Well, it took me a bit longer to find the time to do this update than I expected. I have been working late all week trying to complete a very important tender for work (potentially work at least £150k to our family business!). With the adult cats and two litters of kittens to look after on top of that, there just hasn’t been time to think, let alone update our blog. However, the tender is now in the post (deadline for arrival is noon on Monday), and one of the other Directors told me to “take the rest of the week off”. All 1 1/2 hours of it!
Anyway, since I last posted, Lainni and Soolay have been neutered, and the younger litter have all opened their eyes. One of the boys in that litter is being very slow about the whole thing, but his right eye was finally fully open yesterday, and his left eye is more than 3/4 open. The others all have fully open eyes, and are starting to look about. Now that she’s properly got the hang of what she is to do, Dàrna is proving to be a wonderful mum, and her kittens are all nice and plump, and sparky-clean!
Lainni and Soolay had their operation on Tuesday, and seemed so little when I was leaving them at the vets. Thankfully, both did really well, and by Tuesday evening were already pouncing on eachother (doing nothing for my nerves, I can tell you!). I don’t think Soolay has even noticed that anything is different – at that age they haven’t yet become proud of their ‘bits’, as they do later on, so he’s blissfully unaware of what has been done. The operation is also relatively minor, with no stitches required, and they heal almost immediately.
For the girls the operation is rather more significant, because it means major abdominal surgery, so Lainni has a nice set of (purple!) stitches up her tummy, like a little zip. We were worried that she might lick the wound and irritate it, but she’s been as good as gold. She is highly confused by its presence, though, and keeps propping herself up so that she can get a good look at the stitches, then sits gazing at them with a perplexed expression on her face. Bless her!
Alek is doing well in his new home, and both his new human ‘sisters’ seem to have taken really well to him. He has continued being a really cuddly baby in his new home, and his new ‘mum’, Fiona, is thoroughly enjoying waking up with him purring and cuddling into her legs in the mornings! I am so thrilled that we managed to find him such a fantastic home – it makes parting with them so much less traumatic when you know they are going somewhere that they will be adored!
Speaking of which, Lainni is going to her new home on Sunday, and Lona (her new ‘mum’) is so excited that she says it’s “like Christmas”! We are driving up with Lainni to Inverness, because Lona lives all the way up near John O’ Groats, so Inverness is about half-way. I am gutted not to be able to take Lainni to her new home myself, to watch her settling in the way that we did with Alek, but with everything else that’s going on at the moment a 12-hour round-trip to the north of the country just isn’t sensible. Hopefully we can go and visit them in a few weeks once Lainni is settled in, but if not, at least we know we will be seeing her at shows in the future.
Soolay still doesn’t have a new home booked, which I can’t say I am altogether upset about, because he can ‘fill in’ until Dàrna’s litter are big enough to be playing and giving us cuddles! I must confess to being surprised that he’s the one who is left, because he is such a sturdy, strong-feeling kitten, and has the most adorable temperament. One minute he’s racing around the room like a nut-case, and the next minute he’s crashing into your lap for a cuddle, with huge purrs. I am sure the right home will arrive for him eventually, and in the meantime, we get to enjoy him for longer!
Breckin finally started calling the Friday before the Wyvern show, and then stayed in season for over a fortnight. The second week of her call, Katie came into season as well, so we had the two of them trying to out-shout eachother. They would roll around on the floor at either end of the hall-way, taking it in turns to shout, and getting louder every time. Thankfully, they both finished their calls at the weekend, but now Kia has started, and is really shouting. She keeps going out into the run and making the most awful racket (she does make the strangest noises) – I’m just hoping none of the neighbours hear it and complain!
Unfortunately, I’m not very sure what to do about mating Kia now, because there has been a bit of a misunderstanding relating to Mickey, who she went to last time. It turns out that the owners of his sire, and his dam’s sire (his grandsire) didn’t want any boys sold for breeding, but Rita hadn’t realised this when she sold him. At the moment it is looking like he will have to be returned to Rita, and she will probably have to neuter him, so the mating is very unlikely to be able to be repeated! We’ve now got to try and find a different boy to use, but with less time to arrange things. Oh joy!
I love showing, but I must confess to being quite glad that we have nothing on tomorrow, because it means that we can get caught up around the house, and also enjoy some last cuddles with Lainni. Other than taking Lainni to meet Lona, this is the first weekend in ages that we’ve not had something specific to be doing. After the amount of work that’s gone on this week, I am really looking forward to it!
Now if I can just persuade Richard to do the driving on Sunday…