March 2013 – cagaran.co.uk

We have a fair bit of news from the past couple of weeks, including the birth of our first 2013 kittens!

Grace’s Kittens

Grace had six kittens overnight from Sunday into Monday, the weekend before last. She was much better this time around, knowing exactly what to do with the placentas and cord-cutting, and also settling nicely to feed them.

There are three of each gender, the three boys all being Variants: a tawny, a cinnamon and one that is either a chocolate or a dark cinnamon; and the girls being one Variant and two Ocicats (spotty): the Variant is another cinnamon, and the spottys are a tawny with a stunning head, and probably a cinnamon, though again could be a chocolate.

Kitten 1 - Cinnamon Variant (ticked) male	Kitten 2 - Chocolate (or dark cinnamon) Variant (ticked) male
Kitten 3 - Tawny Ocicat (black spotted) female	Kitten 4 - Cinnamon Variant (ticked) female
Kitten 5 - Tawny (black ticked) Variant male	Kitten 6 - Cinnamon (or chocolate) Ocicat (spotted) female

Lancs Show

Last weekend was the Lancs show, and we had taken the ‘babies’, Eiteag and Ayla, to try for their second CCs. As last time, we put them in the same pen to begin with, to help them settle in, though I don’t think either actually needed it. Obviously, we have to keep a close watch on them, to make sure that Eiteag doesn’t try anything with his sister, but so far he’s shown no interest in her, though he knew exactly what he was meant to be doing with Dàrna when he was in with her. We’re taking no chances – if he even so much as looked like he might be interested in Ayla, she’d have to come straight out!

Both were beautifully behaved, as usual, purring and climbing up the judges and stewards to give them kisses, which is just lovely to see. A couple of the judges said that they wanted to take one, or both, home, and one even came past for an extra cuddle later in the day! Both were given their CCs, so they now only need one more each.

Ayla relaxing in her pen, with her rosettes and prize cards behind

Ayla proving she is her mother's daughter, and mucking about whenever the camera appears - you can see her front feet 'paddling'

Tracey was also there, with Xaria and Quinn, though this time Quinn’s award wouldn’t count for anything, because the closing date for this show was before the Scottish, and she won her qualifying certificate at the Scottish. In addition to the cats’ activities, I had an excellent day stewarding for Kaye Wilson, who is a long-term Burmese breeder and judge, but who has recently started juding Asians. It was great to see so many of the Burmese, and also to have a judge that I can so easily talk over the cats with.

Bru Back Home

About 10 days after he had gone to his new home, I received a call from Bru’s owner, Julie, to say that he had been wheezing, and that she was going to take him to her vet. Over a couple of visits, her vet took some tests, but none of these showed anything, so he then suggested having a scan done, but Julie felt that she had already been through too much stress and hassle, so she asked if we would take him back instead.

We agreed to do this (giving a full refund, in case you’re wondering), and got him booked straight in at own vet. When I went to collect him on Thursday, he was hiding down the back of Julie’s bath, and when he came out, he was all wide-eyes and spiky fur, and seemed absolutely terrified. I asked what was up with him, and she said he was always like that with her, and had never let her stroke him, which had me really worried in case it could be a symptom of some sort of illness.

When we got him home, however, he came straight out of his basket and ran up to Richard to ask for a stroke, even though he was in a room that he has never been in before. We didn’t want to put him in with the girls in case Dàrna is pregnant and he had some sort of infection, so he is in the back bedroom with Ali and Breckin, who are both neuters. When Tracey came round yesterday, Bru climbed into one of his baskets, and lay there purring and ‘paddle-pawing’ whilst Tracey and I both stroked him.

On Friday, I took him for his vet appointment, and our vet gave him a thorough checkup which didn’t find any problems. Bru looks absolutely great, is a good weight (and has grown in the time he’s been away), and is eating and drinking well. We’ve got him booked in to have a scan, and that will tell us for sure whether there is anything wrong, and if so, what it is. The most likely explanation at the moment seems to be a slight lung infection, but we will know more once we’ve got the scan results.

I wrote the wording for this post on the 19th of last month, but it has taken me until today to find the time to pull some pictures together! On the 16th, we had the delight of a local show, for a change: the Scottish Cat Club show in Larkhall, south of Glasgow. We didn’t have to get out of our beds until 06:30!

There were a total of seven Cagarans entered, the highest number in one show to date, and six of them won certificates! We had Donny in to try for his first Imperial, and Etak and Ayla for their first CCs, then Lona had Tabh entered for another Grand, Lesley had Etak and Ayla’s littermates, Derk and Ella, in for their first PCs, and Tracey had Quinn entered in the Pedigree Pet section, to try for her third Mastercat certificate. We had also taken Dàrna, to try for her third Imperial, and Sonia for her third CC.

Much to our delight, all of the Cagarans owned by other people won the certificates they had gone for, so Quinn made up to Mastercat (PR Cagaran Dorlach & MC Quinn!), Tabh is now sitting on two Grands, and the youngsters won their first PCs.

Quinn with her rosettes and prize card — Quinn with her rosettes and final Master Cat certificate

She does pull the most fabulous scowl! — Looking very mature - she does pull the most fabulous scowl!

Tabh peering out	Ella looking pretty
Derk looking intently at the camera as if to say "whatcha doin'?"	Derk gazing into the camera - he was fascinated by all the comings and goings in the show hall

Etak and Ayla also won their CCs, so that was the whole of that litter winning their first certificates on the same day – a clean sweep of the Tiffanie breed certificate classes! Sonia also won her CC, so she is now a Champion, which is particularly good news, since she’s due for mating soon.

Etak with his first Challenge Certificate	Sleeping with his certificate - this was just too cute not to post!
Ayla proving she is her Mother's daughter, and making any sort of decent photo a real challenge	... but not half as challenging as Sonia, of whom this was the only in-focus image out of over 40!

Neither Dàrna nor Donny placed in the Imperial class, but they were both up against some really lovely cats, so there’s no great shame in that.

To top off an excellent day, Karen Hettman’s Zach, who was bred by our best friend, Elisabeth (Dushenka Russian Blues), not only won his second Silver Olympian certificate, but also went Overall Best in Show!

2013 Matings – Again!

Since we’re not needing to keep anything from Tia this year, I’m now thinking that I might try mating her to Apollo – the kittens from that mating should be spectacular, but they won’t carry longhair, so they’re not much use to us as Tiffanie breeders. We should, however, get some cracking show-quality Burmillas, and if we could find some nice show homes for them, it would be great to see some more Burmillas on the show bench. Having decided that, and since we also don’t need to keep anything from Dàrna this year, I’ve put her in with Etak, which gives us guaranteed Tiffs.

I was considering putting Lhasa to Donny, to see if we could produce a brown self Tiffanie to help the Tibetan programme, but I’ve now found out that for various reasons, there is now only one Tibetan breeder left, and she doesn’t use Tiffanies in her breeding. That means that I can send Lhasa down to Quin (Helen’s Burmese boy), which leaves Donny available to be mated with Fi, which is what I’ve done, because she’s another one we don’t need to keep anything from this year. That mating should hopefully give us 50% Tiffs, though the two previous matings we’ve done to longhair carriers have given us entirely Tiffs, which means we’re probably due for a whole litter of shorthairs! Assuming we do sent Lhasa down to use the mating to Quin, we’ll put Tilly to a boy who is from the only surviving line that I can find that is related to Annas’ (our original Tiffanie) mother’s mother!

Last week, I hadn’t decided any of this, but Dàrna and Fi were the first to come into season, so that kind of made my mind up on order, which helped with the decision about which matings to do.

On the Oci side, Grace is almost ready to burst, and looks hugely pregnant. Apologies for the photo quality – whenever I get a proper camera out, she behaves like an idiot, so the only photos I’ve got are phone ones. Still, you get the idea…

Bru

We have finally found a home for Bru, who went with his new owner last week, and is now settling in. He is living with a vet student in Glasgow, and although he spent the first night hiding, he is now coming out to play, and will hopefully be fully settled soon. It almost always takes longer to settle a 7-month-old, than it would at 14 weeks, but it still shouldn’t take more than a few days. When I have some photo updates, I will post them for you.

Month: March 2013

2013 Kittens, More CCs & Bru’s Return

More Success at the Scottish