Pardalis Ocicats

Saturday saw the 4th Championship Show.  For the second year running we teamed up with the Tabby Cat Club who also held assessment classes for the Ocicat Classic, meaning Lexi was able to gain two more merits at the one show!  She had some wonderful comments from the judges - “A pretty girl of very good type”, “lovely bright green eyes”, “clear classic markings of bright warm chocolate…very clear contrast” “excellent temperament and condition” and “A real Ocicat”.

Our Fizz did us proud on her first show outing as an adult by gaining her first challenge certificate, 2 more and she can earn the title of Champion. Both our girls did well in their side classes too with a mixture of 1st and 2nd places.

Florence, Lexi’s daughter, brought her strokers Lorraine and David so they could witness her gaining her first Grand certificate.  Not content with just being called Premier Pardalis Genesis, she’s aiming high for the Grand Premier title

New homes have been found for all of Fizz’s rainbow litter.  We’ve been very lucky to find such wonderful homes for them all and I just know they’re all going to be spoilt rotten!!  Three left yesterday and it’s already very quiet around here!  I’m looking forward to seeing their photos as they grow and will keep posting them as they arrive in the new owners album.  We need a few kitten free months now while we prepare to move house.  We’re not going too far but we’ve some busy times ahead! I’ll hopefully be able to get to a few more shows with Fizz and Lexi once we’re settled starting, of course, with the Ocicat Club Show at Alcester on 3rd October.

I was woken at 1am on Friday morning by a rustle coming from the litter tray.  I rolled over thinking ‘hope it’s not a smelly one’.  Then I heard a squeek.  I jumped out of bed and looked in all the obvious places that I’d prepared to give Fizz a choice of where to give birth.  The nice cosy cardboard box by my bed,  the Sturdi where the kittens and mum usually spend their first 3 weeks until they get too active and are ready to come downstairs, and the kneehole in the dressing table.  But no, madam had decided the covered litter tray was the place to be!

I lifted Fizz and a wet kitten out and transferred them both to the cardboard box.  The poor little mite had bits of litter all stuck to her!  Luckily it was clean litter :-)  I brushed off what I could while Fizz had her second kitten in the comfort of the box.  A total of 5 were born by 2.30am.  All good weights, not much difference between them all.

They’re all putting weight on nicely and finding their lungs!  Fizz is a great mum, she’s only left them to stretch her legs a few times and she covers them with the blanket when she’s gone.  We’ve got a black silver and a lilac (maybe lilac silver) boys and chocolate, blue and blue silver girls.  It’s lovely to have them all different and such a nice variety of colours.  Well done Fizz!

Fizz is looking swell!  We’re expecting her happy event by the end of the week.  Difficult to tell if she’s bigger than last time.  I think she is, though that could be down to it being her second pregnancy rather than there being more kittens.

It was very warm during this stage of her pregnancy last time and she was sleeping a lot.  This time she’s far more fidgety and awake, really quite restless.  I think we’ll both be glad when the kittens have arrived and we can all get some sleep

Fizz went to stud a few weeks ago and we can safely say it was a successful visit and we’re expecting to hear the pitter patter of tiny paws in about 6 weeks time.  This time she went to a beautiful Blue Silver -  Grand Champion Thickthorn Cus Cus giving us the possibility of Black silver or Chocolate silver kittens.  We’re really looking forward to having kittens around again!

Uno is relishing his position as the ‘big’ kitten.  He’s only ten weeks older than Fizz’s kittens but he looks enormous against them! He loves to wrestle them and bounds towards them, knocks them over then grabs them in a headlock and nibbles their ears :-)  They squeak a bit if he gets too rough….. Fizz doesn’t seem too worried and just watches with a bemused look on her face.  She wasn’t too happy to find Uno still here when she first came downstairs with her kittens but from the looks of things she’s accepted him as one of hers!

Uno had a trip to the vet this week, to be neutered. He was starting to take an unhealthy interest in his mum.  So, while he’s still a little young to actually sire a litter, we weren’t going to take any chances!

Lexi’s kittens have all found their new homes now.  We made sure Lexi saw each one go into it’s carrier in the hope she’d have some understanding of where they’d disappeared to.  In some cases she got into the carrier first to make sure it was suitable :-)  All her kittens went to lovely homes and we’re looking forward to hearing how they’re settling and seeing photos of them as they grow.  One, Florence, a chocolate spotted girl, is going to be shown and will be at the Ocicat Club Show in October which will be very exciting for both the new owner, who hasn’t shown before, and us of course!

Uno is staying.  He’s our first born, a Classic boy, who we’ve recently discovered is in fact Cinammon and not Chocolate in colour.  He’s wormed his way into all our hearts and is now the responsibility of our eldest son!

Fizz’s kittens are now downstairs.  They started on solid food a couple of days ago and all seem to have got the hang of it really quickly.  We’ve even had some success with the litter tray so we’re really pleased with their progress.

Fizz’s four babies are very robust and getting quite tubby!  It makes all the difference having just the four to look after and plenty of milk.  They’re a good couple of days ahead, weight-wise, compared to the heaviest of Lexi’s litter at this stage.  We’ve decided to go for an Olympic theme when we name this litter but haven’t got as far as thinking of any actual names.  Well, except one that my son named when he looked to see what sex it was - Linford…. I don’t think I need to explain why :-)  I’ve a dreadful feeling that name’s going to stick!! Funnily enough he’s the noisiest.  I tend to leave him until last when I weigh and check them each day as he kicks up such a stink!!

Fizz kept pulling up the corner of her bed covering and I couldn’t understand why.  Then, after the first couple of days I realised she was making a ridge so the kittens didn’t wander away.  Since I’ve placed a towel or another blanket around her making a safe cocoon, she’s perfectly happy and hasn’t disturbed the bedding since.  They’re very active kittens and she was getting upset when one would insist on walking round behind her and squawking when it realised there weren’t any teats on her back!

Well, she might have kept us waiting but it was worth it in the end!  Having spent every night since Sunday sleeping with one eye open so as not to miss the happy event, should she pick some unearthly hour to give birth, Fizz finally had her kittens yesterday evening.  From early morning she’d been in and out of her specially prepared box miaowing loudly but she chose to wait until Graham was home from work and we’d had dinner before she went into labour (very civilised!)  She took her time, giving birth to the four over a span of nearly two hours.  Unlike Lexi, who shot hers out at a speed of knots!  We enjoyed this birth more as we had time to inspect and enjoy each kitten as it was born, and it was cleaned and dry before the next popped out.  The first born came tail first and took a while to free herself from the birth canal.  I was just contemplating getting out the rubber gloves and giving her a hand, when she finally slithered out herself!!  The remaining three all came out nice and easily, head first.  We settled the little family into nice clean, warm quarters and they’re all purring along nicely.

We’ve got 2 tawnies and 2 chocolates, all spotted, a boy and girl in each colour which will make identifying them easier!  So we know she carries chocolate but have yet to see, from subsequent litters, whether or not she does indeed carry the classic or dilute genes.

Fizz is due to give birth any day now.  We’ve been on tenterhooks since Sunday which was day 63.  She’s been spending the nights in our room for a while now and has been confined there since the weekend.  Needless to say we’ve not slept that well the last few nights, fully expecting her to into labour in the middle of the night!  Instead, she’s been purring in our ears and sitting on us - no fun with a belly full of babies, she weighs a ton! I’ve been spending as much time as possible with her, working from my laptop so I can keep an eye on things.  The suspense is killing me, can’t wait to see how many there are, especially to see what colours she produces as the potential is there for all 6 and she no doubt carries the classic pattern too.  Hopefully there’ll be a birth announcement very soon!