LostWoods Blog

Most of the new pictures are on the website, but I will post a picture of the Leprechauns here. This is the group shot I took the morning that Keiran left.

I’ve added 10 week and 12 week pictures of the MBs and the BBs to the website so have a look. The BBs have finally started that growth spurt I’ve been expecting — several of the kittens gained close to 10 oz this week.  Polgara got poked in the eye on Saturday — I think — so I did not post of new picture of her. Her eye is better today than it was Sunday, but still not very attractive. If I’m not happy with how it’s progressing by Friday morning, she will making a visit to the vet.

Some very sad news… my friend Brenda (co-owner of Comet, Beau, and McCoy) is on her way to Minnesota tonight. She’d planned to go on Friday, but got the call today that her mother is not expected to make it to Saturday. Her mom was diagnosed with lung cancer back in November of last year and has put up a valiant fight. Unfortunately, she’s losing the fight. Your prayers for Brenda, her mother Darlene, and the entire family are appreciated. And if any of you smoke, QUIT NOW! (that means you, Justin!)

I haven’t accomplished much this evening, but I did want to share a few of our pictures from the Meriwether Fire in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The boat tours were running on Sunday so we did get to take the ride on Sunday. They didn’t go as far up the river as usual because the Forest Service was dipping water out of the river near Mann Gulch for fire containment, so Brian and Sondra didn’t get to see why it’s called “Gates of the Mountains”. But we did get a close view of an active forest fire — as close as I ever want to be.

On Friday we saw the fire threatening an area known as American Bar. Here is a picture of how it looked on Friday. The fire did come down much closer to the buildings before it was contained. Thanks to crews on the ground and the helicopter, the none of the buildings on American Bar were destroyed.

On Sunday we could see the fire burning in numerous spots along the river. Most were just spot fires and we could see where trees’ trunks had been scorched, but the trees spared. Other areas further from the river we could see great patches of burnt trees. It will be many years before the wilderness area recovers, but it will be a healthier forest when it does. A couple of pictures from the boat:

Back to reality this morning after three days of having fun with friends. It was great to have Sondra, Brian and their daughters here.

Keiran leaves this morning to go back to Colorado with them. Sondra will meet Keiran’s new Beth-mom at DIA later in the week so he can go to his new home. Poor little guy is going to be so confused about his name after a few days with Sondra and family. They have renamed him “Sharpie” after the little lines on his neck that looked  like someone had taken a Sharpie marker and drawn in two lines — one on each side. (Notice the past tense – that was when he was tiny. Now he just looks like he has a dirty neck!) Ken called Keiran “Festus” and I always called him “Keiran” or just the usual generic “Babies!”  

Keiran spent the entire night last night giving me loves and insisting we pet him. He cuddled, he purred, he licked, he nipped, he climbed all over us… If we don’t pet him, he gets right up in our faces and licks us — followed by little nips. One time last night he licked my nose, then promptly chomped it. He’s just lucky I love him or he’d have gone flying from the bed. This morning he let me hold him in my arms like a baby while I gave him some neck rubs and kissed him goodbye. He’s such a sweet heart — I’m going to miss him. I did take some pictures this morning — individual ones, as well as some with his sisters. I’ll sort through them and post one or two of them this evening.

With having company and playing tourist over the weekend, I didn’t get Zak’s and Cyra’s pictures taken. Provided Sondra hasn’t tucked Zak into her pocket and taken him home with her, I’ll try to get them tonight. However… we do need to do the laundry that we neglected all weekend, so I’ll also be spending time at the laundromat tonight. So… pictures of all the naughty kittens may be delayed until tomorrow evening. We’ll see.

Good morning! I didn’t find time to write yesterday as we spent most of the day playing tourist. Or trying to play tourist. Ken and I are new enough to Helena that when people visit we really enjoy going to see the sights with them. Today we’re going down to Lewis and Clark caverns and Virginia City for the day. I haven’t been to either, so I’m especially looking forward to it.

Yesterday our plans included going on the Gates of the Mountains boat tour. There is a forest fire very near there — the Gates of the Mountains wilderness area is closed — but Ken called in the morning and their recorded message said they were still running. So we drove out there yesterday afternoon only to discover that they had cancelled the tours for the day. But we did get a fairly close view of the fire — scary, awesome — and saw a helicopter dip a pouch (don’t know the exact firefighting term, but that describes it anyway) into the river to get water. Then it flew off to drop the water on the fire. Seeing that little helicopter with it’s tiny load — so it appeared — over the huge fire showed just how truly huge the fire is. The load of water from the river was like using a bucket of water to douse a house fully engulfed in flame.

This particular fire had been allowed to burn for awhile. The terrain where it started is steep and inaccessible and there are two other fires in the area that are threatening homes. But as of yesterday, they do have crews on the ground fighting the fire, too — probably because it’s now closer to some structures and also into an area that is easier to get to.

I took some pictures with Jeremy’s small camera and if any of them are decent I’ll post one here later.

No real cat news this morning. Sondra and family are having fun playing with the kittens and the kittens are happy to have more devoted humans entertaining them. They keep saying they are taking this one or that one home with them. At this rate I’ll have no kittens when they leave! LOL!

Thanks for letting me know I’d missed putting hyperlinks on Kheldar’s and Ce’Nedra’s pictures. It was getting late and I was trying to get stuff done in a hurry the other night, so I forgot them. Sorry!

For you Ce’Nedra fans out there, she might be going to a show/breeding home. Depends on how she develops and what we think of her in a couple weeks. I think she’s a cutie pie and I’ve liked her “look” since she was born. So we’ll see.

Okay, a few more things to do before I call it a night. I can’t wait to see Sondra and her family — they’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Oh, one last thing… Keiran, Cati, and Keegan went to the vet for their last kitten exam and vaccinations. Keiran was not impressed with the shots and tried to chomp me so I’d let go of him. Cati complained, but was otherwise good. Keegan didn’t let out a squeak, even when Dr Jennifer had some trouble getting the needle to go in for Keegan’s rabies shot. I was holding Keegan and she just turned her head and gulped a few times — you could tell it hurt, but she was very, very brave. Keiran weighs 5 lbs now. Cati is 4.1 and Keegan — passing her sister for the first time — weighed 4.3.

Sometimes I suspect the cats not only understand what I’m saying, but they also read my emails and my blog…

A couple of days ago I talked about what snuggly, sweet kittens Keiran and Keegan are. That wasn’t meant to imply that Catriona isn’t sweet and loving, too. She is. Really! When she was a tiny kitten, she was always the first to come climb on me for cuddles. It’s just in the last couple weeks Keegan has been so insistent on being my lap cat and Keiran always has to sleep between Ken and me, so her loving actions aren’t quite as remarkable.

But two nights ago after I left out mentioning her in my blog, Cati came to bed and, instead of settling down at the foot of the bed where she usually sleeps, she came up beside me and stood there purring. She snuggled up next to my right side for awhile. Then she climbed over me and cuddled into my left side. Then, perhaps worrying that not cuddling with Ken meant she wasn’t loving enough, she curled up beside him. Then back to me. Then back to Ken. She must have spent the first half an hour we were in bed trying to decide which sleeping location would provide the maximum proof that she is, indeed, a cuddly, loving kitten. Eventually she came to the conclusion that sleeping right between us was just right. That or she finally was worn out enough to sleep.

Last night she came to bed and stood on my chest purring for awhile. Then she went back to her sleeping spot at the foot of the bed. I guess she just had to make sure I knew she was there — that she likes being on the bed with us. “And, oh by the way, it’s much too hot to cuddle all night, lisa-mom! I’ll be down here if you need me.”

Other minor entertainments from last night and this morning… The Schwan’s salesman comes on Tuesday nights. I answered the door when he (his name is Brian) rang and invited him in to take our order. Every single kitten in the house, plus several of the adult cats came to see what was going on — 16 or 17 cats and kittens milling around in the front hall looking at Brian. He’s met several of the kittens and cats over the past year, but I think this is the first time he’d been exposed to the full reality of me being a breeder. Wonder what he was thinking???  He just smiled and told me they sure were cute.

This morning’s accomplishment — Polgara and Garion made the jump from the cat tree to get on the window perch in the cat room. Not really such a huge jump — only about a foot or so and at about the same level as one of the cat tree levels. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see them. Monday night after I’d taken photos, I walked back into the dining room to discover Belgarath happily sleeping on top the china cabinet. To get there he’d had to jump up about two feet and across about four from the dining room table. Yes, NFCs are jumpers.

That’s how I describe the days when my kittens leave. A couple of you wondered about how breeders are able to give up kittens when the time comes for them to go to new homes and it’s a question I’ve heard over and over.

At first glance it might seem like we love our kittens a little less than other people love their pets or that we just regard them as a “product”. I hope that anyone who reads this blog would quickly recognize that for the absurdity it is. Each and every kitten in my home is loved and spoiled. I’d happily keep every one of them if sanity didn’t prevail. You see, times like right now when I have a whole houseful of kittens reminds me that having this many cats is a whole lot work and expense. But beyond that, I spend a lot of time feeling guilty because I worry that everyone is not getting enough of my attention. If I’m playing with the Leprechauns, the BBs and the MBs are being neglected. Oh yes, they try to join in the games but the Leprechauns are just too big and the little ones get trampled. If I exile the Leprechauns while I play with the others, then I feel bad for them. And even with the BBs and the MBs I feel like sometimes I’m paying too much attention to a couple kittens over all the rest. And poor Fin is getting the shortest shift since he’s the biggest. I make an effort each and every day (not that I mind!) to pick up and cuddle every kitten in the house. I seek out all the older cats and spend some time loving on them. They are the ones who get the least amount of my time, because, well, the kittens are just so darn cute!

So when I find a good home for one of my babies, I tell myself that they will be the center of attention most or all of the time. They won’t have to share their owners (staff :-)  ) with a bunch of other cats and kittens. They’ll be loved even more  — if that’s possible — by their new family than they are with me. On the rare occasions I’ve placed a kitten with another breeder I’ve tried to place them with people who see their cats as pets first and breeding animals second.

So when the day comes that a kitten leaves, I focus on the joy the new owner is feeling. It’s easier when someone picks up their kitten in person — I get to witness their happiness first hand. My last sight of the kitten is one of him or her being carried by his thrilled new owner to a happy forever home. It’s harder when I ship a kitten, because my last glimpse is of him in a carrier heading off to the unknown, crying because he doesn’t want to be in there. And I cry, too. I anxiously await the phone call from his new mom and dad saying he’s arrived safe and sound — and that they are in love with the little fur ball.

There are always kittens that just kill you to give up. If/when Keegan leaves, I’m going to be especially sad as she’s been doing her best to crawl into my heart and convince me she should stay. There have been others that were incredibly hard to let go, too. But you just have to say goodbye. You can’t keep them all. Repeat after me, you can’t keep them all. (Or repeat after Ken, “there’s too darn many cats in the house!”)

And that maybe is what motivates me most of all — a knowledge that when I started breeding cats I wasn’t breeding so I could have 100s of cats living in my home. I love the breed, I love my cats, and I want to share that love with others. I am not a responsible breeder if I don’t place my kittens in loving homes. I need to know — realistically — how many cats I can care for and rarely or never exceed that. And by care for, I mean provide food, shelter, clean conditions, regular veterinary care, and, of course, attention and love. If I can’t do that, I should give this hobby up because I’m not doing what is best for the cats. And that’s what matters most.   

Here are Tenobia’s pictures. Hopefully you’ll be able to see them now.

New pictures of the BBs and the MBs are on the site. I thought it would be fun, since every kitten in the house was climbing the cat tree and my legs trying to get the teaser, to take a picture of them all together. Ha! Here’s the closest I came:

All 12 of them are in the picture. Really. But none of them were behaving very well. I had better luck with the MBs and the BBs — their group shot is on the LostWoods home page.

I also added McCoy to the Cats page and made him his own page, so you can see more pictures of him there.

That’s all for tonight. I have some comments about breeders and letting kittens go to new homes, but I’ll write about that tomorrow. And Michelle, I haven’t ignored your request for Nobie’s pictures. I’ll do a quick post in the morning with those thumbnails in there, too.

I spent most of the weekend cleaning house, running errands, and kissing kittens. Sondra and her family are coming to visit the end of this week, so I needed to make sure the guest rooms are clean and ready for their visit — along with all my other weekend chores. I was also on call for work and spent a couple hours each day working.

I know… excuses, excuses! Where are Zak and Cyra’s pictures?! I did take a couple cute spontaneous photos of them at various times this weekend. Zak was sitting in the bowl I use for weighing them, just waiting for me to turn on the scale. Cyra found a great place to nap — the basket of freshly laundered towels I’d just brought back from the laundromat. Yes, I’m still going there… Ken gave me a choice of getting a basic dryer right away or waiting a few weeks to get the washer & dryer I’ve been eyeing for the past couple years — the only catch being I’d probably have to go to the laudromat for several weeks to dry clothes until our budget allows and the new machines come in. (They have to be ordered.) A small sacrifice — especially since the air conditioning works quite well there and we don’t have a/c at home. Yes, it’s still hot here.

Tonight’s agenda is to get pictures of the MBs and the BBs and update the website with everyone’s status. Almost everybody has a home now, except for the couple girls I’m still evaluating. I decided to offer Keegan to someone — even though I was kinda waiting to place her last. Not only is she a good looking example of a NFC, she’s also the biggest cuddle bug in the house. Last night I sat down in my chair to watch “Ice Road Truckers” (it’s really interesting!) She was napping in the kitchen and saw me sit down. She jumped up and ran to the living room, climbed onto my lap and started purring. She loves being on my lap.

And speaking of cuddlers… Keiran has been sleeping with us every night. He prefers to snuggle up to Ken, but when he decides we should pay attention to him, he’s an equal opportunity pest. He likes to put his face right up to mine and rub his cheek against mine. It is so cute! Beth and Jeff, you’re going to love him — if only I could get him to you. I’ll write you privately about my latest idea for getting him to Albuquerque before the snow flies.