Saturday 28 June 2014

Oh dear!

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Someone got out of bed the wrong side...
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Anything you want to talk about, Lucy?

The Narnia litter are six months old! Lucy is definitely showing some teenage sass these days. She's getting a fair few growls from the older cats at the moment mainly due to her habit of prancing up and bopping them on the nose! Indigo has practically done feeding her now, as she can never be sure whether presenting her tummy will cause Lucy to snuggle in or attack! No self respecting Mama would put up with that, so when Lucy snuffles about wanting milk, more often than not she'll get a smack on the nose.

She's still super cuddly though and spends lots of time snuggling with the older cats and with her humans, her favourite place is at the top of the cat tree and she's shown interest in going outside... so I may well end up with another cat who goes for 'walkies'! She sees Theo going out every day and she's curious, more curious than any of the others. So we'll see.

It's about this time I start to think about our next breeding, and with Theo doing so well now I've started to think it might be a reality this year. Indigo will be ready by the autumn, and I'm considering sending her back to Louis (Lucy's dad) as the chocolates simply enchanted me. Lucy- well it seems insane to be considering Lucy, she's still such a baby! Ideally I'd like to wait till Lucy is at least a year old before mating her (so she'd be 15 months or more before her first litter) and not put her on the Ovarid till after her first litter but it very much depends on when she starts calling. She could start any time now and I can't keep her calling for six or more months. Apart from the fact that it is not at all good for them, I suspect my relationship with the neighbours might go downhill a bit *grin*


So I'm crossing my fingers she isn't going to be an early developer. You can be as sassy and teenager as you like, Lucy, but no howling for a boyfriend yet y'hear me??







   

Monday 9 June 2014

Gains

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Lucy is currently tipping the scales at 3.25 kg, that's just over 7lbs, the same weight as Ava despite being significantly smaller. She's only 5.5 months, and looks it, plenty of growing still to do. Tonks are often rather solid cats with a dense musculature which can mean they weigh more than they look like they ought to. Ava on the other hand has always been a skinny Minnie. Funny how different they are!




In other news, Theo has hit 4kg! 4.12 kg to be precise. Whooooooooo!!!! For new readers, my boy has inflammatory bowel disease and was very poorly indeed the first months of this year. He lost a LOT of weight and was just skin and bone. Ideally he needs to put on another half a kilo to be back to where he was, which is pretty much spot on for his size, but he went down to about 3.3 of them. Scary.


He's now low-normal for his size, so even if he levels out here it's fine, but I'd love it if he got back to nearer where he was before his illness kicked in badly.




The vet has said we can try to introduce a wet food into his special diet. We've decided on a totally novel protein, so Theo has just scoffed his first can of VENISON prescription cat food, the spoiled mog. Of course, it's hideously expensive *rolls eyes* but y'know. He was so happy, he loves his wet food and it's been six months or so since he had any and then it was just plain chicken for several months before that. If he's happy, I'm happy, I'm just so thankful that he's alive.






OMG, I have just realised that little Lucy, now, weighs just about the same as Theo at his most poorly... Lucy is about half the size of Theo. Just shows how poorly he was, I guess.

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Back!

Hello!


Goodness, it's been a while. Course is now finished and I am off now till September, which in reality means ploughing through at least some of the 12+ texts I need to study next year to get a bit of a head start. I've also been putting in a good deal of time at the allotment. It is now starting to resemble an allotment again, rather than a jungle. Gardening is a damn job, I tell you, especially when your allotment neighbours consistently win best plot and things in the yearly competition. I always feel I have to be apologising for dragging down the neighbourhood!


So, the mogs...


Littlest and most impatient first! Lucy-Lu. Oh my goodness we love this kitten. She has completely changed the dynamic of our cat-family. Watch this clip...


Yup, that is all five cats, all in the same room, and no-one is intimidating, swearing at or otherwise behaving antisocially towards anyone else, although the look Inds is giving Sofia is, I admit, rather unsisterly. Even scaredy cat Ava has joined the family (albeit under the table on a dining chair) and as for Sofia she's rolling around and exposing her tummy barely a metre away from Indigo's perch. It's really quite fascinating to watch them becoming a community, and it wouldn't have progressed to this level without Lucy.


Of course, Lucy is 5 1/2 months now, and soon she will be hitting kitty adolescence, which might rock our worlds a little bit... we'll have to wait and see if the peace lasts! For the moment though, she's just a little girl and everything is new and exciting. I can't do anything without a little cream and chocolate head poking its way in and 'helping'. Today it was podding broad beans, and of course every pod had to be inspected and sniffed. I can report that Lucy found whilst the empty pods made excellent toys, they really didn't taste so nice.


Theo... oh Theo puzzles me, he's been sick an awful lot this week, most days at least once, but he's also put on a bit of weight. I think he's OK, he's getting lots of hairballs and knots so I guess he's shedding which he usually does earlier in the spring, around March, but perhaps everything is late for him this year because of his illness? That would account for some of the little gifts he keeps leaving about.


The three girls are fine. Indigo is still completely involved in her mummy role, but she has been coming for more cuddles recently. Usually though, she just gets settled and Lucy comes and jumps on her, so she gets up again and the moment is lost. Ava and Sofia have definitely benefitted from Indigo being occupied and are using the whole house now rather than having strictly defined territories. They are both canny things though, waiting till the others are asleep to get some undivided attention, which they love.


Anyway that's us. I'll try and get another post up this weekend. No excuse now I'm officially on  a break... now where are those books???