LostWoods Blog

I arrived safe and sound last night, although finding the hotel was a little challenging. All the signage seems to be oriented to people coming from the other direction, so I missed the entrance the first time I went by. It’s very green and lush out here — expected, but still it leaves me feeling rather envious. On the other hand, it’s also more humid and even though it was only in the mid-60s today, it seemed warm and sticky to my arid climate acclimated self. Class is good and I expect I’ll learn a lot this week.

Ken weighed the BBs this evening and (at my request) emailed the results to me. So here they are:

Taiba - 13.4 oz

Lelldorin - 14.6 oz

Belgarath - 15.4 oz

Garion - 16.6 oz

Kheldar - 15.2 oz

Ce’Nedra - 14.8 oz

Polgara - 16.6 oz

Polgara had an especially good week, catching up with the big boy of the litter, Garion. She’s really turning into a beauty, too. I just love her look.

Crazy cat lady that I am, I already miss the cats. Last night I had to go back out to the car to retrieve my cell phone. A blue tabby shorthaired cat was roaming the parking lot. He was obviously someone’s pet as he was wearing a collar and tags — and was very friendly. I stopped to talk to him and pet him a bit before coming back to my room. Saw him again this morning as I was leaving. Even though I wish his owners wouldn’t let him run loose, I did enjoy getting a short cat fix.

I’ve updated the Litter 16 & Litter 17 pages on the website with new pictures of the BBs and the MBs. The BBs were every bit as difficult as I expected. Either they ignored me or the came straight at me, trying to walk off the edge of the bed. Still, a couple of the pictures turned out okay and you can see how the little beasties are developing.

Now I’m off to finish my packing so I can go to the airport in about an hour.

Oh, almost forgot. The Mallorean Babies 2 week weights:

Cyradis - 11.4 oz

Zakath - 11.4 oz

No, not a typo. They weigh exactly the same.

Another absolutely beautiful day here in Helena. Ken, Jeremy and I moved the box from the back part of the stud room outside under the window so the cats can get in and out of the outside run from the stud room. The window is high on the wall, so they needed something tall enough to get to it. Then we let Shira, Dilan, Bug, and Comet explore the run. Shira found a spot where she could escape (apparently the other cats didn’t see her do it as they didn’t get out) and go exploring on her own. Luckily, she comes around the house and heads for the deck when she escapes. Colter barked at her (good dog!) alerting Jeremy to her whereabouts. We put her back in the run and then moved away – still within eye sight — to see how she did it. Then we fixed the spot (a corner that she could just squeeze through) and put her in again. Sure enough she tried to escape but failed miserably. Twice. She then explored the run a bit longer, looking for possible exits. Finding none, she lay down on the grass looking disgruntled.

The BBs and the MBs have been moved from my closet to my bathroom. I’d found little kitten messes on their blanket the past couple days, so it’s time to put them somewhere easier to clean and with a litter box. Talia and Kali are okay with the new location. The kittens seem to like the vinyl floor, too — maybe because they are starting to discover toys and balls roll so nicely on it. Belgarath is the first to decide that solid food is yummy. The others are still not interested.

Sally, thanks for your note and I’ll see what I can do about explaining colors and patterns – along with pictures to illustrate them. I’ve been meaning to send another person a basic lesson on cat color genetics, so maybe I’ll just post that here as well. That might not happen in the next week — at least not the pictures — since I’m going to be out of town, but maybe I’ll at least post the color genetics lesson. I’m hoping to use my evenings in Seattle (where I don’t know anyone) to catch up on some website work and my kitten inquiries. Yes, I’ll probably do a little sight seeing, but not lots. After a day of filling my brain with AIX implementation class I suspect I’ll want to vegetate in the evenings. And no, website work really isn’t all that taxing. It just takes time.

 Tomorrow I hope to get pictures taken of the MBs and the BBs. The BBs will be a day early, but I figure that will be better than six days late. At four weeks the BBs are at the worst age for pictures. They are getting very mobile, but they couldn’t care less about toys and silly noises. So getting decent pictures of them is a challenge.

As I was falling asleep last night I realized I hadn’t posted anything yesterday. Since my stats say someone is visiting every day — okay, a few someones — I suppose I should keep up  my end of the bargain and put something out there for y’all to read. The problem is, as much time as I can spend sitting on the floor with the kittens just watching them crawl around, fight for space at the milk bar, and explore their tiny world, it doesn’t make for exciting journalism. (if you can call this journalism!) But then, maybe it is if you’re a crazy cat person like me…

Several of the BBs are turning into little explorers. Kheldar and Garion love to climb over the little barrier that used to keep them confined to the closet. I’ve been using a draft stopper, but that three inch high blockade isn’t much of a obstacle now. Talia does use it as a pillow sometimes though. Mostly the boys climb over it to see me. It makes a great ramp to help them climb onto my lap — over the draft stopper and onto my legs. Ce’Nedra, Polgara, and Belgarath like to wander off into the other part of the closet under the shoe racks. No sleeping on nice soft fleece blankets for them. No, they prefer to sleep on the carpet. Taiba like corners for her naps, although she sometimes goes under the shoes, too. Wherever she is I often hear her purring as she drifts off to sleep. Lelldorin still prefers to cuddle with his mother or grandmother, or all else failing the other kittens.

So far nobody is intested in solid food. I’ve given them tastes of both RC Baby Cat dry food and Fancy Feast wet food and they could care less. Talia and Kali both like it when I serve them dinner in bed, though! (They get the leftovers when the kittens aren’t interested.)

A couple days ago Zak and Cyra had a day of very little weight gain — only .1 oz each. While one day like that isn’t a big worry normally, worry I did. I’m still concerned that with all nine babies nesting together the little ones will get pushed away from nursing. So I gave Zak and Cyra each some kitten glop. Zak thought it was  okay and ate some, but Cyra LOVED it. So last night, even though they’d both had a really good gaining day, I gave her some more. That little girl can clamp on and chow down! She wasn’t about to give up the bottle until her tummy was full.

In older kitten news, Fin, at the tender age of exactly five months, has discovered what boy cats do. His older half sister Kefira is in heat. And Fin knows what she wants and is happy to oblige. I can only hope that he didn’t really get the job done. Not only is the breeding closer than I’d like, but it’s much to soon for Kefira to be pregnant again. He is now confined to the cat room when she’s got run of the house. Yesterday evening I put her in the bedroom and turned Fin loose. He was so happy to be out with his family and friends again! He purred and purred! So last night we confined him to the bedroom with us and the babies instead of the cat room. He’s happier, but I can’t say that I am. He’s a little pest in the middle of the night because when he wants attention he won’t take “no, go back to sleep” for an answer. He rubs, purrs, meows (he has a really obnoxious, raspy voice) and head butts you constantly. He’s cute, but enough is enough at 2 in the morning!

One last thought before I go back to work… next week I’ll be in Seattle all week for a class. Ken will need to weigh the BBs for me while I’m gone, so I gave him lessons on telling them apart. Then I wrote down names with what I told him. He always pretends he doesn’t know whick kitten is which — he calls them all “Stinky” — but I think he really does know. And if not, at least he’ll have my notes. Maybe a test is in order on Saturday?