Hello, Jacob and Jonah!

Such a lovely pair! Love the way they cuddle up together. I love seeing photos of Indikon kittens, all grown up.

Just a word about photos... anything emailed to me personally, I might post on here ( indeed I will try to, life, study  and other inconveniences notwithstanding!) Anything on Facebook and elsewhere, I wouldn't post unless I got permission. Thank you C for letting me copy this picture over, they are adorable (and little pickles, too, I am sure...)

Mojo

Although I wish this handsome young man was one of mine, either a resident or one I'd bred, he isn't. This is Tallica Mojito, Amanda's (reader, commenter) tonk.

Mojo was thought to be a chocolate solid, but Amanda thinks he looks more like a chocolate mink, so has given me permission to post his piccies on here to see... and hopefully as he grows there will be more pictures and we can see what he eventually settles into.

Mojo is currently only 5 months, so plenty of time to settle into his final colouration... remember the shenanigans over the REM litter when they turned about one? And C reports that Jacob has recently lightened, whilst Jonah has darkened into their (presumably) final colour. in fact it can take a Tonk several years to settle into their final colour and even then colour can keep on developing- mature browns, for example, can get very dark indeed.

Mojo's body colour now. I have not had chocolates here, so I couldn't say one way or another. His body is still pretty pale, but chocolates are pale anyway, he has a lovely creamy belly but it isn't almost white, as I've seen in a mink, but that could be the light.

His eyes look pretty aqua though, which would be more typical of a mink.

For comparison, here are Pasha and CoCo (Liesl and Brigitta) at 2(ish) months- Pasha, front, is a brown mink and CoCo a solid, but their eye colour is pretty much the same. By three months though, the eye colour is starting to look pretty different. You can't really see from this pic, but CoCo is a lot darker in the body.

Here's Bailey, a brown solid like CoCo, a month or so later:

You can see his eyes are already starting to look green/ greeny-yellow compared to Pasha's, below... Pasha is a mink and had very nice aqua eyes at 3 months...

Back to Mojo! Those eyes look much more like Pasha's than they do Bailey's don't they? If I had to guess, now, and with all the usual provisos about really not being terribly good at colouring kittens, I'd say he was a chocolate mink. But as always, opinions welcomed! M, your Dylan is a chocolate mink isn't he, is Mojo similar in colouration or is he darker-??

Guess Again!

Aaaaaand its another picture NOT of Indigo. LOL. No, this is the lovely Jonah who is quite patently a lilac solid and not a blue mink as I put on his pedigree.

Whoopsie.

He's another handsome devil isn't he though? If I was in that room I'd want to scoop him up and give him a kiss. He probably wouldn't mind either because he was just the cuddliest, most affectionate kitten imagineable, and C says he hasn't changed much.

Love those big soppy mancats. Mine, my Theo, is next to me on the desk as I type, and every now and then he's letting out a little trill to let me know he'd like another stroke now please!

Queen Of The Castle

Lottie and Lola's family have bought the girls a fantastic full height cat climber, which to me looks a bit castle like... very appropriate for two princesses! They love it. Here's Lola at the top. I understand she's also *ahem* rediscovered curtain climbing. Lola!!!! What a monkey!

Looking at Lola, I can't see for the life of me why I ever thought Alfie or Jonah (last year) were blue minks... they looked quite different to Lola. Although having said that, will I have to eat my words this time next year with regards to Lola? I'm much, much more confident about the accuracy of my (eventual!) colourings this year, but even so, we aaaaaaaalllll know what a mess I made of it last year!!! *hangs head in shame*

At least with Tonks this kind of uncertainty goes with the territory... it's almost part of the fun. I guess. LOL.

More Of Marta

I try to give all the kittens equal 'coverage' on this blog, with guest appearances by the adults naturally, but inevitably there are times when a kitten is left out for a bit. Marta is one of those. Because she's so sweet and easy going, she doesn't stand out as much as some of her siblings and probably hasn't got the coverage they have. So I'm concentrating on Marta today.

Marta is an absolute angel. She's soft and cuddly, easygoing and amiable, and all her siblings love to snuggle with her. She's more than happy to sleep on a lap too, and very people friendly. If you pick her up she goes all limp and snuggles up- on her back sometimes, like her Mama. Her favourite toy is a big plastic wheel with a ball in it- she sits in the middle and bats the ball around happily at least once a day and generally just makes me melt. She's adorable.

She's rather like Jonah- Monty- from our last litter. He was easygoing and uber-snuggly too. But she's not exactly like him of course, they all have their own unique personalities.

Now excuse me, while I go and kiss her!

Charlie and Lola

What with all the 'new family' stories of late, I forgot to tell you! Gretl and Louis's new owners have picked out names- they are to be Charlie and Lola. The teenager used to be a huge Charlie and Lola fan (as did I- ahem!) so all I can say is- awesome names girls!

Gretl especially is a typical Lola, always adventuring. The other day, because she is a BAD BAD GIRL, she climbed the curtains! I had a towel over the radiator and she shimmied up that and started up the curtains... well you may be sure I removed her AND that towel- can't have her falling off now, although she's such an agile little monkey she probably wouldn't. Curtain climbing isn't something I exactly encourage though!

But still, what a bad girl. But adorable, so adorable.

(and incidentally, it took me about 20 shots to get one that wasn't blurry, because Gretl, like Wendell (Jacob) last year, never stays still!)

Proper Cats

How I tear myself away from the nest when they look this cute I have no idea...  but you can see here from this picture of Kurt how much they now look like proper little cats and how quickly their colour is developing. Kurt's nose, tail and ears are really very dark indeed now, and his paws and face are darkening. Some of the kitties have darkening patches on their backs/ base of their tail as well.

The kittens are also starting to play fight, lick themselves and each other, pounce and otherwise behave in a very cat-like way. When you advance to the nest now, the babies all run forward in anticipation- they are learning that humans are friendly and trustworthy beings. They like to have their ears and chins rubbed, I've had a few purrs, and one even dozed off mid cuddle the other day. (Kurt- I'm getting a sneaking suspicion Kurt is another cuddlebug like Monty- Jonah- was...)

Its such a vital stage in their development, and easy to see how, managed wrongly, it could shape a cat's attitude towards people for life These babies are not quite three weeks, by four weeks a feral kitten is truly feral, a hissing spitting wildcat, although there's always the chance that feral rescues can relearn positive patterns of relating of course. No cat should ever be written off. Still, the window of opportunity here is short, they develop so fast, there's not much room for error.

Weights good again for the second day running... could it be that the past week was just a blip? Indigo has been eating like a horse. Long may it continue!

The Eyes (Don't) Have It

So, I've been in a bit of a quandary about Alfie and Jonah's colouring. Both were registered as blue minks, and they LOOKED like blue minks as kittens, but as they have gotten older, they have matured into very different colouration. They both have goldy eyes.... so are they even minks at all? So I asked the advice of two very experienced breeders I know.

Alfie now. Both the breeders I have chatted to (and I didn't ask them if I could say who they were, so I won't, but you know who you are and many many thanks!) agree that he is a caramel, both feel he is indeed a mink, despite the eyes. As for Jonah, whilst both agree that he looks mink, one thought he looked more lilac and one thought caramel. *grin* And both reassured me that they get it wrong regularly- it's a hazard of Tonk-dom, it seems.

 Jonah, man of mystery!

One lady told me that you do get Tonks seen occasionally on the show bench that don't have perfect eye colour. It's not uncommon, it seems. And the other said that it can take up to three years for a Tonk to fully settle into his eventual eye and coat colour- for all their quickness to mature in other areas, coats and eyes take their time. So we may yet see eyes lightening or coats darkening and change our minds about colours all over again! Jonah may eventually start to look more obviously one or the other

I will say this- I thought lilac minks were born white/ pale cream, and all of my babies were a pale beigey colour. So at the moment I am tending towards the caramel for Jonah. It will be interesting to see if I have any lilac minks in my next litter (a possibility, but I'm not telling you any more at this stage!) so I can compare photos as they grow. It will be interesting to see.

Jonah's Eyes

As my kittens were growing up, there were two kittens I always got confused. I could tell the girls by their markings, Wendell because he was so dark, and Kensey was notably lighter than his two similarly coloured brothers. But Kenneth and Monty... well I often got them confused, and had to mark under their arms so I would know for sure who was who. So I can't say I was terribly surprised when I recieved in my email...
'Have just read your latest blog entry, and thank goodness, I thought I was going mad! I too have wondered for quite a while now if Jonah is really a blue mink as his eyes... are decidedly golden and his coat is a subtle blend of fawn/caramel/grey-blue. '

Ah... yes! So they are! Hello there Jonah!

So Jonah's colouring is also in question... and I must admit that my confidence has taken a little bit of a battering having got it wrong again (and half expecting my other families to be emailing me saying my kitty has golden eyes too... lol) So what's a breeder to do? That's right- ask other breeders, who have been in the game far longer than I have! *grin*

I've found out some interesting things, too... which I'll share with you another day :)

Jacob and Jonah Go On Holiday

To Grandma's, where they had a lovely time! And very cleverly sent me their own letter/ progress report hehe.

Unfortunately, I am not nearly so clever, and can't work out how to take the pictures off the letter and get them on here... so you will just have to imagine...

Two very handsome boys, one dark, the other paler, but obviously a pair. One sleek and lithe, the other bigger and more muscular... and perhaps with a very slight tummy, eh Jonah? Your Mama is the same!

Two lads looking calm and contented together in their carrier, roaming around the house mischeviously, playing, sun-soaking, bird watching and bed snuggling. And finally home after a lovely week.

Sounds like a great holiday eh? Thanks for the update boys!

Massage

Three of my cats have a traditional cat dignity. Ava and Sofia, whilst perfectly amiable and affectionate, do not like to be picked up at all. Theo tolerates it, but it's not something he enjoys as such, or would seek out. Unfortunately he's just so fluffy I can't resist.

Indigo is not like that. Indigo can be picked up, tipped upside down, roughhoused and otherwise mauled (gently! lol)with impunity, in fact she likes it, and will seek such hands on treatment of her own volition. Which is why it didn't surprise me in the slightest when Alfie's family sent me this video of him enjoying a massage...

Apparently this is one of his favourite things ever! LOL! I'm loving 0.38 where he does that blissed out slow blink!

What a big powerful cat Alfie has turned into hasn't he? Apparently he's a very muscular 7kg now, which is more than my Theo even, and nearly twice as much as his new sister Paloma, who is built on a more miniature scale. I'll update on that soon but they are getting on well.

Incidentally, I am confusing myself no end trying to file posts under the Indikon kittens' old names, took me ages today to remember that Alfie was once 'Kenneth'. So I'll be filing under their proper names from now on. I'm sure anyone searching will soon realise that Alfie and Kenneth are one and the same cat, for example, if they read back far enough. If I then wanted to use Alfie as a name I'd file it as 'Indikon Alfie'- the pedigree name.

Only just in- Jacob and Jonah's summer holiday. Stay tuned!