LostWoods Blog

… Norlights C McCoy of LostWoods (Mac)

Brenda and I must have a weakness for little red and white boys. I was sorta looking for a black and white — and there was a b&w boy in Mac’s litter — but this little guy just stole our hearts. Brenda visited him many times in the last month or so and was sure we needed him. I had the chance to visit him early this month and I agreed. Brenda brought Mac home today and he will be living with her in Colorado. Her son, Grant, says Mac is HIS new show cat. Big thanks to Tracy McCullough of Norlights for letting us have this wonderful boy.

I’ll try to get his page done for the website tonight or tomorrow, so there will be more pictures of him there.

I thought maybe you’d all like to hear how Tenobia’s doing, so here’s an update. I’ve started leaving the door to the guest room open. At first, just when I was home and not too busy. Then for longer lengths of time, and now all the time. She’s been brave enough to come across the hall to our bedroom, but I haven’t seen her go further afield. She might venture down the hall or even down the stairs when I’m not around, but I don’t think so. Right now, her world is quite big enough and filled with plenty of other cats. She no longer hisses automatically at any other cat she sees. Kefira spends a lot of time in the guest room, too. I’ve seen the two of them sniffing noses, being perfectly civil to each other. Spaz is also in there a lot, but I don’t think Nobie is quite comfortable with him yet as he’s a bit of a wild boy and likes to run and wrestle. She’s not ready for that yet. She’s become very friendly to me — always wanting loves when she sees me. So we’re making progress.

Another hot one on order today. Sigh… I bought some plants to put in the railing planters to replace the ones that died while I was in Colorado. I’m going to try to get them planted this evening, as well as get a couple loads of clothes washed and taken to the laundry to dry. Lots of stuff to do this weekend around the house. Ken will be working part of Saturday and Sunday — which is good, since I always get more done around the house when I’m not working around him. Oh yeah, his overtime pay is welcome, too.

Zak and Cyra go to the vet for their first vaccinations and exams this afternoon. I’m sure they’ll charm the staff just like all the other kittens have done.

More random thoughts.. I was in Wal-Mart yesterday picking up the replacement plants and I walked by the school supply aisles. Last year they had some cute notebooks and folders with wegie photos by Keith Kimberlin (a NFC breeder — Kitzn cattery), so I decided to see if they had some this year. And they do! I found a three ring notebook, a pocket folder, a spiral bound notebook, and a hard cover (cardboard) notebook. They have cute pictures of wegie kittens on them. Check them out. And this shouldn’t count against a ban on cat-related items… After all, you can always use a notebook for writing out the grocery and to-do lists, right?  

The human kind, not the cat kind… Not to worry, all is well in LostWoods world. Well, mostly. The Psycho Moms (my new title for Talia and Kali) have decided that Lira Bug should not be anywhere near their children and poor Bug has been exiled upstairs. And Comet is having some adjustment issues at home with his Brenda-mom and Gwena. Not totally unexpected since he had been gone for 7 months - it’s almost like he was going to a new home. But we’ll get things all worked out and peace will reign once again.

Back to what I was going to write about… for those of you on the Wegies or NFCFA list, you’ve seen a fair amount of hatefulness in the posts lately. It’s truly sad to see people lashing out at each other in a forum that should be for learning and sharing information about NFCs. I suppose you could say that the posts have contributed to all our knowledge of cat care and you’d be right. But I feel strongly that the same knowledge could have been shared without the flamers thrown at various breeders. Still we are all human and things get said in times of anger or grief that we may later regret. Don’t let the recent insanity color your perceptions of the people involved. Instead, keep an open mind and if you must judge, judge based on actions, not words. My friend Sondra said something last week that I thought was very appropriate: “There’s no pancake so thin it doesn’t have two sides.” On the lists we don’t see the whole story, so do try not to judge.

One thing I tell anyone who is interested in showing cats is that in the cat fancy there are nice people and not so nice people. You have to have thick skin at times to deal with the nonsense that goes on. But my experience has been that more people are nice than not. And I’ve made some wonderful friends through my cats. I try hard to stay out of the way of people who aren’t nice, sticking to politeness when I do have to deal with them. I’d much rather spend my time having fun with friends than fighting with foes. Not to say that I won’t defend myself if attacked, but even then I’ll try to stay calm and reasonable and respond with facts — at least the facts as I see them. Public scenes? Not for me.  If we could all remember that — and especially not argue when it means catching innocent bystanders in the crossfire — we’d all be a lot happier.

So bottom line here, if you’re on the list(s), try to remember that we all are people who feel passionately about our cats and our breed, else we wouldn’t be breeders. And passionate people sometimes talk (write?) without pausing to think. When a cat fight (pun intended) breaks out on the list, try not to be too turned off by the fighting. We’re all (mostly!) nice people.

I know I said I’d have an announcement this week, probably today. But… while I do have an announcement to make, until it’s absolutely official I won’t tell. If things go as planned, look for something on Friday evening. Here is a tiny hint:

(that’s the whole picture, no larger version available.)

It didn’t get as hot as expected today and the forecast for the rest of the week is lower than they were saying the first of the week. Wouldn’t you love to have a job where you could be wrong most of the time?

The kittens have conquered the kitty jungle gym (the wine rack) and can now get on the kitchen island. At any given time a couple kittens are sleeping there. Right before I came in the office to write this, Kheldar was curled up sleeping in the bowl I use for weighing them. If he’s still there when I’m done checking email and such I may have to take a picture because he’s pretty cute.

I did not want to get out of bed this morning. We had a lovely thunderstorm with rain last night that cooled it down to about 60, so I was really enjoying the cooler weather for sleeping. With the forecast predicting a possible record setting high of 105 today, that might be the only time today I’m actually comfortable!

So a quick story before I go to my first meeting of the day. I woke up about 11:30 last night with the wind blowing rain drops through the open window onto my face. Keegan was snuggled up beside me. She’s such a love bug! I was lying there thinking that I should move away from the rain — it wasn’t that much, but who can sleep with rain in their face? But I didn’t want to disturb Keegan. About then, she stood up and stretched, so I took advantage of her moving to change positions myself. But as I turned over and went to position my head on my pillow, I discovered that my four pound girl had decided to take over three quarters of my king-sized pillow! She’d left almost no room for me. I moved her tail aside and put my head down beside her.

So I guess this further marks me as a crazy cat lady — I won’t disturb a sleeping cat even when I’m getting rained on. I let my cats take over my pillow without complaint – a whispered word about what a brat she is maybe, but no real complaint.

On the subject of crazy cat ladies, my daughter sent me this link to a great selection of crazy cat lady stuff on Cafepress.  

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/crazy+cat+lady 

Some of it is pretty tempting. And on the subject of Cafepress, I’ve been thinking about setting up a “store” there with some of my photos on t-shirts, mugs, etc. Anyone interested?

Off to my meeting now.

The Belgariad Babies got to go outside for the first time tonight and were very well behaved. Well, except when Garion thought he might want to climb up the trunk of the tree to get higher. But like I said this morning, I put them low enough that I can grab them before they get away. And so Garion’s plan was thwarted. Their new pictures are on the website.

I mentioned I’d post a picture of the cats and kittens in the cat room one of these days. While the floor is relatively picked up — I scrubbed this weekend and the kittens don’t have all the toys drug out again — here is one of how it looks at breakfast and supper time. It’s hard to walk through there when the feeding frenzy is on. (remember to click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

Peanut’s visiting girlfriend is about to go into heat (I think) and now thinks Peanut is pretty okay. Here’s a picture of Felis Audax Muffet of Wegiekatt:

One last thing before I close tonight… Baths. I don’t bathe my cats except before shows. Well, now and then Peanut gets a bath because whole males tend to be very greasy, especially their tails. But Shira who is six hasn’t had a bath since she was 5 months old. Once in a rare while someone — especially the very pregnant girls — will have a messy rear end, necessitating a “butt bath”, but even then I don’t give them a full bath. Most NFCs stay pretty nice looking without regular baths.

Should you decide to give your wegie a bath, the first trick, as I mentioned, is getting them thoroughly wet. It helps to have a second person around so you can pull (gently!) the fur back and spray or pour water down to the roots while the other person holds the cat. Then gently shampoo him/her. Rinse until you are sure the shampoo is all gone, then rinse some more. And yes, you do need to dry your baby if you want the coat to look straight and fluffy. If you want my full show bath directions, let me know and I’ll send them to you. One other thing… if you are thinking about bathing your cat, start when he or she is fairly young. Once they get older if they aren’t somewhat used to baths, they’ll be a real challenge to bathe!  

Um… I have a feeling there was another comment or question I needed to respond to, but I’ve forgotten. So I’ll post this and check the comments. If there is something still waiting for my profound thoughts (LOL!) I’ll try to remember to talk about it tomorrow.

(a Bangles reference for the 80s music fans out there)

Not much to say this morning except to complain that Kalispell is in heat. Since she foolishly thinks Bug would be a good mate (despite Bug being a spayed female), Kali spends the entire night in our bedroom trying to seduce Bug. Well, the entire night until I get up and shut her out of the room. I keep telling her that she has 7 babies that still need their mama, but she’s not listening. After all, Grandma Talia will take care of them for her while she looks for a boyfriend. Darn teenage girls! LOL!

An answer to a questions about wegie coats…  A lot depends on the parents’ lines. Peanut, Talia, and Shira all have very thick, long coats. As kittens Talia and Shira had hair and then some — ‘causing one of my neighbors to refer to Shira as “more hair than cat”. Peanut had a nice coat, but went through a naked ferret stage as a older kitten/young adult. That’s pretty much how Fin and Keiran look right now. Bria and Comet both have slower developing coats, although they are very thick and plush feeling. They were sorta fluffy as kittens, although nothing like Shira and Talia. As adults, their coats have come in gradually. They both looked pretty good at three years old — finally growing some ruff and length in their coats. Kefira takes after Peanut. Kali takes after Comet.

Now about those summer coats. Most NFCs will have less of a coat in the summer than in the winter. But I personally think it has more to do with the length of days than the temperature. They will start to blow their winter coats as early as February into March, even though in Colorado and Montana it’s still snowy and cold then. They’ll start to put winter coat back on in August or so, despite the heat. But that pretty much coincides with the increasing and decreasing of day light. So don’t be surprised if you see your kittens and cats starting to grow some coat about now.

As for kittens… quite often they will have a nice fluffy coat for the first few months, then all of the sudden (or so it seems) they are naked. We talk about them blowing their kitten coats when that happens. You’ll notice that little kittens’ coats tend to be very soft, but as adults — if they have the right coat texture — it will be coarser. It’s the guard hairs that make the coat feel coarse and I’ve noticed in my kittens that those delightful guard hairs don’t start showing up until they are a couple months old or older.

As I said in the beginning, a lot depends on lines, so if your cat’s or kitten’s coat develops differently, ask about his or her parents to get an idea of what you can expect.  

Have I mentioned that I really don’t enjoy hot weather? And that would be defined as anything over 80… Guess that’s why I live in Montana. Oh, wait, I live in Montana because Ken is a Montana kid who wanted to move home. I was perfectly happy in Colorado. But I love my husband and I do like Montana, so here I am. And for the record, Colorado was much colder and snowier this past winter than Montana was! It was hot — in the 90s, close to 100 here this weekend. Yuck. Adding to the yuckiness was a brief rain shower each day that only made it sticky - something we don’t usually have to deal with. Yeah, I’m spoiled not having humidity. Okay, enough whining…

Zak and Cyra had their first Forest Cat adventure this afternoon. Cyra wasn’t impressed by the trees and kept jumping down. Later she consented to pose for just a couple minutes on a branch. Zak just plain didn’t want his picture taken, so his pictures this week aren’t very good. Their 8 week photos are on the website.

I also took the Leprechauns out for new pictures, since I hadn’t taken any since they were 14 weeks old. Keiran decided he would climb up the tree beyond my reach. I was worried I’d have to climb up after him, but soon he headed back down. You know how they say NFCs will come down a tree head first? Well, it’s true. No need to call for help, he made it down just fine. Their new pictures are also on the website.

If the weather will cooperate, Keiran should be headed off to Albuquerque this week to live with his Beth-mom, Jeff-dad, and Uncle Brasen. Keep your fingers crossed for a little cooler weather so he can meet his new family soon. Not that I’m looking forward to him going… He’s such a sweetheart and he always sleeps with us at night. I can do without him waking me up at 2:30 because he’s decided he just has to be petted, but I’ll even miss that when he leaves. BTW, if you haven’t read Beth’s comment about Brasen and his bed, do. It’s under the Friday the 13th post. What a smart boy!

While saying goodbye to Keiran will be a happy/sad day, I am looking forward to another event this week. Look for an exciting annoucement, probably on the 18th. Guess that’s all for this evening. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Well, at least it’s Friday!

I don’t have much time this morning for writing — I need to get to work. Doesn’t it always seem like when you’ve taken time off that you need to put in extra hours when you get back just to catch up? Even worse is the catching up at home. The cats didn’t take a vacation and neither did the weeds in the gardens. Guess I know what I’m doing this weekend!

To answer Michelle’s question about if the MBs have any favorites among the BBs… Not really. I see them all playing with each other with really no distinction between the two litters. It just depends on who is doing what and who is taking a nap at any given time. When I came downstairs this morning Taiba was napping on the back of the couch. Zak and Belgarath were playing on the living room floor. Cyra was sleeping on the rug in the middle of the room. (Wonder how long that will last with Zak and Belgarath bouncing around?) Lelldorin was playing in the kitty jumgle gym and Garion had just walked in from the kitchen. Everyone else was playing in the cat room.

I need to take some pictures of the chaos in the cat room. Now that Comet is gone, it’s back to it’s intended use as the playroom, food room, and litter room for the cats. And use it well, they do! There are toys scattered in every possible corner. They get to running around and next thing you know they’ve pushed their beds out into the middle of the room. It’s an obstacle course to walk through there to leave in the morning. And then you should see the feeding frenzy when I give them their wet food! Yes, I think pictures of that are in order as well.

Speaking of leaving… I’d better close up the windows and shades and head off to work. Happy Friday, everyone!

The BBs and the MBs were very busy today while I was at work. You can read their stories in the Cat Tails section of the website. The BBs’ story is “Hello From the BBs” and the MBs’ story is “We’re Big, Too!” Besides putting the new stories on the site, I posted new pictures of both litters. They were fairly cooperative this evening, but I didn’t attempt a new litter shot. I’m hoping to find a few minutes to take new pictures of the Leprechauns tomorrow evening and maybe I’ll be brave and work on litter shots for everyone. Or maybe a picture of all the kittens in the house? Yeah, that’s going to happen with 13 of them here. I’m sure they’ll all hold still nicely. Yeah. Right.

I think next week I’ll take the BBs outside for their pictures. It’s about time to let them play Forest Cat. Of course, if I let them go pose in a tree, Zak and Cyra will insist they are big enough, too. You probably think I’m joking about Zak and Cyra thinking they are big, but it’s true. They do everything the bigger kittens do. They only thing that really sets them apart is they are still nursing more than the older kittens.

When I posted last night I didn’t mention how Fin, Cati and Keegan behaved at the show. Fin was the only one going to rings to be judged. The girls were too young, so they spent their time hanging out in the benching cage. Fin did not like to be in the cage and was quite vocal about it. In the ring, he did the wegie backup dance — that is, he would back up in circles trying to figure out how to escape. He’d end up in the corner and every so often he’d flop over and look at the top of the cage in hopes there would be an escape hatch there. It was so funny to watch! His brother Brasen used to do the same thing, but he gave it up as he became more accustomed to the show hall. I’m sure Fin will, too. Fin also thought he should talk to everyone, asking them, “will you get me out of here?” “Is that toy for me?”

The girls didn’t like the cage much at first, but they adjusted sooner than Fin — maybe because I wasn’t also taking them to rings. The spectators thought the girls were just darling and I’m hoping that someone fell in love with them at the show and they’ll have homes soon.