When Will You Marry?

(Sorry about the gap between posts-  a family bereavement and other 'stuff'. You know how it is.)

So the time of year has come when I'm thinking hard about who to mate Indigo to next, and equally importantly, when.

Because it's complicated this year. Firstly time wise. My friend gets married in the spring and I am in the bridal party. I can't have a due date cat around that time, or kittens that are too young. I can't have kittens that are due to go home because I won't be about to facilitate that. I could have small-ish, still just about nest- bound kittens or older, independent kittens (both times with an experienced- with- baby- kittens person housesitting) but I wouldn't want to leave toilet training kittens. And given Indigo's illness last year, I wouldn't want to leave a pregnant cat, certainly not in the early stages.

It's ridiculous... I'm only going away overnight, but it's feeling like a military operation! And I KNOW they would be fine with someone else for a night or even a weekend, but... well, you know.

The other option of course is to not have kittens this winter at all, mate her in the Spring and have summer babies but again that would require careful timing because I take a summer holiday. Or I could skip a year entirely. (the idea doesn't appeal...)

The next thing is with whom to mate my girl. Now the problem with Indigo is that as a 5th generation Tonk, she's actually related to quite a few of the local (and by local I mean within a 3 hour drive... lol...) studs, and that won't do at all! I rang up about a stud last week, only to realise it was her grandfather! Not sure how I had missed that!

There's not a lot of choice, is what I am saying.

Now she's had two lovely litters. Her first one, with GrCh Fecheldee Harry, are now what- 18 months?- so its possible to see what they are like as adults, and I'm delighted with them. Good quality, robust cats with no health issues (that have been reported to me, anyway) who obviously give their families a lot of pleasure. So a repeat mating with Harry is a definite possibility, he's obviously a good match for Inds. And he's a proven stud, and a Grand Champion, all to the good.

Harry's an apricot mink, so those kittens could be blue, lilac or caramel (boys), all three in tortoiseshell (girls) and in mink or solid. My instinct is, if I mate Indigo this autumn, to use Harry again.

But then over at Tonkadello, they have a new up and coming stud, Louis. Now Louis isn't available yet, he's only a baby still, born, I think, in February, but by next year he will be available. Now the big selling point for me with Louis is that he is a first generation Tonk, ie his parents will be a Siamese and a Burmese. He represents an entirely new bloodline, (and many thanks to the dedicated breeders who made that happen...) and that would be a good balance for Indigo's 5th generation blood. The Tonk gene pool is small, and it just isn't healthy to get too small.

Mating Indigo to Louis will be a bit of a leap into the unknown as he won't have been a stud for long by the time Inds needs to come, but to be honest that's how it was with Monty too and that worked out really well- my Von Trapps were adorable. So if I waited until the Spring, I'd probably want to use Louis, if he was ready.

These kittens would be chocolate and lilac, if he carries dilute, (which his people may not know until he's had a few litters of course!!) in mink and solid. And yes... if I got a chocolate mink girl of a decent quality I would definitely consider keeping her. There's no hurry to keep a kitten, Inds is three now- I guess she'll have another three litters all being well (which you can't bank on) But latter litters are smaller, fewer kittens mean less choice and you can't guarantee even a female, let alone a female of good type, and then there's the question of your own colour preferences etc. So leaving it to the last litter, never a good plan.

As always I am merely rambling, and your opinions would be very interesting indeed :) Oh- sorry about the pretentious title today, but I love Gauguin and it seemed apt!

Numbers

I was drawing up the kittens' 4 generation pedigrees last night, a somewhat complicated procedure involving lots of strings of numbers (the cats' registration numbers) and thus checking and rechecking that I have copied the numbers correctly. I'm not finished yet, it's kind of a work in progress lol.

It was really quite interesting though. I haven't looked at Indigo's and Harry's pedigrees for a while. Indigo is a 5th generation Tonkinese, so her pedigree is all Tonk, and all the breed numbers are 74 and variations thereof. Harry though, Harry is a 2nd generation Tonkinese, so his near ancestors contains both Burmese and Siamese influences. So there's a liberal sprinkling of 24s (Siamese), 27s (Burmese) and even a couple of 32s in there as well (Tabby/ Tortie/ Red/ Cream/ Apricot Siamese, as these colours were not originally accepted by Siamese breeders, hence the different number)

As to which generation the kittens are, it's the lower of the parent's generations, plus one. So they are 3rd generation Tonkinese. Their parents and grandparents are all Tonks, their great grandparents and their great great grandparents are Burmese, Siamese and Tonkinese.

All the cats have letters before their number, too. Now Tonkinese are a relatively new breed (although in the 'wild', they are as old as the hills... there are Tonkinese street cats wherever the Burmese and the Siamese are...) so there are different codes, and it all gets quite confusing. There's a brilliant guide at Mymystic Tonkinese but I'll try to summarise on here as well.

If the cat has a CSREF on its registration number, it is e on the reference register. It is either a first generation, second generation, or has a solid or pointed coat pattern- so both Indigo and Wendell have CSREF before their numbers. CSREF cats can be bred from, if also registered as active (Indigo is, Wendell is not) but they cannot be shown in pedigree classes.

If a cat has CSSR before it's numbers, it is on the supplementary register. This means that the cats ancestry for 3 generations consists of mink tonkinese, pointed and solid variant CSREF Tonkinese PLUS at least one ancestor from a back cross mating (Tonkinese with Burmese or Siamese, but only pre 1997, it's not allowed now) or a pre 1999 first cross mating (Burmese x Siamese) All the minks have a CSSR before their number (as does Harry, their father) because they have a Siamese and a Burmese as a great grandparent. CSSR kittens can be shown. They can also be bred from if also registered on the Active Register, which mine are not, of course.

and THEN, we have the registration CS, which is the full register- fourth generation and above mink Tonkinese and onwards. Indigo had a mink brother, who would have been CS. Don't let the name 'full register' fool you though... all the codes are properly GCCF registered pedigree Tonkinese cats.

Tonkinese are such a 'new' breed (see proviso above!) that CS registered cats seem to be the exception rather than the rule- there's only one CS Tonkinese cat on the REM litter's whole pedigree! Once you get further and further up the generational ladder, the gene pool available for mating gets smaller and smaller, so eventually you have to mate with lower generations with new bloodlines in order to keep the gene pool healthy.

Not that this will matter to ANYONE but me of course... I suspect I'm a bit of a nerd *grin*. What can I say, I find it interesting!

Aqua Eyes

(Photo by S.A)

As modelled by Kensey!

Cat coat colour and eye colour is closely linked, genetically. The mink coat, also known as (little t) tonkinese, or intermediate, is the only coat that will produce the stunning aqua coloured eyes Kensey has above. They are unique to the Tonkinese breed and a very few other breeds like the Rexes, that have used both Siamese and Burmese cats in their development. All the minks will have aqua eyes at maturity, some of mine are still quite blue eyed at present which is usual. Kensey's are fairly stunning already though. Yum!

Wendell is a 'solid', so he will ultimately develop greeny-yellow eyes like his Mama. Also very pretty, but not unique to the breed, lots of cats have yellow eyes after all. But very attractive all the same. And speaking of Wendell's eyes, both he and Kenneth are squinty again. Dammit! I suspect I stopped the eye stuff too soon.

Kensey is very good at posing for the camera isn't he? Not like some of them, who don't stay still for more than a second *cough-Wendell* or who think the camera is a fascinating new cat toy *cough-Wendell* or who turn their heads at the last minute, leaving a blur. *cough... ahem... Wendell.* Wendell is my livewire, always on the go!

S and D came over last night to visit Kenneth... who I believe will soon be called Alfie- aww! Kenneth was more interested in finding a quiet place to sleep, and took a moment or two to find (on top of the cardboard recycling box is a new one on me!!) and even then wanted no more than a bit of shut eye! Fortunately Wendell was more than happy to play- Wendell is ALWAYS happy to play- and Monty to snuggle so a good time was had by all.