I can’t believe our ‘babies’ are almost seven weeks old already! Since they were managing to jump out of the pen anyway, we took one of the sides out of it last weekend. This gave them full-time access to the whole kitten room, and it didn’t take Lainni long to find the heated bed in the corner, where she has taken up residence.
Since my last post, order has been restored, and Lainni is now back ahead of target at just over 700g. The boys are only a few grams apart at just over 650g, but both are still running a bit behind target. They are all coming on leaps and bounds, though, so hopefully they will soon catch up with their sister.
The week following Grandpa’s death was a bit of a rush to sort out everything that needs to be done to organise a funeral. We buried him on Thursday of last week, following a touching service that I think was a fitting tribute.
We had arranged to collect Dàrna at the Eastern Counties show, which Steve and Thomas were doing with their own cats. Since we were going to have to go all that way to the show anyway, we figured we might as well make the most of it and enter some of our lot!
Unfortunately, the Eastern Counties was on the same day as the Scottish Rex show, which I very much wanted to support. A few weeks ago we were at a barbecue at Elisabeth’s, and I was complaining about not being able to support the show. She offered to take the Devons, saying that she could go straight up on the train from her house to Bearsden. I phoned her the next morning just to check that she really meant that she was happy to take them, and that it wasn’t just the wine talking! Thankfully, she confirmed that she was still happy to do so once sober!
Richard and I left home early on Friday morning in order to get to Elisabeth’s for about 9am to drop off the Devons before she left for work. We set them up in her ‘small bedroom’, and hoped that their presence wouldn’t upset her cats too much! It is surprisingly nerve-racking allowing someone else to take one of your cats to a show, even when you have complete trust in that person’s ability to look after your cats.
We went straight from Elisabeth’s down to Naomi’s to collect Kia, getting to her house at about 3:30pm. Thomas phoned me on the way south to say that Dàrna had pinked up and was starting to gain a bit of weight. She was also eating more than she had previously been doing, finishing her own dish first and then stealing from Pippin’s!
When we got to Naomi’s Kia was still in season, but had been mated every day last week, so that has hopefully been enough! Stacie (Kia’s breeder) lives about 25 minutes from Naomi’s, so we called in with her to let her see Kia again. In theory we were calling in just for a quick visit, but that never happens when we go to Stacie’s, because we always get talking. I think we finally left Stacie’s at about 7:30pm, and headed down to Tracy and Gary’s, where we were staying on Friday evening.
As always, Kia took the whole thing in her stride, settling straight into Tracy and Gary’s, and ignoring the grumpy noises made by Monty and Xaria in response to her arrival. She prowled around the two rooms, making sure that she knew every corner, then jumped up to give Gary a cuddle.
On Saturday morning we left Kia in the house and headed up to the show hall, getting there just before 8am. We had taken Xaria (chasing her 2nd Imperial), Breckin (chasing her 2nd Grand) and Monty (chasing his 1st Grand). After getting them penned and breakfasted, we went out to the car with Thomas and collected Dàrna, who wasn’t exactly thrilled at having been taken away from her ‘boyfriend’. We ran her back to Tracy and Gary’s, where she settled down on the sofa growling at Kia and us to show her disgust!
We had lunch with Tracy and Gary, then headed back to the show hall. By the time we got there, the Open results were all up, and I checked those while Richard went to feed the cats. Neither Xaria nor Breckin had won their certificate, but both had managed to win Best of Breed, and I couldn’t be all that upset about Breckin not winner hers, since she lost to the daughter of the stud boy whose kittens Dàrna is hopefully carrying! Breckin’s sister Lani was also there, and she won her 2nd CC. Monty had really done us proud, and won his 1st Grand – with two Reserve Grands already, from the Double show last month, he is doing incredibly well for an Aby of just over 13 months.
After the show we went back to Tracy and Gary’s for tea, before heading home. We couldn’t stay away for a second night because we didn’t want to risk the Devons upsetting Elisabeth’s cats by being there for a second night. We got to Elisabeth’s at about 1:30am, and by the time we had a hot drink with her, got the Devon’s ready and then did the journey home, it was 3:30am, and we more or less fell into bed after checking on the kittens.
They are now extremely active and playful, running all over the kitten room. All three are able to climb the stairs onto the window-ledge, and their various scratching posts. They can also now jump up high enough to grab the edge of the mattress, then hauling themselves the last bit onto the top of the bed. That means that when we wake up in the morning it is normally to find a trio of kittens wrapped around our legs!
They are all on solid food now, and Katie has started leaving the kitten room for substantial periods of time. She was out of the room all night last night, and then ran into the room to check on them this morning. Even after having her away from them all night, though, not one of the kittens tried to suckle when she did come back into the room. She only stayed with them for about 20 minutes, before asking to be let out again, and didn’t return to them until about three hours ago.
As the kittens have become more active, I wanted to have something to call them other than ‘blue-toes’ and ‘orange’. If we didn’t come up with something fairly quickly, they were going to be known by their colours forever-more! I am not going to register the names we have chosen for a few more weeks to give us a chance to find new owners, so that they can have the option to change them. However, subject to such changes, the names will be An-Sùlair (‘The Gannet’, because he LOVES his food) for Orange, and Aileag (‘Hiccups’, because he seems to get them after every meal). Their pet names will be ‘Sùlai’ or ‘Soolay’, and Alek.
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The more the kittens develop, the stronger their individual personalities and preferences become. Lainni tends to run over to us whenever we enter the room, and climbs onto our feet. She usually purrs when we start stroking her, although sometimes she is too hyper for that, and tends to pounce on our hands instead!
Sùlai will run up to us and give a little miaow if we talk to him whilst looking at him. He likes to tuck himself into our sides, and is a real softy. Alek, on the other hand, doesn’t really talk much, and is much more independent than the other two, but if we pick him up and lie him on his back, stroking his head, he goes completely limp and starts to drop off to sleep. Very cute! He is also going to be a fantastic hunter when older, because he responds immediately to any prey-type toy, whereas Lainni watches it for a while first, and Sùlai tends to run and hide!
Apologies for the epistle, but hopefully it won’t be so long until my next post, now that the family drama is over!