Saturday saw us heading down to Reading for the Southern Counties Cat Show to try and get Lexi her 2nd merit. Not only did she get it with a glowing report from the judge, she won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
s in her three side classes.
Lexi’s mum, Thickthorn Meadowsaffron, won her Imperial Grand Champion Class, the first entire Ocicat to win that accolade - well done Saffi!
Saturday was an important day for the Ocicat Classic. It was the first show in which the new breed could be entered. We took Lexi and Uno along and they, together with Ameeka’s Thickthorn Calypso (Jazzy, the first Classic to be registered for breeding) gained their first merit certificates with glowing judges reports.
Lexi seemed a bit put out not to have her usual double-sized exhibition pen with the nice curtains to hide behind. She’d only been in her pen for a minute when she decided to squeeze under the water dish that we’d hung on the side and tip it all over her back and bedding! Then, later, when we’d put food down for them after the judging, Uno decided to bury his lunch with the cat litter. He has a habit of scratching the floor around his food, to hide and save a bit for later. Normally the cat litter is on the other side of the room at home though and he looked a bit flummoxed when he’d actually been successful in burying it! He looked at us as if to say, ‘how do I eat that now?’ So, they’d both managed to make a nice mess of their pens 
We need six individual Ocicat Classics to each gain four merits before we can go on to the next stage an
d then finally attain championship status. We also entered Foreign breed side classes and Uno got two seconds and a first, as did Jazzy. Lexi got a second, third and fifth. They were big classes though! It was a fantastic start to the breed’s showing career and the judges all seemed very impressed with the beautiful tabby pattern on the sleek, muscular Ocicat, saying what a lovely combination it was and how good it was to finally see them on the show bench. Onwards and upwards!
The GCCF has granted Preliminary Recognition to the Ocicat Classic breed with immediate effect, at the Council meeting on 29th October 2008. This means we can now show our beautiful Lexi instead of just putting her on exhibition. The first show we’re eligible to enter is The Shorthair cat Society on the 10th January 2009, which luckily is little over an hour from here, so a nice one to get to. We’re hoping there’ll be lots of Classics there, including Lexi’s very handsome sons Ossie (Pardalis Kanati, now owned by Gill Toosey) and our own Uno.
Last Saturday saw the 3rd annual Ocicat Championship Show. This year it was twinned with the Tabby Cat Club in a lovely hall in beautiful Alcester, Warwickshire. We took Lexi on exhibition and put her son, Uno, in with her for company. They both spent most of the time hiding behind the curtain! We also took our moggy, Kolo, for his first ever show at the grand old age of 5 or 6 (we’re never sure as he was a rescue cat). 
He wasn’t impressed at being kept in the night before so we could ensure he’d be around when we wanted to leave at some silly hour soon after dawn. He settled in his pen without any complaint when we got there but refused to
eat or use the litter tray in protest! We’ve always known he’s a gorgeous looking cat with a rich coloured coat and beautiful temperament, now we know the judges agree with us :-)) He won all his classes and got the ultimate accolade of Best Household Pet. As soon as he was transferred to his plush winner’s pen with it’s black interior and gold curtains he looked very smug and much more comfortable!
Also at their first shows were three of Lexi’s other kittens. Lorraine and her family brought Florence (Pardalis Genesis), a beautiful chocolate kitten, and Gillian brought Ossie (Pardalis Kanati) a very handsome Classic patterned boy, and very cute Selu (Pardalis Selu). It was lovely for us to have our prefix represented for the first time and we’re very grateful to Lorraine and Gillian for taking the time (not to mention the expense!) to bring them to show. They all did really well, with Florence winning her Open Class 
and Best of Breed and 2 of her 3 side classes, then going on to earn the title of Best Female Kitten and her place on winner’s row. Selu was just pipped to the post in the
Open by her sister but gained 1st, 2nds and 3rds in her side classes. Ossie was in the new Ocipet classes as, being a Classic, he can’t be shown with the spotted Ocicats. We should hear this month whether the separate breed of Ocicat Classic has been accepted and can be shown in its own right in preliminary classes very soon. Ossie won all his classes and had his pride of place next to Kolo’s pen also on winner’s row as Best Overall Exhibit. All in all a very successful day!!
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!
I guess there’s always one in every litter! In our case it’s the largest male, the first born. We’ve nicknamed him Uno in honour of that. He’s the one who’s always the first to stick his nose in to see what you’re doing. The first to greet us in the morning. If I feel a kitten sitting on my foot while I’m at the computer, it’s Uno. If there’s one climbing up my back - Uno again. If there’s a crash, it’s him. First to the dinner bowl - Uno. He’s usually the first to wake up when they’ve all had a snooze too, then he’ll nibble on the nearest kitten’s ears and the back of it’s neck until he or she wakes up and plays with him. N
eedless to say we’ve all got a really soft spot for him. He might not have the best Classic pattern but he’s a very handsome boy nonetheless and a superb colour.
On Sunday there was a clatter and crash coming from the conservatory. We went to investigate, only to find a bowl of biscuits scattered to all four corners of the room. We just assumed it was Uno…….. Probably aiming to jump on one of his sibling’s backs and landing on the bowl instead. After clearing up he proved us right by limping very badly. He’d obviously had a bad landing and done himself a mischief. He had a nap, and when he woke up he wouldn’t put any weight on one of his front paws at all. It didn’t seem to worry him, he still dive-bombed the others and made it first as usual to the food bowl. Later we noticed he was sitting with it at a very strange angle and it seemed to be limp from the joint downwards.
He was still limping in the morning so I took him to the vet. He thought it could be a folding fracture above the joint, one of the two bones he could feel was fine but he wasn’t sure about the other without an x-ray. Two hours and £93 later I was told he didn’t have any broken bones at all and to let nature take it’s course! I was also told he’d been sedated and that he’d be sleepy and wobbly on his legs for a while. As soon as he got home I placed him on the beanbag where the others were napping expecting him to curl up with them and sleep of the sedation. He had other ideas, a few nips of ears and jumping on unsuspecting kitten’s backs he soon had them all tearing around the house again. He was even putting some weight on the bad leg - Monkey! He couldn’t have done that a few hours earlier and saved me £93 !!! I watched him for a while for wobbliness but gave up after he’d jumped in and out of the waste paper basket waiting for another kitten to walk by and get jumped on, he was going to be just fine!