Pardalis Ocicats

‘Wasters’ isn’t really the right word, as how can time spent watching and playing with adorable kittens ever be wasted?  Fizz’s kittens are now downstairs in the kitten room.  We fully intendedcontaining them in the new kitten pen until they’d started on solids and were using the litter tray confidently.  However, I can’t believe how quickly they’ve changed this past week or so.  All of a sudden they want to be into everything and explore when just a week ago they were warily tottering around the pen. Now it’s all play, play, play!!! So the door to the pen is kept open now.

They are using the litter tray, albeit to sleep in…… No interest has been shown in proper food but they’re all very good weights and still gaining steadily so there’s no rush.  They all drink water out of the bowl so it won’t be long before they decide to give kitten food a try.

Quincy is the handsome lilac silver boy from Fizz’s litter born in May 2009.  We grew very fond of him as a kitten, he was always very affectionate and friendly, being the first to greet visitors.  But we were happy that he had gone to a wonderful home.  He lives in London now and is very well known in the local community.  He wears a collar with a phone number on which is often called to say ‘ did you know your cat regularly visits our pub, and wanders around for a chat with the people there?’ or ‘ Quincy’s just let himself into the local school and is sitting in the classroom with the children’ or even ‘Quincy’s just let himself in and pinched my dinner!’.

Now he needed somewhere to stay while his new family went on holiday.  As this coincided with the time that Fizz would be upstairs with her new babies, we decided that we’d be able to help out on this occasion and have him stay with us.  We were especially keen to see how he’d turned out. Although we’d seen recent photos, we were pleasantly surprised at how much more handsome he is in the fur.  He’s also huge! With enormous paws and very solid muscular body. He’s still a very loving cat, who loves a cuddle and is so very laid back and relaxed.  He settled right in and it was only a few days before he was integrated in the family and playing with our other cats.

We hope he enjoyed his three week stay with us as much as we enjoyed having him here, but we’re sure he’s happy to be back doing his rounds of the locality!

Fizz was fidgety on Wednesday and wouldn’t leave my side so I knew something was about to happen.  We took her up to bed with us and the loud purring started.  She has a very quiet purr normally so this was her ‘ouch’ purr.  I turned the light off and prayed nothing would happen until the morning.

No such luck!  At around 1am I woke up to shuffling in the birth box and a little squeak.  The first born was already nice and dry and suckling and getting lots of attention from mum before I noticed another in the corner still in its sac.  My first thought was it was a still born as Fizz wasn’t paying it any attention.  I grabbed an old flannel and rubbed gently and she gave a sigh.  After quickly wiping the sac from her mouth and tearing the cord, I dried her as best I could and gave her back to mum who was now happy to wash her.  She was a bit slow to suckle and felt a little cold, so I held her in my hands to warm her up a little and after a little while she livened up enough to root for a teat. Two more births followed in the next hour or so and by 4am, with Fizz happily nursing them, I crawled back to bed. The alarm goes off at 6am and we found another kitten had been born bringing the total to five.

We have 3 tawnies, a blue and a chocolate.  They’re all very content and getting lovely round bellies.

We’ve finally finished creating a safe outside space for our cats.  There’s a cat flap from the cat/kitten room going to a meshed off space at the back of the house.  This can be used by kittens too.  With a big jump (too high for kittens) the adults can reach a contained walkway over the patio and down into a sectioned-off piece of our garden.  Loads of bushes to explore and hide in and plenty of shady spots for a sunny day’s snoozing.

Fizz is definitely showing signs of pregnancy.  She spent six days back with her breeder up in Lincoln snuggled up to Neo, the handsome tawny classic we paired Lexi with for her last litter. The pair really hit it off and at first it seemed they were happy just to be ‘good friends’ for the first few days. How

ever, one thing led to another and on the third evening, once Neo had finished his dinner and washed his paws, he turned his attention to Fizz She’d made him wait three days, now he was making her wait :-)  Honestly, men!!!

We’re not sure if Fizz carries the Classic pattern, though she has the potential to as her dad carries the gene.  If she has it too then it should show in this mating.  Both Fizz and Neo carry the dilute gene and chocolate so apart from the obvious likelihood of predominantly tawny kittens, other possible colours could be chocolate, blue or lilac.  It’s wait and see time!  Very exciting, really looking forward to having kittens in the house again

Fizz won her second Open Class at the Short-haired Cat Society Show on 18th April.

She just needs one more CC for her to earn the title of Champion.  However, she’s far more interested in getting the next litter started than earning titles so she’s paid a visit to a stud and we’re waiting confirmation that the meeting was successful.  Her next show may then have to wait until much later in the year, which she’s, no doubt, very happy about as she doesn’t really enjoy being at the shows.

Whether she finally earns the title or not, she’ll always be our little Champion

Also at this show were two of Lexi’s kittens, Connie and Delphi.  Owned by our good friends, Lorraine and David, they’re helping to gain the required merits for the Ocicat Classic’s progression to full championship status.  Both got glowing merit reports and did very well in the miscellaneous classes.  Off to a flying start in their show careers and a credit to their beautiful mother!

The kittens are finally in their purpose built own room and relishing the extra space to create havoc in!  And we can be happy in the knowledge that when we can’t be there to supervise them, they’re in as safe an environment as possible with no cables to chew or blind cords to get tangled up in. Meanwhile the chaos of our kitchen being rebuilt alongside them doesn’t seem to faze them at all and certainly doesn’t interrupt their snoozes!

They continue to put on weight and are eating healthily.  A favourite pastime is shimmying up the tall scratch post, and seeing how long they can balance on the top. When the radiator’s on, they like to climb into one of the baskets under the bench and curl up together, all safely snug and warm purring like little tractors.

I’m sorry to say that one of Lexi’s beautiful kittens died on Wednesday.  He’d lost a little weight overnight so I monitored him during the day and watched him feed.  As the day went on he seemed to weaken and feed less even with help and encouragement and the offer of formula milk to top him up.  He’d lost more weight by the evening and sadly quickly faded and died.  It’s horrible to lose a newborn like that, especially when he seemed to be thriving up to that day. RIP little one.

The other kittens continue to put on weight and are growing well, are opening their eyes and we’re just awaiting the arrival of their ears

Lexi woke up on Thursday morning full of miaows.  She was restless all day, if a door was shut she wanted to go through, as soon as she’d gone through she’d turn around and come right back in! Uno, her boy from her first litter, was getting a lot of attention and non-stop washing, as if she was having a trial run for the birth and had suddenly remembered that he was once her kitten

It was very frustrating for me as I realised she was going into labour but she just wouldn’t settle, I wanted her to have some rest, she didn’t sleep all day.  She’d go into the nice cosy box we’d set in the corner of our bedroom, rummage around a bit, sit for a while, then off she’d trot downstairs again only to go through the door routine once more!

Then it dawned on me that once she’d gone through a door she was wanting Uno to follow her, and if he didn’t that was why she was coming back.  So I let him go up with her and she was happy with that but he didn’t want to sit in her box with her, he wanted to explore and play and everytime he moved she’d move with him, give him another wash, follow him around.  He soon got bored and let himself out of the bedroom (he’s a great one for opening doors!) so I put Fizz upstairs with Lexi to keep her company, but that wasn’t good enough, it had to be Uno!

Eventually she went into labour so Uno had to get out of the way.  The first kitten took its time coming, it was breech, but once that one had come into the world the second was only minutes behind.  In all she had four, all Classics, beautiful clear markings, 3 tawnies, 1 chocolate.  Once they were all dry we weighed them quickly as we transferred mum and babes into a new cosy clean bed and attempted to sex them.  One girl, three boys?  Not sure…..jury’s still out.  Days later and we’re now thinking 1 boy, 3 girls!  Or maybe they’re all boys but one’s better endowed :-))

All excellent weights and very even, just a few grams between them still a few days later, and they’re gaining fast. They seem to be a very contented and quieter than our previous litters. They squeak rather than squawk

Meanwhile Uno transferred his attentions back to Fizz :-)  Must be his aftershave!

The cats have unpacked their toy mice and found their favourite beds in our new house.  We’ve moved to a mid-Bedfordshire village, just ten miles up the road from where we were before.  The cats all settled in really quickly once they realised that food, water, beds and cuddles were as before, just in different surroundings :-) 

Kolo doesn’t venture very far outside, though we were sure he’d be disappearing for ages to the neighbouring stud farm.  The weather’s probably got a lot to do with it though and maybe he’ll explore the fields more once summer comes.  We were worried how Purdy, our old girl, her eyesight failing, would settle, but she’s amazed us all and even taken to using the litter tray instead of braving the elements. 

As for the Ocis, they just want to explore every corner and help us unpack.  The boxes and bubble wrap brought them endless fun, as far as they’re concerned we can move again if it means more boxes to play in!

Now we’re settled we’ve taken Lexi to visit a new boyfriend.  He’s a very handsome tawny Ocicat Classic and we’re looking forward to a Classic litter being born in January.