could therefore only produce Tiffanies. Katie could of course turn out to be carrying other genes and then the kitten colours would be a complete surprise!

She has been very purry and cuddly for the past couple of weeks, and is now expanding by the day, so she is definitely pregnant. Her kittens will be due around the end of the first week in July – how exciting!

It is now almost 9 months since Kia had her miscarriage, and she has been in season almost continuously for several months, so was really needing to visit a boy. She therefore went in with a rather special boy just over three weeks ago, and does look like she is pregnant. She is also eating slightly more, and hasn’t come back into season either, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Since she miscarried last time, and the boy is rather special, I’m not going to say too much else about him until the kittens are safely here.

Dàrna has also been calling almost continuously, and is losing condition, so we can’t hold off mating her for too much longer. I am therefore planning to take her to stud later in the month, and we’ll just have to hope that none of the litters are too big, or we’re going to be overrun with kittens and struggling to find homes for them all! She will also be going to a very special boy, whom we met for the first time at the weekend just gone – he is absolutely gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see what they produce together.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for some lovely babies, and some even lovelier homes for them!!

Farewell to B-B & Other News

B-B sadly had to be put to sleep due to a sudden illness last month, but his siblings are still doing well. We had a good day out at the Scottish show, and are starting to make plans for this year’s litters.

Farewell to B-B

The latter part of January was pretty horrendous, with B-B being very ill. Initially the vets thought he had FIP, so couldn’t give him any treatment. Then we had tests done, which came back negative, so they thought it must have been some sort of bacterial vasculitis, and began treatment. Unfortunately, by the time we started this, the vasculitis had already damaged his kidneys, so we had to have him put to sleep after they failed suddenly.

B-B aged 1 day	B-B aged 10 days
B-B aged 2 weeks	B-B aged 4 weeks

We were obviously still nervous about FIP, so have had the lab in Edinburgh conduct a necropsy on him. At present, we are still waiting for the results of the histopathology tests, but the internal examination found none of the granulomatous legions that characterise FIP, making it unlikely that this is what killed him. We should get the rest of the results next week.

B-B aged 4 weeks	B-B aged 6 weeks
B-B aged 8 weeks	B-B aged 9 weeks

I am absolutely devastated, and can’t believe our beautiful B-B is gone. He was the first of Dàrna’s partial-breach kittens, so I had to literally pull him into this world, and I stroked his little head as he left it again. He was an early favourite of ours, both because he was so stunning, and because he was the first of the litter to really have a definite personality. We named him weeks before any of the others, because he suited his name so well – he always was a little imp, right to the end. He used to sit on top of us at night, and purred constantly.

B-B at Christmas aged 10 weeks	B-B at Christmas aged 10 weeks
B-B aged 3 months	B-B aged 3 months

RIP wee man. We miss you.

The boys aged 3 months (B-B on the right)	The litter aged 3 months (B-B at the back)
B-B aged 15 weeks	B-B with three siblings aged 15 weeks

Scottish Show

We entered the Scottish show a couple of months ago, and I was booked to steward for John Trotter. Added to that, Lona had entered Tabh (who is now well settled in his new home), and Fiona had entered Alek in the pedigree pet section. A few weeks ago, we thought that we wouldn’t be able to attend the show due to B-B’s illness, but with B-B gone, we realised that there was no point moping around the house missing him. I was hoped that John wouldn’t have lots of chocolate Burmese, though, because that would have been too much.

We had Fiona in the kitten class, Xaria going for her 5th (and final) Imperial, and Ali entered in the regional final of the Royal Canin Stakes. The judges were again impressed with Fiona, saying that she was very Burmese in type, and she won Best of Breed. She then topped her day off by receiving a nomination for Best in Show – since each judge was only allowed to nominate one cat from the section, that’s pretty good going!

Fiona relaxing in her pen at the Scottish show 2011 — Fiona relaxing in her pen with her Best of Breed and 1st rosettes

Fiona playing with her Best in Show nomination card — Fiona playing with her Best In Show nomination card

Xaria did us proud by winning the Imperial, making her now officially Imperial Grand Premier!

Xaria examining her Imperial certificate at the Scottish show 2011 — Xaria examining her Imperial certificate

Xaria sitting with her rosettes and certificate — Xaria looking beautiful with her rosettes and certificate

Ali was third in the Royal Canin final,winning us £20, and also won the heat to qualify for next year’s final, giving us another £16, so he has once again more than paid for his own show entry. The moggies are good at that!

Ali in his pen with some of his rosettes — Ali in his pen

Tabh was his usual adorable self, taking the whole experience in his stride once again. As before, the judges said that he is an attractive boy, though not the best Tiffanie, type-wise, but has a fantastic temperament. The was Alek’s first show, and he was a bit nervous initially, and spent most of the day scowling grumpily. He did well, though, and looked absolutely gorgeous!

Alek lying in his show pen — Alek scowling in his pen, and looking beautiful

I had a good day stewarding for John, with some lovely cats to handle, including having Fiona and Tabh in one of the side classes. My favourite (apart from those two, of course!), was a lilac Burmese kitten, who had the lovely impish face and beautiful eye set – her ears are still a bit big at the moment, but hopefully she will grow into those as she gets older, in which case she’ll be a stunning adult. John was very pleasant, and at the end of the day, he signed my first official stewarding certificate – I have finally joined the stewarding scheme, after months of people saying I should!

Other News

Anita took Keela to a Felis Brittanica (FIFé) show at the end of January, and she won Best in Show! Not a bad show start for Dàrna’s first litter, to have two of the girls win Best in Show at their first outings. Wouldn’t it be lovely if that continued?!

Keela with her FB awards — Keela with her rosettes and cup

Katie and Kia are both calling almost constantly now, so I’m hoping to take the two of them to stud early next month, which would give us kittens around the middle of May. Hopefully we will finally get a chance to just enjoy a litter grow up and leave us without problems! Since we’ve had an issue with B-B being ill, I’m waiting for a couple of test results back on the girls first, before we take them, just to make sure there are no lurking problems that we could pass on to the studs.

Wish us luck!

Kitten Update Week 16 & AGCS Show

This has been an exciting week for us, with Tassy/Keela going off to her new home, and some of Dàrna’s kittens in their first show.

Keela Moving Out

As I mentioned last week, we were hoping to be able to drop Keela off on Friday, since she wasn’t going to be able to attend the show. Thankfully, her new owners, Anita and Robert were able to be in on Friday afternoon, so we took the day off work and drove down during the day. The kittens had all travelled down in one large basket together, so we just lifted her out and carried her in.

When we put her down, Anita’s Ocicat girl, Lani (litter sister to our Oci, Breckin), and her Ocicat Classic, Azy (3/4 sister to our Oci Classic, Kia) immediately began following her around. Keela initially saw Azy, who looks very like Kia, and obviously thought she was Kia, so ran up to her, expecting her friend. When she got close enough to smell Azy, she immediately stopped, looked at her in consternation, and then hissed at her and ran away. Smelling a strange cat, when you are expecting to smell one of your friends, must be a major shock!

Other than that little surprise, though, she was quite happy exploring around Anita’s front room. We stayed with Anita and Robert fora delicious dinner, which gave Keela a bit longer to settle down and get used to her surroundings before we left her. We seem to be making a habit of taking kittens to their new homes and winding up being catered for by their new owners – excellent!

AGCS Show

We stayed that night with our friends Tracy and Gary, near Bedford. We are very lucky to have them as an excellent stopping-off place in that area, because I have now lost count of the number of times we’ve been there with cats in tow.

When we were getting ready for bed, I was stroking B-B and discovered that he had burnt his ear. On Friday morning when we went in to get the kittens out of their room, he had been asleep with his head between two blades of the oil-filled radiator that we use to keep their room nice and warm. I thought nothing of it at the time, but obviously he had been like that for too long, and now had a burn-blister on his ear. We did try rubbing a soothing cream into it that night, but by the morning it was still clearly visible, and we therefore had to leave him at Tracy and Gary’s. I was gutted, because he is undoubtedly the ‘pick of the litter’, and the best show prospect of the lot, but there was nothing we could do. Poor Tracy had the terrible hardship of having to spend the day cuddling B-B on the couch!

Dàrna and the other two came along to the show as planned, and took the whole thing in their stride. Ben/Tabh was totally laid back, but Fiona was a little bit wide-eyed in the morning, so we moved her into his pen for a while, and let them eat breakfast together.

The kittens eating breakfast at the show — The kittens eating breakfast together

By the time she was moved back into her own pen she had relaxed into the experience. Steve Crow came over hoping to see Keela and B-B, because he wants to see how they develop, but of course I had to give him the disappointing news that neither kitten was there!

We watched both Fiona and Tabh being judged on various occasions, and were delighted to see that they were giving the judges cuddles and kisses, and purring throughout. They behaved beautifully, letting the judges handle them without wriggling, and standing nicely if they were put on the table. Of course, being cute kittens, most of what they were getting was just lots of cuddles, which the adored! Tabh in particular thought that he was in heaven – I don’t think he can imagine a better way to spend a day than with a series of people giving him cuddles, and time to sleep in-between! Some of the judges thought that he might be a blue-based caramel, and Steve agreed that his colour has changed a bit since he saw them at the start of December, so we have decided to change his registration to 68 43ns.

Fiona in her pen at the show — Fiona looking adorable

Fiona stretching in her pen at the show — Fiona stretched out

Ben lying on his side at the show — Ben/Tabh sleeping

Ben curled up asleep — Ben/Tabh still sleeping!

Fiona won Best of Breed, beating her brother and another three lovely Tiffanie kittens. It was fantastic to see so many Tiffanies there – I think there were something like nine or ten in total, which is the most I think I’ve ever seen at a show together. There were also some lovely Asian shorthairs, and plenty of beautiful Burmese, so Anita and I took the opportunity to go around and help her get better acquainted with the type that we are looking for in the Tiffanie breed. Hopefully, she now has this clear in her mind, so that she knows what she is trying to breed towards.

Dàrna was in a bit of a mood, because she had decided that the weekend would be a good time to come into season. She did cheer up a little bit when she heard Steve and Tommy – presumably because she thought they might be going to take her back to visit Pippin again! She did well, though, winning the Reserve Grand.

Dàrna looking grumpy at the show — Grumpy-looking Dàrna

Our day was finished off beautifully, when Steve Crow came over to say that we needed to take Fiona up to the top pens – she had gone Best in Show Kitten, beating a beautiful little Bombay, among others. Overall Best was Steve’s Tiffanie adult girl, Aurora, who is beautiful, and how lovely to see a Tiffanie taking the highest award! I do think B-B could well have taken Overall if he had been there, but there’s no good thinking about that now!

Fiona in her Best in Show pen — Little Fiona in the Best in Show pens

Hopefully the kittens will continue to enjoy shows as much as this in future, and will have many successes ahead of them. If they can do half as well in their other shows they’ll make us and their new owners very happy!

Kitten Update Week 15

The kittens are all booked now, and continue to develop well

The four kittens remaining — The four kittens who are still with us -B-B (back left), Tassy (back right), Fiona (front left) & Ben (front right)

Ghost and Maya went to their new homes last week, and the remaining kittens also have homes booked now. The home that I thought both boys might end up going to didn’t go ahead, but we have ended up with something even better – Ghost chose his own home, and Ben is going to another show home!

Ghost’s owners and I had been exchanging emails off and on for a couple of weeks, because they were interested in Ben. Eventually, they decided that they wanted to come and see him, with a view to taking him home. We thought that they were sure to love him just as much when they met him, because every visitor we’ve had has immediately had Ben curled up, purring, on their lap.

When Jane (Ghost’s new mum) came to visit, however, Ben showed no interest whatsoever, whereas Ghost was absolutely besotted. He has not been interested in anyone else who has visited, yet he would not leave her alone. Whenever we have carried Ghost around the house, he would try to jump down to explore, yet when she carried him around, he just sat there in her arms, purring and looking up at her adoringly. As a result, they decided to go home with Ghost instead of Ben, so he now lives with 15 chihuahuas (they breed them as Happyhouse), and seems to have forgotten us already.

Ghost with his new friends — Ghost getting to know his new housemates

Ghost settling into his new home — Ghost settling in

When his owners went to get ready for bed on his first night, they left him on the window-ledge downstairs, yet by the time they had done their teeth, he was cuddled up on their bed!

We ran Maya to her new home in Northumberland on the 29th, and were given a delicious lunch by her owners, Chris and Kate. That gave us the chance to watch Maya settle in and get to know her new ‘brothers and sisters’ – another Tiffanie, a moggy and two dogs. The Tiffanie is just over a year old, and is her half-cousin, being one of the kittens from the last litter out of one of Dàrna’s half-sisters. He is beautiful, and although a little unsure, was absolutely fascinated by his new playmate. Maya spent her first night tucked into the gap between Chris and Kate’s pillows, purring away to herself, so that sounds pretty good!

The boys have been neutered, and I am really looking forward to the show this coming weekend. Unfortunately there was an error among the show management, that has resulted in Tassy not being included in the catalogue, and therefore not being able to attend the show. This is particularly annoying, since she was supposed to be going home with her new owners after the show. I am now hoping that we can perhaps drop her off at her new home on Friday.

Lona emailed me an update on Lainni last week, and mentioned at the same time that she was quite taken with Ben, and that she would be interested in showing him. Like Tassy, whom he was quite similar to as a kitten, he has been getting more and more typey as the weeks have gone by. He can now produce a lovely Burmese expression, so if he does that to the judges, he could do well. Apart from anything else, he has the fantastic soppy temperament, so he should be able to win the judges over! His new pet name is going to be Tabh (pronounced Tav), which means ‘Ocean’.

Aside from the fact that we know Lona will give him a fantastic home, Ben going to live with her is particularly exciting for us, because it means that four of the kittens from this litter will be shown – Fiona (by us, obviously), Tassy, B-B and Ben. All four have a lot of potential, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the coming years!

Fiona	Tassy (now called Keela)
B-B (probably to be called Flynn)	Ben (now called Tabh)

Kitten Update Week 13 & West of Scotland Show

Xaria, Dàrna, Call & Lainni do well at the West of Scotland show & Dàrna’s kittens continue to develop beautifully and find homes

Another big gap between updates – life just seems to be a bit manic at the moment, but then I suppose that’s not uncommon in the run-up to Christmas!

West of Scotland Show and Older Kittens

The West was on the 11th of December this year, which was thankfully at the end of a week in which we saw some thawing in the weather. The previous weekend the northern shows (in Sheffield, I think) had been cancelled due to the snow, so we were dreading the same thing being required up here. As it happens, the week running up to the West was warmer and without any new snow fall. This meant that the show was able to go ahead, although the show managers had to print off the judges books themselves on the Friday night, and the certificates and catalogues had to be collected from the post office on the morning of the show, due to the residual chaos caused by the previous week’s snow!

We had taken Jinny, Call, Dàrna and Xaria, chasing the full range from PC to Imperial between them. Jinny didn’t really win anything, which I think is a first, but Call won his 2nd PC (yay!) and Dàrna won her 1st Grand and Best of Breed.

Dàrna with her Grand rosette — Dàrna with her first Grand rosette

Call hiding under his vet bed — Call hiding under his bedding to try and get some sleep in the afternoon

Xaria not only won her 4th Imperial (one to go!!) and Best of Breed, but went on to take Best Foreign Neuter and then Overall Best Foreign! If my calculations are correct, that is not only a great achievement on its own, but also means that Xaria has come out on top of the RACCS points table, making her this year’s RACCS Cat of the Year – the first time this accolade has been held by a Russian instead of an Abyssinian!

Xaria with her Imperial & Best of Breed rosettes — Xaria with her Imperial & BOB rosettes

Xaria being judged for Best in Show, having already gone Overall Best Foreign

Lainni was also at the show, having been brought down by her owner, Lona. I was stewarding (for Steve Crow), and kept catching sight of Lainni out of the corner of my eye and thinking Katie was there, because Lainni is the absolute spit of her mum at the same age. She looked stunning, so Lona is obviously taking very good care of her. She did us both proud by winning the 1st in her kitten class, and also Best of Breed!

Lainni in her show pen — Lainni looking beautiful in her pen

After the show, Steve Crow came back with us, as planned, and helped us to identify the colours of Dàrna’s kittens – our conclusions are given later in this post!

The week after the show, I had to go to Barnsley on a trip for my work, so I contacted the Gills, who have Soolay (now Rafa) and asked if I could call in and say hello. They offered to give me lunch, so I went round and spent a couple of lovely hours enjoying great hospitality, a good chat, and of course the chance to see Rafa again. He and Riley, his feline housemate, are now getting on beautifully and June gave me some lovely photos of the two cuddled up together. Rafa has really grown, and is turning into an exceptionally handsome young man!

Rafa/Soolay aged about 5 1/2 months — Rafa lying on the top of the radiator

Having seen Rafa and Lainni in the past couple of weeks, I was delighted to get a chance to see Alek (the third member of that litter), last night. I took a card up for his family, and was invited in for a cup of tea, and obviously to see him again. He has also really grown, and is such a gorgeous boy – he has a much more ‘typey’ head than his brother does, and is really a rather nice Asian! His human sister, Ellie, is obviously besotted with him, and he is fantastically gentle with her, which is the most beautiful thing to see – this is why we wanted to breed these lovely cats in the first place!

Current Kittens

Tiffanie kittens aged 13 weeks, lying in a radiator bed — Five of the kittens lying in their radiator bed -from left to right: Fiona, B-B, Maya, Ben (back) & Tassy (front right)

Dàrna’s kittens were 14 weeks yesterday (Sunday), and had their 2nd vaccinations on Tuesday of last week, so they are now ready to go to their new homes. Four of the kittens have definite places to go to, and I have had an enquiry for the remaining two that I hope goes ahead, because it would be lovely to see them go together, and the people sound lovely.

Ben & Ghost on the heat mats — The two kittens who are still available: Ghost (left) & Ben (right)

Katie’s litter were adorable, but this lot just have the most outstanding temperaments. You only have to touch them, and they start purring, and if you sleep in their room, you awake to find a pile of kittens on top of you, purring away. They all love cuddles and will climb up onto something beside you and cry to be picked up if you go don’t pay them attention. Some even give kisses – Ben and Ghost will both come up and nuzzle their faces into your hand, or bring their nose up to touch yours if you’re somewhere that they can reach your face. Quite apart from the gorgeous array of colours that this mating can produce, the temperament alone means that I think we will definitely hope to repeat the mating at some point in the future.

All six of the kittens on their heat pads — The six kittens on their heat mats -from left to right: Ghost, Ben (front), B-B (back), Maya, Tassy, Fiona

This litter are also all big, healthy kittens – they have absolutely blown the expected growth charts out of the water! All of the kittens have now crossed 1.5kg, and the largest (Ghost) is over 2kg! Considering the fact that one of our Devon Rex neuters is only about 2.5kg at 3 years old, and that Katie is only 2.9kg at nearly 2 years old, it’s great to see these kittens being such a good size.

The kittens sitting on top of the radiator — All six kittens sitting on top of the radiator -from left to right: B-B, Fiona, Maya, Tassy, Ghost & Ben

We are definitely keeping one of the ‘creamy’ girls, and have decided to go for ‘Kitten 1’ – her type has all fallen into place, making her a stunning girl, but more importantly she has that fantastic temperament and I have had a bond with her from the start. When I last posted, I mentioned that we were hoping to take some of the kittens to the AGCS show in January, and when we did the show entry, we thought we were keeping Kitten 6, and therefore entered her. Having now decided to keep Kitten 1 instead, the only thing we could do was swap the names around so that when I registered the kittens, it was Kitten 1 who is now Fiona, and Kitten 6 who is now Maya!

Maya and Fiona looking cute — Fiona (left/back) & Maya (right/front)

The remaining kittens will start going from next week, although we are definitely taking four of them to the AGCS show in January. Since this is likely to be the last update while they are all still with us, I thought that I would go through each one in turn, giving their registered names and colours, a couple of photos and telling you a bit about their personalities, and where they are going to live, if we know:

Kitten 1 – Fiona
(Cagaran Beannachd-Fionn, the Cagaran obviously being our prefix, and the latter part meaning ‘Fair-Haired Blessing’)

Fiona is an Apricot Silver Shaded like her dad – breed number 68 43fns, where the 68 means that she is a Tiffanie, the 43 means that she is shaded, the fn means apricot, and the s means silver!
Fiona messing about and making it near impossible to photograph her – note that Tassy is posing beautifully in the background!

Fiona standing too close to the camera — Fiona messing about and making it near impossible to photograph her - note that Tassy is posing beautifully in the background!

Fiona waving her ears around — Fiona messing about and making it near impossible to photograph her - note that Tassy is posing beautifully in the background!

I know we’re not supposed to have favourites, but you can’t help it, and although she may be a complete pain to photograph, I can’t help adoring Fiona. There is a definite bond there that isn’t present with the other kittens, which is something that other breeders had told me would happen – Elisabeth put it very well when she said “some kittens just… get you”. Since it is critical that we have a good relationship with our queens, it is great to be keeping the kitten that we have such a bond with.

Fiona side-on — The best photo I managed to get of Fiona looking at the camera!

She is a good sized girl, having been the biggest of the three girls since the start (also something that is good for a breeding queen), with a lovely head and big adorable eyes. She is very cuddly, always wanting us to pick her up and give her a cuddle if we are in the room with them. She is perhaps a bit quieter and less boisterous than some of the others, but that doesn’t stop her tearing around the room at high speed if she finds a toy that she wants to play with. She loves ‘killing snakes’ – any long thin thing that she can get her paws on is dragged around the floor whilst she growls loudly and occasionally turns to pounce on it. This includes dressing gown belts and the old pair of tights that I put in the kitten room as a spare ‘body sock’ for Katie when she had Mastitis and wasn’t allowed to feed her kittens.

Fiona's beautiful head — Side view of Fiona's head, showing her lovely nose

Kitten 2 – Ben
(Cagaran Beinn-Eighe, meaning ‘Ice-Berg’ due to his cold colouring)

Ben looking adorable — Ben looking suddenly much more mature

Ben is a Blue Burmese Restriction Silver Shaded – 68 43asq, where the a means blue and the q means burmese restriction (68 means Tiffanie, 43 means shaded and s means silver, the same as Fiona).

Ben from the side — Attempt to show the shading on Ben's side

Ben is extremely loving, but does remind me of the rhyme about the little girl with the little curl – he gives the biggest kisses and adores cuddles, but if someone is swinging from the end of my plait, or trying to climb up our legs, it is usually him! He’s a wee monkey, but utterly adorable with it. Whenever guests come to see the kittens, he is always the first onto their laps, and then curls up there looking up at them and purring, as if he is completely innocent of any misbehaviour. As soon as the guests are gone, he’s racing around at high speed, jumping on and off the bed, hiding behind things and pouncing on his siblings, and generally getting up to mischief. It’s all harmless, but he’s still a rascal.

The three boys posing — The three boys - Ghost (left), Ben (centre) & B-B (right)

I would love Ben to go either to a family who have kids who could play with him, or to somewhere that has another kitten that he can play with. He is just so exuberant and full of energy that we couldn’t let him go to anywhere without some sort of playmate for him! Wherever he does go, he is sure to reward their love tenfold – I love the way he nuzzles his head into your hand whenever you sit down!

Kitten 3 – Ghost
(Cagaran Bodachán, meaning ‘Little Ghost’)

Ghost looking cute — Ghost interrupting his cleaning to look at the camera

Ghost is a (Lilac-Based) Caramel Burmese Restriction Silver Shaded – 68 43nsq, where n means caramel.

Ghost sitting upright looking sideways — Ghost looking sideways, showing his slightly-too-long-for-perfection muzzle

He is quite similar to Ben in temperament, but a bit more restrained in every sense – he’s a bit less feisty and mischievous, and a bit less extrovert about cuddling up to people. He loves nothing better than curling up on someone’s lap, or lying on his back in your arms, with his eyes half-closed, purring like a little motor. He is quite boisterous in play, but that’s partly due to the fact that he is the biggest in the litter. Like Fiona, he likes playing tug of war games with inanimate objects – his favourite being one of their beds, which he will merrily drag around the room growling in case any of his siblings might think of stealing it from him. On the whole, they just look at him as if he’s nuts!

B-B and Ghost on the heat-mats — B-B (front) and Ghost (back) - our two blonde boys!

Kitten 4 – B-B
(Cagaran Bramán-Beag, meaning ‘Little Imp’)

B-B looking into the camera — B-B showing his beautiful Burmese scowl

B-B is a Chocolate Burmese Restriction Smoke – breed number 68 42bq, where 42 means smoke and b means chocolate.

B-B full body shot from the side — B-B showing his darker points

B-B is a real sweetie, very soft and soppy, and loves to be in contact with his people. Whenever you sit down, he’ll come up and sit next to you, and put his paws on your legs, and if you start stroking him, he’ll then move onto you, and then gradually inch up your front, until you have to cuddle him. He also loves to sleep on top of people, and is usually the first one to climb onto anyone who sleeps in their room.

B-B's head from the side — Profile shot of B-B (nose break isn't perfect, but it's not bad)

He is booked to go to a trainee vet nurse in Bristol, and is going to be a show kitten. He will be living with an 8-year-old Tiffanie and a young Persian, both of whom are also shown. He is the pick of the litter, type wise, so he should hopefully do well on the show bench.

B-B being handled — B-B demonstrating his 'Best in Show' display pose

He is probably going to be re-named to Flynn or Finnlaidh, because the Persian’s nickname is Beeba, which could get confusing for all concerned!

Ben & B-B together — B-B proving he's an imp & considering chewing Ben's whiskers!

Kitten 5 – Tassy
(Cagaran Briotas, meaning ‘Whisper’)

Tassy is a Chocolate Tortie Ticked Tabby – breed number 68 45h, where 45 means ticked tabby and h means chocolate tortie.

Tassy looking gorgeous — Tassy showing why she's going for breeding!

She is a typical mischievous tortie – I refuse to call her a naughty tortie, because she isn’t really. She loves to hide behind things and jump on her siblings as they go past, and has also developed the slightly annoying habit of hiding in her litter tray and jumping out on her siblings, throwing litter out of the back of the tray!

She was a slightly funny looking kitten, but in the past couple of weeks, everything has suddenly fallen into place, and I would be hard-pushed to say who is now ‘better’ between her and Fiona – both have beautiful heads, with lovely eye shape and nice slender limbs (actually the latter is something this whole litter have been blessed with, thankfully). When Steve came to help us identify colours, he was really taken with her, and said that if he had the space, he would have wanted to take her!

Tassy showing her nice break and level chin

I am delighted to say that she is going to be going as a breeding queen, and will be living with friends of ours who breed Ocicats. They have been considering having a second breed for ages, and after falling in love with Soolay/Rafa from the last litter, decided that Tiffanies were that second breed. Tassy will therefore be their foundation queen, and I’m really looking forward to working with them over the coming years. One of their Ocicat girls has a name quite similar to Tassy, so they are going to be changing her name to Keela, which is a phonetic spelling of Kìla, which is gaelic for ‘Lovely’.

Kitten 6 – Maya
(Cagaran Bean-Meala, meaning ‘Honeyed Lady’)

Maya standing side-on — Pretty Maya showing her lovely proportions

Like Fiona, Maya is an Apricot Silver Shaded – breed number 68 43fns.

Maya is still more playful than Fiona, but over the past few weeks, she has become far more loving and people-oriented, and is one of the quickest to demand cuddles when we go into their room. She loves curling up beside us at night, and will come and purr in our ears when the alarms go off in the morning – very adorable.

Maya held up — Maya looking relaxed and floppy whilst being held

She is going to live with a young couple in Northumberland. One of them is a vet, and used to be the vet for Dàrna’s breeders, before they moved from Northumberland to Dumfries-shire. Maya’s new family have one of the kittens from one of Dàrna’s half-sister’s last litters, who is therefore Maya’s half-cousin. He is called William, and is currently 11 months old. They also have an older cat, who is a bit fed up of William wanting to play with him, so it’ll be lovely for William and Maya to have eachother to play with!

Maya held up side-on — Maya held up again, this time showing her pretty head

Christmas

This year we decided to take a Christmassy photo of the kittens to use on our Christmas cards. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a very time-consuming process, and Richard was desperate for us just to settle for one of the many photos we had containing four of the kittens. I was determined, however, that we should include all six kittens, and eventually we got a photo we liked.

In the process of trying to get the photo that we eventually used, we did get quite a few other photos that also looked good, but didn’t contain all six kittens.

Fiona	Fiona & B-B	Fiona & B-B again
Ben	Ben again	Five of the kittens

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas, and that you have an even better New Year!

Shows & Kitten Update Week 10

The kittens continue to grow, and also have their first bath – the first couple have homes booked now. We have a good day at both the Ulster show and the Supreme.

It feels like months since I last posted a blog update, rather than just over three weeks. As you might expect, plenty has happened in that time, both with the kittens and the rest of the household.

Shows

At the end of my last post, I mentioned that we were heading over to Ireland for a show the following day. That was a tiring, but very enjoyable experience. There was a special deal on the ferry, meaning that we could take two others with us for the same price. We took Elisabeth, obviously, and also Kate Ekanger (Cloudborn Devons & Laperms). In addition, Sarah Davidson (Karakoram Asians & Burmese) asked if we would mind taking one of her cats over as well, which of course we were happy to do.

Kate drove to our house first, and we headed off at about 22:45, collected Elisabeth en route, and drove down to Stranraer for the 03:30 ferry. We arrived in Belfast around 06:30 and grabbed about an hour’s sleep, before the show day began around 08:00. The day went really well for our three, with Coimhlion winning her 2nd Grand Prem, Katie winning her 1st Grand Champ and Xaria winning another Reserve Imp. Katie and Xaria both also won their Best of Breed awards.

Xaria with her rosettes at the Ulster show — Xaria

Katie with her rosette and Grand certificate at the Ulster show — Katie

Coimhlion with her Grand rosette at the Ulster show — Coimhlion

Kate’s LaPerm girl hadn’t been to a show before, but took the whole thing totally in her stride and won an Intermediate, which counts towards the forward progression of that breed. The girl whom we had taken on behalf of Sarah also did really well, picking up an Imperial. We got the 20:00 ferry back to Stranraer, finally getting back to our house at about 01:30 on the Sunday morning – almost 27 hours after leaving the house! Poor Kate still had another couple of hours further to go after us!

Coming forwards a fortnight, we were down in Birmingham for the Supreme last weekend. Once again, we were taking Elisabeth with us, but this time we also had the RACCS (Russian & Abyssinian Cat Club of Scotland) stand to set up on the Friday, so we travelled down first thing that morning, spent the afternoon setting up the stand and then stayed with Richard’s parents overnight. Richard and I have travelled down and stayed with his parents the night before the Supreme the past two years as well, because it means that we have a rather civilised 50 minute journey in the morning, instead of several hours!

This year I was unbearably nervous, because the two cats we were taking, Annas and Xaria, were both entered in the prestigious UK Grand classes – the highest available. The winner of each UK class (thankfully they were in different classes – Annas against the Asian Group, and Xaria just against the Russians) wins a UK certificate, and two UK certificates affords the cat a UK title, which means that they have to take the certificate in two separate years. I was particularly nervous about Annas’ result, because she won the certificate last year, meaning that a win this year would give her the title – the last thing she has left to win!

Both girls showed themselves beautifully, and did us proud by winning not only their UK certificates, but also their Best of Breed awards – an impressive feat against the quality of cats who are seen at the Supreme. Annas’ win made her the first UK-titled Tiffanie, but also only the third cat in the whole Asian Group to win the UK title, and also just the second in the group to hold both the UK and Imperial titles! Xaria’s win was also significant, though, because it made her the first Scottish-bred Russian to win a UK certificate, and was also the first cat bred by Elisabeth to win a Supreme BOB! Needless to say, we were both a bit teary that day!

Annas being judged at the Supreme 2010 — Annas being judged

Xaria in her pen at the Supreme 2010 — Xaria in her pen

Kittens

Now onto the bit that you are probably actually reading this for – the kittens…

Maya dancing around instead of standing nicely	Ben looking worried about the clicking of the camera
Ghost taking a break from playing to stare suspiciously at the camera!	B-B finally sitting still for a second but still pulling a silly face
Tassy looking adorable	Fiona posing beautifully

When Dàrna was first taken away from them, they had a bit of a ‘wobble’ weight-wise, particularly B-B, who was the least weaned. However, they have come along beautifully since, and even little B-B was over 930g last night (at a day under 10 weeks), with all the others now being over 1kg, and Ghost, who is the largest, being over 1.3kg! Their first vaccinations are booked for Monday, and we have our first visitors coming to see them the weekend after that. At the moment it looks like we have homes for all three of the girls plus at least one of the boys, though nothing is definite yet.

We still haven’t decided which of the ‘cream’ girls we want to keep – Maya has the personality that I like the best, but Fiona might turn out to have the better type, so I will probably hold off making a decision as long as possible. Whichever one we are not keeping is hopefully going to go and live with one of her cousins, which would be lovely for her, and the people sound ideal!

At the moment it looks like B-B will have the best type of the lot, so I am hoping that he has found a show home, again living with another Tiffanie, but also a Persian and a moggy. Again, his prospective owners sound perfect, so I’m really hoping that goes ahead.

B-B side-on, pulling a silly face — B-B pulling a silly face - nightmare to photograph because he won't sit still!

Tassy has two separate families interested in her, but obviously the ones who asked first will get the first call. She was the first whom we received an enquiry about, but that was a few weeks ago now, so it is possible they have found another kitten by now. I am hoping to hear from them in the next few days so that they can come through and meet her if they are still interested.

Tassy tucked into the covers — Tassy tucked in, looking adorable

Wherever possible, I like people to meet the kittens at least once before they take them home, because it gives them a chance to form a bond early-on. That’s me being needlessly sentimental, of course, because Tiffanies will always bond to whoever their ‘family’ are (including other pets), regardless of the age they move at – it just tends to be less traumatic for them as youngsters!

Just like human babies, kittens are exceptionally good at getting themselves in a mess, whether by jumping in their food (a common occurance during play), or managing to stand in something unpleasant in the litter tray. The weekend before last, they had managed exactly that, so we filled a bath with warm water and popped the whole litter into it. At that age, they have absolutely no fear of the water, and just seem to see it as an interesting warm place – Ben was even playing with a ball floating on the surface!

The kittens enjoying their bath, and afterwards getting dry with the assistance of Dàrna (their mum) and Kia (our Ocicat Classic girl)

8-week-old Tiffanie kittens drying after a bath — The kittens finishing the drying process on the radiator after their bath(from left to right: Ben, Ghost, Maya, Tassy, B-B, Fiona)

As you might expect by now, I still haven’t made up my mind about colours. Tassy still looks like a chocolate tortie ticked tabby, and B-B like either a chocolate burmese self or a chocolate burmese smoke. I think Ghost is a lilac burmese but I’m not sure whether he’s a silver ticked tabby or a silver shaded (or even if he’s definitely silver, frankly). Ben is definitely silver, and I’m now leaning towards him being lilac, but whether he’s a smoke or a ticked tabby I’m not sure yet.

Ben, Ghost & B-B — Ben (centre), Ghost (right) & B-B (left)

That leaves the ‘cream’ girls, whose colour is now getting ‘hotter’ by the day, making it less likely that they are cream. Their nose leathers are now slightly different colours, though, with Maya’s being pale pink and Fiona’s a pink so pale it is almost white. I’m wondering, therefore, whether Maya is a red silver shaded and Fiona an Apricot silver shaded.

Maya & Fiona — Maya (left) & Fiona (right) - you can just see the difference in nose leather

Thankfully, Steve Crow (Kagura Asians & Burmese), who is a very well-respected judge, with many years experience breeding Asians and Burmese, is going to come and stay with us the night after the West of Scotland show in a couple of weeks. He is often consulted by other judges at shows, if they are unsure of a cat’s colour, so we are very lucky to have him coming to give us his thoughts on this litter. I am also hoping that he can perhaps give me a hand in the dilemma of which girl to keep for ourselves!!

Other News

Unfortunately, Breckin doesn’t seem very happy at the moment, so we have taken the difficult decision to have her spayed, and see if that makes a difference to her. Obviously, that means we will be one queen down, but we still have the beautiful Kia to breed from. I am hoping to take her down to stud in January, now that she has had plenty of time to recover from her miscarriage, so we will be hoping for one litter of Oci babies next year anyway.

The next show is the West of Scotland, and I am hoping to see at least one of Katie’s kittens there, though I haven’t actually checked about entries. After that, we’re round to the New Year, and the Asian Group Cat Society’s show, which I’m hoping to take some of Dàrna’s babies to. Must decide soon, though, because the closing date is in just a few days…

Kitten Update Week 6

Soolay goes to his new home, Dàrna’s kittens continue to grow well and develop personalities, and we have a good day at the Yorkshire Show.

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks for my job, hence the delay in posting the next update. You will be glad to know that the kittens are all doing well, though.

Soolay went to his new home almost two weeks ago now, and his owners are a retired couple who absolutely adore him. His new ‘mum’ says he wakes her in the morning with “velvet kisses”, and she also said that his favourite food is smoked salmon and cream cheese! Elisabeth and I visited Alek in his new home, and he is also very well settled and looking gorgeous. He has grown a lot since we last saw him, and has a beautiful Burmese head now.

Dàrna’s kittens have continued to develop nicely, with the biggest now being over 800g. They will be seven weeks on Sunday, so their weights are either level with, or ahead of, target. Unfortunately Dàrna has managed to do something to one of her legs, and was therefore up at the vet yesterday for an anti-biotic injection, pain-killer and anti-inflammatories, the combination of which means that she is no longer allowed to feed the kittens. Poor girl is ridiculously full of milk today, and looks very uncomfortable, and there’s not a thing we can do for her. At least her leg isn’t broken, though: it could be worse!

Their personalities are really showing through now, and Kitten 1 has taken a leap forwards in terms of personality since my last post. She is the most people-oriented of the whole litter, purring the instant you touch her, and happily lying on her back in your hands while you stroke her head – so cute! Kitten 5 is also still very cuddly, although she prefers to sit upright rather than be on her back. B-B (Kitten 4) follows us around, and will sit on your foot and wrap his paws around your ankle if you try to leave the room – he really is adorable, although very mischievous. Kitten 3 is still the most similar to Soolay, liking to think he is a lion until anything noisy happens, when he runs to hide, which is very funny. His favourite game at the moment is to grab the side of their little basket and ‘fight’ with it, growling the whole time. Kitten 2 still comes to greet us when we enter the room, but isn’t quite as much into cuddles at the moment. Kitten 6 is still very strong-willed, very like Lainni, but does like to come and jump onto your lap if you sit on the floor. All six of the kittens have now taken to sleeping on top of whomever is in the bed at night!

Kitten 1 showing her lovely head	Kitten 2 looking cute
Kitten 3 showing his lilac head colour	B-B looking like he'd like to kill us!
Kitten 5 walking into the camera	Kitten 6 looking smug
Comparing colour on Kittens 1 (left) & 6 (right)	Comparing colour on Kittens 2 (right), 3 (left) & 4 (centre)

The jury is still out on the colours. I am almost certain that Kitten 5 is a chocolate tortie ticked tabby and that Kitten 4 is a chocolate BCR (although he could be a smoke). The other girls are either cream or apricot silver shaded, but I still don’t know which. The other two are also causing me debate – the photo above shows the three boys together, and you can see that they are obviously different, but only slightly. Kitten 2 could be blue, blue-based caramel or lilac, and either silver ticked tabby or smoke. Kitten 3, on the other hand, is either a lilac or a lilac-based caramel, and I think he’s a silver ticked tabby. As always, we will just need to wait and see.

I think we’re finished choosing names now. Kitten 1 is Maya, with a pedigree name of Bean-Meala (Honeyed Lady). Kitten 2 is Ben, with a pedigree name of Buinne-Gorm (Blue Stream). Kitten 3 is Ghost, with a pedigree name of Bodachán (Little Ghost). Kitten 4 is B-B, with a pedigree name of Bramán-Beag (Little Imp). Kitten 5 is Tassy, with a pedigree name of Briotas (Whisper). Finally, Kitten 6 is Fiona, with a pedigree name of Beannachd-Fionn (Fair-Haired Blessing).

I can hardly believe that the babies will be ready for their first vaccinations in just a bit over a fortnight. They can then start ‘entertaining’ guests, and with each of these looking so different, it will be interesting to see who goes for which kitten. We are still debating which of the two creamy ones to keep – one day I think one of them, and the next the other!

We had a good day at the Yorkshire show last week, with all three winning their Best of Breed, and Soolay getting down to the last three for Best Foreign Kitten, against stiff competition. Xaria also won another Reserve Imperial, but since she already has an Imperial from that judge, I was quite happy for the other cat to have the certificate. Katie won her first Reserve-Grand, which was rather exciting! Now we just need to have a good day in Ireland tomorrow…

Kitten Update Week 4

Dàrna’s kittens continue to grow and develop, taking their first solid food and starting to use the litter tray. Alek and Lainni are well settled in their new homes, and Soolay is still looking for his.

Dàrna’s kittens continue to do well, with the smallest now being 371g, and the largest 456g. Still making regular alterations to my guesses on colour, with the current best guesses being:

Kitten 1 (female) – cream silver shaded (ghost spotted)
Kitten 2 (male) – blue silver ticked tabby
Kitten 3 (male) – lilac BCR silver shaded
Kitten 4 (male) – chocolate BCR (smoke?)
Kitten 5 (female) – chocolate tortie ticked tabby
Kitten 6 (female) – cream silver shaded

Tiffanie kittens suckling from their dam — The babies feeding from Dàrna - Kitten 6 is the one across the top, and the others, from left to right are: Kittens 4, 5, 2, 1 and 3

Since the paperwork for Katie’s litter still hasn’t come through, I am currently trying to choose names, so that we can get the registrations in earlier for this lot. Like the last litter, the intention is that the names should mean something in gaelic, but these ones will all begin with the letter ‘B’. The only one whose name I am happy with at the moment is Kitten 4, who is always off investigating something, and will be called Bramán-Beag, which means ‘Little Imp’. I am considering Briotas for Kitten 5, which means ‘Whisper’, because she is a bit quieter than some of the others in her behaviour, but I’m not fully decided yet, because she can out-shout most of the others if she thinks her dinner is late!

Kitten 1 - adorable expression!	Kitten 1 showing her neat nose
Kitten 2 watching his mum	Kitten 2 looking unsteady
Kitten 3 with a Burmese scowl	Kitten 3 exploring
Kitten 4 showing off his darker ears and nose	Kitten 4 watching his siblings intently - he loves pouncing on them!
Kitten 5 looking sweet	Kitten 5 from the side
Kitten 6 showing her longer head	Even shading on Kitten 6

They are all really starting to develop individual personalities now, but it is a bit more difficult to pick out their individual characteristics than it was with Katie’s litter, because there are so many more of them. Kitten 2 is quite into people, and will often follow us across the room when we go to leave. He and Kitten 5 both enjoy their cuddles more than some of the others at present, and will clamber up onto you if you sit on the floor, but he will then crawl all over you, whereas Kitten 5 will just settle down – she is more like Alek from the last litter. Kitten 4 is quite mischievous and likes to explore, while Kitten 6 is quite independent and strong-willed, more like Lainni was in the last litter. Kitten 3 is a bit of a mummy’s boy, doesn’t like being told what to do, and loves cuddling up in whatever basket Dàrna is in – he is most like Soolay. Kitten 1 is a bit of a mystery still, since her personality isn’t really showing through yet, but she will get there.

After Dàrna moved the kittens out of their pen into the middle of the floor, I had used their play tunnel to set up a barricade to at least keep them restricted to that end of the room. However, on Friday evening, Kitten 2 managed to find his way through, and started sharing his mum’s wet food! Several minutes later, he moved over to try her dry food as well. Since it appeared that they thought they were ready for solids, I brought up a dish of Royal Canin baby mousse, and sure enough, Kitten 1 joined Kitten 2 in eating it. Kittens 5 and 6 were happy to eat it if I put some in their mouths, but Kittens 3 and 4 were not interested at all, and would spit it out if made to take it.

Kitten 2 trying his first solid food

Yesterday evening, I took up a dish of Royal Canin Instinctive Kitten, which instead of being a paste/mousse, is a runny gravy with small lumps of meat. Kitten 2 was straight into it, with his front paws in the middle of the dish (covered in gravy), and his face shoved right down between the lumps. This time, however, he was joined by Kitten 3, who was rather neater about the whole thing, but spent several minutes feeding. The other four were not interested at all, including Kitten 5, who had enjoyed it so much the night before! This morning I tried them with a different flavour and texture of food, which Kitten 2 ate a small amount of, but was basically uninterested, and Dàrna ended up eating most of that herself!

Obviously, with a change in diet from milk to solids, comes a change in production of wastes, but it looks like they are going to cope fine with that transition, too. Kitten 5 used the litter tray this morning, and a couple of the others were in scraping around in it, preparing to go. These kittens are a lot younger in moving on than Katie’s were, which seems strange, considering how laid back their mum is – I thought they might take longer.

Katie’s Litter

I have had photos through of both Alek and Lainni this week, looking thoroughly settled in their new homes. I can’t tell you how good it feels to see them contented and enjoying making a new family very happy. I just wish we could find someone for Soolay now, before we get any more attached to him. The other cats are also starting to accept him as part of the family, so it is going to be harder for them the longer he stays. I am also going to find it so hard to part with him already, and I guess it’s only going to get harder.

Soolay (Tiffanie kitten) eating with the adult cats — Soolay eating with some of the adults - from left to right: Xaria (just visible), Coimhlion, Amlach, Kia, Soolay, Katie, Annas, Jinny & Call

He was playing on Richard’s lap after we had lunch earlier – cuddled up asleep one minute then pouncing on Richard’s hands the next, and trying to undo the zip on his fleece. He is a wee monkey, always into something unless he’s cuddled up with someone, but that makes him so adorable. I hope all of the kittens we produce are as pleasurable to live with as he is!

Soolay (Tiffanie kitte) lying on Richard's lap — Soolay looking adorable on Richard's lap

Soolay playing on Richard's lap

Kitten Updates – 3 weeks & 15 weeks

Soolay attends his first show, and we continue our debates over what colour the younger kittens are. Lainni and Alek also settle in well at their new homes.

The kittens are now three weeks old, and should all be over 300g by this evening. I still think we have three boys and three girls, but am no more sure on the colours.

Tiffanie kittens aged 2 weeks, with their mum — The babies clambering over Dàrna

Colour Debates

The bluey one (‘Kitten 2’ or ‘The Blue’) has come up really silver underneath, but with the sort of clear line between marking and base that you get on a blue Abyssinian, so I’m thinking he’s probably a silver ticked tabby. As for marking colour, the brownish cast that his fur had for a while seems to have mostly disappeared, so I’m guessing he is possibly a plain blue, rather than a blue-based caramel, as I thought before.

Tiffanie kitten aged 2 weeks — The Blue showing his facial markings

I still think that the tortie is a chocolate tortie, but her undercoat has lost its silvery look, so I’m now not sure whether she is just an unsound self, or a ticked tabby in which the ticking hasn’t yet come in. She has lovely rich red, especially on her face, which has very even red blazes.

The two ‘lilacs’ are now very different colours, and one is quite clearly a Burmese Restriction (‘Kitten 4’ or ‘the BCR’), because he has much darker ears and muzzle than the rest of his body. His nose leather and paw pads are also much darker than his brother’s – a browny-pink rather than the rose pink that his brother has. As a result, I am wondering whether he (the BCR) might even be a chocolate, or certainly a lilac-based caramel. The other boy (‘Kitten 3’ or ‘the Lilac’) is almost certainly a lilac, because his colour has remained a sort of rosy dove-grey. Both boys seem to have silver undercoats, and since they are developing an area of darker marking on the tops of their heads, I’m guessing they are either shaded or ticked tabby.

Tiffanie kittens aged 2 weeks — The two 'lilacs' showing the difference in nose leather colour. 'The BCR' is on the left, and 'the lilac' on the right. The difference is now more pronounced.

The two red-series kittens are still very similar in colour, with either cream or apricot over silver. One has faint spots, whereas the other is evenly coloured, so I’m not sure whether that means that one is a spotted and the other a ticked or shaded, or whether both are shaded, but one ‘masks’ spotted tabby and has ghostmarkings showing through, while the other ‘masks’ ticked tabby, which gives no ghostmarkings.

I’m kind of hoping that at some point before these are ready to leave, one of the ‘Asian colour experts’ will get a chance to call in on us and take a look!

Dàrna decided part-way through the week that she wanted the babies in the middle of the floor, rather than in their pen. I tried everything I could think of to get her to keep them in the pen, short of actually shutting her in with them, but in the end we have had to give up and let her keep them on the floor. I have put the purple basket behind where she likes to keep them, and they are at least sensible enough to clamber off into the basket whenever she isn’t feeding them. When she thinks it is time for a feed, she lies down in front of the basket and calls to them.

Kittens Settling In

Lainni and Alek both seem to have settled into their new homes perfectly, and I am receiving regular updates about both. Lainni’s new ‘mum’, Lona, sent me an email a couple of days after we dropped Lainni off, saying that she wanted to submit a complaint, because we had said we were giving her a kitten, when really we were giving her a mutant parrot. Attached to the email was a photo of Lainni standing on Lona’s husband’s shoulder (looking lovely, I might add)!

The day after she had arrived, Lainni demanded to be let out of the puppy pen where she was being kept to settle in (her mum did the exact same thing when she arrived with us). She then clambered onto Lona’s lap at breakfast and wouldn’t let any of the other cats up to share. She has, however, been running around the house with her new playmate, a ginger moggy kitten called Flynn. She has also become quite fond of their older Aby boy, Gus, whom she cuddles up with when he is sleeping.

Alek seems to get on well with both his human ‘sisters’, and has taken over the house. Fiona (Alek’s ‘mum’) says that it feels like having another baby, because they have his stuff everywhere – toys, food dishes, beds… She is loving waking up each morning with him cuddled into the back of her legs, purring. Mark (Alek’s ‘dad’) also seems to have bonded with him, which is really good news, because Mark was more taken with Soolay when they came to visit.

Speaking of Soolay, I was really disappointed last week, when I thought we had found a nice home for him in Aberdeenshire, but it didn’t work out. A week past on Friday I got in from work to find an email from a lovely-sounding woman who had previously had a Tiffanie and seemed genuinely interested in him. I replied that evening, but the email had come from her work address, so I had a tense weekend waiting to hear whether she would be ‘the one’ for Soolay. Unfortunately, when the email came through on Monday, it wasn’t good news – her husband had seen an advert for Chinchilla kittens over the weekend, and having gone to see them had fallen for one of the little girls!

I was gutted, and it was only then that I realised how much I had been hoping that would work out. Soolay is such a sweet baby that he would make a lovely family pet. Although Richard and I could obviously keep him, the reason for starting to breed Tiffanies in the first place was because we felt they weren’t well enough known, and wanted more people to experience their fantastic natures. Keeping him would be nice for us, but would rather defeat the purpose of breeding them in the first place! I just hope we can find a home for him soon, because it will already be very hard to part with him – he is 16 weeks today and is very handsome!

A black shaded Tiffanie kitten aged 15 weeks — Soolay looking gorgeous

Cumberland Show

We had entered Annas (for Best of Breed/BOB only), Xaria and Katie in the Cumberland show, which took place on Saturday. When it became obvious that we were very likely to still have Soolay by the time of the show, we spoke to the show manager, who agreed to take an extra entry for him. We therefore had our first ‘Cagaran kitten’ out on the bench on Saturday.

Tiffanie kitten aged 15 weeks at a show — Soolay looking thoroughly relaxed about the whole show experience!

He did really well, winning his BOB and a 1st and 2nd in his side classes, but more importantly, taking the whole experience completely in his stride. He really seemed to enjoy all the attention and cuddles, and the judges liked him and said that he handled well. I was lucky enough to get his Open judge, Joyce Green (a Burmese breeder), and also Ann Gregory (the only All-Breed judge) to come and give me their opinions on him once they had finished judging, and both thought he had a lot of potential. Neither of them were worried that he will be too chunky, because they felt that he will probably grow into his legs and paws.

Annas and Katie both won their BOBs, and Katie beat another rather nice Tiff to do so – I’ve just realised that means that we did the hat-trick of BOB Adult, Kitten and Neuter for the first time ever! Katie didn’t get her Grand, but we didn’t really expect her to, because she still looks quite kittenish, in spite of having had kittens of her own.

Xaria was our star of the show (apart from Soolay, of course), winning her 3rd Imperial (only two to go – yay!) as well as her BOB. As far as I can work out, that also put her further out ahead at the top of the RACCS (Russian and Abyssinian Cat Club of Scotland) table of points. We are hoping that she might do well enough this year to become the first ever Russian to win Overall Best in RACCS. My calculations of the results so far put her 21 points clear at the top. However, that could all change with just one good show by the cats placed joint second at the moment – all it would take was for one of them to go Best in Show, especially if it happened at the Supreme, and she would be back into second place! Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen…

Russian Blue in her show pen — Xaria being a star

Quick Update – Kittens and Shows

Alek goes to his new home, Dàrna’s kittens start opening their eyes, and we take Monty, Xaria and Coimhlion to the North West show

A very quick update today, and I’ll try and do a longer one in the next couple of days.

Little Alek went to his new home today, which was really exciting. We took him up, and I was really glad we did, because it meant we got to see him racing around his new livingroom having a great time. We got lovely big purrs when we cuddled him goodbye, and I can’t wait to hear how he gets on over the next few days!

The first of Dàrna’s kittens started to open their eyes yesterday, in fact one of them fully opened one eye. By this morning, two of the kittens had one open eye, and another couple look like their will probably be open tomorrow. The other two are not showing any sign yet, though.

We had a good day at the North West show yesterday, with Xaria getting her 2nd Imperial! Monty won another Reserve Grand, so he’s now on one Grand and three Reserves, which means that enough judges think he is worthy that we could have made him up if there hadn’t been better cats there on the day. Coimhlion was withheld for her Grand, but that’s no surprise – she only goes to shows because she loves it so much.