Pardalis Ocicats

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Saturday 1st October, Eynsham, Oxfordshire.  A blistering hot day for any time of year let alone the first day of October.  The show went really well, beautifully organised and well publicised locally so lots of visitors through the doors. We took our two kittens, Pippa and Grace and stud boy Raffles.  It was his first show since he was a kitten and we weren’t sure if he’d enjoy it as he’s not one for being picked up and manhandled!  He’s so gorgeous though, and with this being a small show, it was the ideal one to try and show him off in.

They were all very well behaved, Raffles did sneak his head under the blanket now and again but generally took it all in his stride.  Grace chatted and shouted and Pippa slept or played her way through the day. As the results started coming in during the day we discovered they’d all won their Open Classes and got Best of Breed for their relevant sections.  Pippa got another 1st, a 2nd and two 3rds in her side classes and Raffles a 1st in the only side class we entered him in.

The big surprise of the day was Grace who had a real red card day!  Four 1sts in her side classes and the honour of being chosen as Best Ocicat Kitten (2nd year running for Pardalis!) Raffles was Best Male and Pippa’s sister, Isla, was best Ocicat Classic Kitten - a really good year for us

A steward offered to take Raffles up to his BIS row pen for me but lost her grip on him, he can be very wriggly when he puts his mind to it!  The shout for ‘cat loose’ went up and everyone stood still while Raffles shot through Graham’s legs and ran round the room at full speed before hiding under a pile of chairs in a dark corner behind the curtains.  Knowing how difficult it can be to make Raffles do something he really doesn’t want to, we envisaged spending many a happy hour coaxing him out and getting him into the pen.  Luckily another steward did a sterling job of getting hold of him and putting him in his carrier. I don’t know who was more embarrassed, the poor steward who lost her grip on him who’d not had anything like that happening to her in 30 years of stewarding, or me for not insisting on putting him in his carrier to take him to the other pen, but it was only a couple of footsteps away……

After all that excitement the judges made their choices for the overall Best in Show. The choice was between Raffles, Grace and Lottie, a lovely chocolate girl who was already an Imperial Grand Premier.

To our great delight our little girl won it with Raffles as runner up!!!

The next day we laid out all the trophies and rosettes (the BIS one’s are very special) and wondered if we should be upping the house contents insurance :-)))

We had a lovely day last Sunday.  Fifteen gorgeous Ocicats and Ocicat Classics to cuddle and admire by Club members and judges alike.

The day started with the cats being vetted in and settled in their large double pens decorated with curtains and swathes of satin to enhance their beautiful patterns.  At the time of booking the cats in Lexi was still feeding Pippa, so it seemed like a good idea to have them sharing a pen thinking they’d enjoy each other’s company on the day.  Since then Lexi has decided that the milk bar’s shut and it was about time Pippa left her alone and was snappy with her being in the same confined space.  Luckily I’d brought Pippa’s harness and she left Lexi her space in the pen and went walkabout with me. 

At lunchtime we all enjoyed the buffet spread put on by Val, Jane and Lorraine and then settled down to listen to Rosemary talk about the wild look of the Ocicat and the ‘type’ as set in the GCCF standard.  So as not to be distracted by spots she demonstrated the various points using her lovely rare Ivory boy who’d ‘had all his spots washed off’ :-)   There was a question and answer session then Stacie took over to talk about the Classic pattern using Kestrel (in photo) and Dragon as her fine examples, followed by more questions and answers. During all this Pippa settled on my knee in her harness and had a nap.

It was lovely spending the day with other Ocicat breeders and owners and talking cats all day and eating lovely cakes I got to see Twiglet (Amakhala) Fizz’s kitten again and also Connie and Isla (pictured right), it’s always a bonus to see them growing up.

Saw a copy of next year’s Club calendar at the weekend, our cats/kittens feature in January, Feb, April and May with a pic of both Lexi and Fizz on the front cover too

January is three of the litter Fizz had in the summer, Feb is Connie and Delphi (Lexi’s from early this year), April is Quincy (Fizz 2009) and May is our Fizz. Very proud of them all!!

http://www.ocicatclubuk.org/CALENDAR.html

We’ve had to make the very sad decision to let Purdy, at the grand old age of 19, to rest in peace.  It’s always very sad to lose a much loved pet, but even though we’ve known it’s been coming for some time, it’s hit us all very hard.

Purdy came to us as a tiny slip of a thing, just weeks old, the last one left from the litter being fostered for an animal charity by our then next door neighbours. She earned the nickname ‘wing nut’ for a while as her ears were enormous compared to her tiny frame and stuck out at a strange angle.

She was a very quiet cat, never naughty, accepting all the changes that happened around her, though the arrival of our dog, Basil, ruffled her fur enough for her to choose to move to the bottom of the garden for a week, refusing to come in!  Luckily it was nice and warm outside at the time.  Other cats and kittens arrived over the years and she took it all in her stride.  She even coped really well with the house move last year despite her eyesight failing.

The house seems empty without her, she may not have moved very much these past few months, but she was always there and now…..she’s not

Rest in peace princess, you were a wonderful friend to us all and will be sadly missed.

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.

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. 

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

It’s been a pleasure to see Lexi and Fizz out in the specially built enclosure enjoying the recent warm weather, chasing flies and watching the birds. Graham made it as a lean-to on our shed using mostly old pieces of wood we already had and wire meshing. It’s in a nice shady part of the garden though it gets a little sun in the odd corner so they can choose to the sit in the sun or the shade. We’ve put walkways round 2 sides and a nice sturdy tree branch leading up to it for scratching on or climbing and part of a wooden bench we no longer wanted in the garden offers more sitting and watching or hide and seek places. At least when we’re in the garden enjoying the weather, they can be near us and see what we’re doing. It’s not as good as allowing them the freedom of an enclosed garden but our garden would be very difficult to make totally enclosed without chopping down a lot of mature shrubs, so it’s the next best thing. As it’s down the far end of the garden we pop the cats into a carrier to take them down there.  Though now they know what’s coming I only have to fetch the carrier and open the lid and they jump straight in! Once we’ve sorted out the shed and made it safe we’ll put a cat flap on so they can explore that too.