Pardalis Ocicats

Yesterday I was 90% sure Lexi had already started to call, she’s only 5 1/2 months, just a baby herself still. Strangely, she’s been making the same noise Purdy makes just before she throws up, resulting in my dashing to put her in the kitchen - just in case - for the first few times until I cottoned on!  She also rolled around on her back a lot. Today I’m 100% sure she’s calling, she’s been howling most of her waking hours and also sticking her bum in the air and paddling her back legs.  I’ve told her she’ll have to keep them crossed for another 7 months yet!!

Fizz has been here just one week but already it seems like she’s been here forever. She’s quite placid compared to Lexi but more vocal and wants more cuddles whereas Lexi’s happy just bouncing off the walls! Her tummy was a bit upset for a day after we got her home but we put that down to the long journey home and stress of leaving her lovely home to live in our madhouse. We also made the mistake of leaving the two of them together the first night. So, for the following few nights we took Fizz to bed with us. She was as good as gold, hardly knew she was there. She’d snuggle right up into our neck and barely move all night.

Saturday night we had Lexi with us and Fizz slept in the conservatory with a friend who was staying the night. She’s a cat lover so was more than happy to share her bed with her. We thought that’d help Fizz get used to sleeping there in future. Well, Fizz and friend had a lovely, uninterrupted sleep while we were entertained all night with Lexi’s antics! At 2am she wanted to play fetch with her toy mouse, I had to hide it under my pillow! Then she found a cord hanging out of the wardrobe and played noisily with that for ages. Then she’d bounce onto the bed purring loudly and sit on us licking our faces and nuzzling us to wake up and play.

It was barely dawn when she decided to use her litter tray and stink us out……..needless to say, we were bleary eyed the next day and resolved that it was time for Fizz and Lexi to start sleeping in the same room overnight. They’d already been eating out of the same bowl for a couple of days which was a good sign but they’d yet to sleep curled up together or mutually groom. Last night they did both!!

We traveled up to Lincoln today to collect Ameeka Alabama Fizz. A small bundle of Tawny spots you can hold in one hand and who loves nothing more than snuggling up and being cuddled - adorable! It had been a hard decision choosing between the chocolate and the tawny but I’m sure we made the right one. She was so placid being held that, as she was meowing so much in the car, I got into the back seat with her, took her out of the carry cage and cuddled her all the way home - all 2+ hours of it.

Lexi’s a bit put out by her arrival and hisses at her at every opportunity but she did that with the dog for a few days too and now they’re best friends so I’m sure that they’ll be playing and sleeping together by the end of the week. The rest of the menagerie seem very accepting of her which is a relief. Just got Lexi to work on …………..

Last weekend we drove up to Lincoln to choose between 2 female cats in a large litter. They were Tia’s babies. Tia was the beautiful chocolate Ocicat we saw at a show that helped us decide that Ocicats were definitely the breed for us. The fact that she was hanging upside down in her owner’s arms (Stacie and Ian Shorten of Ameeka) and purring like a traction engine amongst all the hustle and bustle was a deciding factor, aside from her striking good looks of course! Now, 6 months later here we were amongst her beautiful babies, (she had 6 boys and 2 girls) having to choose between the chocolate and tawny girls. Both had the wonderful Ocicat character so there was nothing to choose between them there. But the tawny had such beautiful facial markings, both wild looking and so expressive, that we swayed towards her. Her coat is still a little fuzzy but in a few weeks she’ll be as smooth and silky as Lexi is now. She has an excellent pedigree, with both parents being bred at Thickthorn. Her pedigree name is Ameeka Alabama Fizz and we’ll collect her mid October.

We went to the Ocicat club show today. Often at the GCCF shows you can count the number of Ocicats being shown on one hand so it was nice to see a few more at a show dedicated to the breed. It was a much smaller show than others we’d been to of course but that made it friendlier and it was lovely to meet a few more breeders and catch up with some we already knew. Stacie (Ameeka) was exhibiting her classic patterned Jazzy and got some nice positive comments from the judges. Can’t wait to start exhibiting Lexi now!