Catablog 1st month

Monday, October 19, 2009

Last week a red kitten managed to crawl out of his den and out into the bedroom and screamed his head off for help in finding his way back. When I found him, Cleo was sitting in the den with the other kittens looking quite worried and then releived that her kitten was returned with minimal intervention on her part. It has been years since she carried a kitten around.

I have prepared a new den for the kittens so that I am prepared when they all begin to venture around. I have set up another bedroom and have lined the floor with wallpaper so as to prevent urine seeping into the oak floors. I predict I will move them next week.

Saturday, Oct 10, 2009

I changed the bedding on the kitten's den yesterday, and got to take some photos with the babies half asleep on their blanket. Moma came in and started cleaning them, and they stretched and yawned and were so adorable I had to catch it on the camera.

Wednesday, Oct 7. 2009

I got to peek in on the babies a little while ago. There is a Red boy with both eyes open, and the Seal Tortie girl has one eye open. I was surprised.

I was right about having one Seal Tortie girl, but wrong about having two Seal Bicolor boys. There is only one Seal Bicolor male. While there is now what appears to be three Red boys, one of those may be a Blue Bicolor male or female. I was basing the maleness on being Red kittens. But if they are Blue then they could be male or female. Determining sex this early is difficult because to do so I have to ick them up and turn them over under a light, and I have a very protective queen who has warned me not to try that again. She will start to relax some, once their eyes open up and they begin moving around.

Monday Oct 5, 2009

Cleo got very mad at me today, and I had to promise to leave her kittens alone. She threatened to move them and hide them from me. I was interferring, I admit it. They are hers and if she wants to put up with those two Red boys scratching at each other over the same nipple, I guess it is not my place to try to intervene. Cleo started looking around in other closets for a place to move them. She doesn't like me taking photos of them this early on either.

Beautiful Seal Lynx Bicolor male kitten

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Cleo delivered her kittens right on schedule. Our day on Wednesday the 30th was very bizarre. Someone broke into our house in the morning at 9am. No kidding. I was here in the bedroom with Cleo and someone knocked on the door several times and when I didn't come to the door, they climbed over the fence and came in through the patio doors which I had slightly open. I came out of the bedroom and a guy was kneeled down unplugging my laptop from the extension cord sitting on my coffee table. No kidding! He thought no one was home and was going to help himself to my belongings. This doesn't say much for the economy nor the morals of people in Merced. We have huge unemployment here and crime is up. I live in a nice neighborhood three houses down from a middle school. The police said this is the way some crooks operate. The guy was really surprised when I came around the corner into the living room and said, "What the fu** are you doing in my house?!" He said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know..." and I interrupted and said, "You better get the fu** out of my house before I call the police." Of course, I then reached for the phone and started calling the police. He ran out the way he came in. Bizarre!

So there was a lot of commotion with the police coming in the house and all. Cleo didn't seem too bothered by it all, and spent the day cleaning out her bowels preparing for delivery. She didn't eat after noon time and went to the litter box no less than a dozen times through the afternoon and evening. In between litter box visits, she would come and get me to follow her into her den, and I would get as settled in as her for delivery. After 3o minutes or so either she or I would get restless and get up and leave the room.

Finally, at 9:30 pm her water broke and within an hour three kittens were born. Her first was a seal lynx bicolor. Then a red bicolor male. Then a very dark seal male kitten who I believe is a bicolor lynx, but is very dark with bold markings.

After the 3rd kitten was born we had a long wait for the next kittens to come. A female tortie kitten was born and another red male was born. All are very long babies. I was quite surprised she had as few as she did. I truly believed her to be having more kittens. I am very delighted with the outcome as it turns out. I would rather have perfect, large kittens then a brood of small, genetically challenged kittens.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Bobbie and I played cards this weekend and sat around discussing how big Cleo has gotten. Bobbie thinks she will deliver today. I have calculated her to deliver on Thursday, but I am not sure she will last until then either. I have made up two dens for her in two different rooms to give her a choice when the time comes. Sasha keeps invading the spots, so the choice is more of a diversionary tactic into fooling Sasha as to where the babies will be hidden. Cleo keeps looking for new spots, and digging in closets and cabinets. Sasha thinks it's a new game so she follows along behind Cleo, and digs in the closet, chasing Cleo out, and then she settles in for a nap in her new spot. I don't think she knows what she is doing to poor Cleo who is desparately looking for a spot that Sasha doesn't know about.

Monday, September 21, 2009

A real freaky thing happened last night. I went to open the patio doors last night, as usual, after having the air condition run all day. We have had 100º teperatures here for months now. I had been working out on the patio most of the day, going in and out and I had left the screen door open and just using the glass door to open and close. (Ahh, yes, you think you know where I am going with this.) It was late, around 10:30 pm and I had the lights off and just the TV on in the living room. I was working on the computer in my office, and hadn't been in the living room for hours. So I opened the patio doors, and the breeze was wonderful. I got a drink of ice tea and went back into my office. About an hour later, I came out and was turning off the lights and heading for bed. I closed the patio doors and was closing the curtains, when I noticed a cat sitting on the steps outside of the door. Instead of just opening the door and shooing it off, I reached over and turned on the light to see the cat better. OMG! It was my young queen, Sasha! Then I saw Cleo laying on the patio about 6 feet away from the door! I had forgotten to close the screen door, and it had been dark when I opened the patio door and I had not seen the screen open. They had been running around outside for an hour. Well, I can't say running around, they hadn't seem to leave the patio. But it was a scary thing to happen. Accidents happen. We can only prepare our animals for such events. I do occasionally let Cleo out to eat the grass along side of the patio. I don't allow her to walk around in the grass or the flower beds. She has to stay on the patio. So here she was, sitting on the patio, all by herself, and training Sasha as to appropriate behavior as well. I just love Cleo. She probably would have been running around doing the things she shouldn't if Sasha hadn't of been with her. She was being a responsible mother. She has been training Sasha as much as me and I am so proud of her. Sasha is no relation to Cleo and we have only had Sasha less than two months.

Cleo enjoying the cool feel of the patio door

Cleo and Sasha have become very attached to each other

Sasha sitting by the window.

I've had several requests for Seal Bicolor kittens. While there is the possibility with Cleopatra, Sasha will produce the mainly kittens that look like her, and she is a Seal Bicolor. But she won't be having a litter of kittens until Spring 2010. She is only 7 months old right now.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

We are expecting seal lynx bicolor Ragdolls

Above is a SeaL Lynx Bicolor Ragdoll, Princess, a daughter of Cleopatra, and she is a perfect example of the color and pattern of kittens we are expecting in our litter due in 11 days.

Cleo is so funny. She is very pregnant and taking advantage of me. She mews today and I grab a can of food for her, dish it up, and bring it to her where ever she is laying. She doesn't even have to get up. What a life, huh? I actually get little rest these last few days, trying to mind read her. She wants to be in my lap suddenly all the time and she is so big she doesn't fit between me and my desk. It is awkward and I have to keep shooing her away before she jumps up.

We have this big, stuffed crinkle toy my sister gave to Sasha, that Cleo carries around, mewing and calling to kittens she hasn't given birth to, yet. Sasha runs to Cleo each times she does this, thinking Cleo is calling her. Cleo then drops the toy, and sniffs and cleans Sasha's head then walks away and leans against a wall, and sighs. Sometimes she wakes up from a nap, and starting meowing loudly, going from room to room, looking for kittens. She forgets. She knows she is pregnant, and dreams about having kittens again, that when she wakes up, she forgets it was a dream and looks for the kittens anyway. She is such a good mother.

Sue sent me this photo today and I just have to share it. Hopefully she will send me more as I just love the Red boys. This is Charlie.

September 18, 2009

We are down to 12 days to go before the arrival of our long awaited litter of kittens. Cleopatra has been enjoying this pregnancy and is settled into our new home nicely, having claimed a bedroom all to herself. Below is a previous litter of kittens showing two Seal Torties female kittens with their unique asymmetrical markings. Cleopatra is a Seal Tortie Lynx herself.

Cleopatra and a previous litters of Ragdoll kittens

Fatcatrags Chairman, below, is the sire of our litter
of Ragdoll kittens due 9-30-2009

Sire Fatcatrags Chairman