LostWoods Blog

Yep, that’s me. I’ve been slacking off of my blog duties. I’m sorry! I’ve had a subject that I’ve been wanting to write about, but just haven’t had the time to do the research and get it written. But soon… I just know I’ll have some slow days at work soon. (Shhh! don’t tell the boss I use slow time at work to research cat subjects! LOL!)

Rand and Aviendha are two weeks old today. They are still both above average in weight for their age. Rand weighs 12.8 oz and Aviendha weighs 11.1 oz. I’ve posted new pictures of them to the website.

I will definitely be in Salt Lake City for the CFA show November 10th if any of you live in the area. I’m planning to take both Fin and Kefira. Kefira has actually grown some hair this fall, although she hasn’t put on much weight. But at the very least, she’ll provide some grand points for someone — hopefully Fin. Brenda is bringing McCoy and Danica. I’m so excited to get to see Danica in the flesh! (in the fur???) I’ve heard nothing but good things about how beautiful, sweet, and fearless she is. This will be her first show, so it will be a test of what the judges think and how she likes being in the spotlight. Both Brenda and Sondra think she’s going to be just fine.

Speaking of show kitties… Young Kheldar (now known as LostWoods Majestic of Foresttales) had a fabulous show in Seattle weekend before last, finalling in 7 of 12 rings. He received a couple of high placements among those finals — a 2nd best LH kitten and a 3rd best AB kittens. That’s my boy! Okay, he’s really Connie’s boy now, but he’ll always be my boy, too.

Peanut spent a couple hours in the cat room yesterday and did not spray anything. Not that I found, anyway. A couple hours isn’t a conclusive test, but it is encouraging. It will take awhile before he can be part of the family, though, as several of the other cats aren’t so sure they remember or like him. Shira and Kali both were quite hostile. Strange considering they have spent the most time with him (compared to the other cats) in the last couple years. But I’m certain everyone will mellow out once they’ve had a chance to get used to him again — if he does get to live in here with us. In the meantime, Tucker and Caboose love Uncle Peanut and he loves them.

Rand and Aviendha have continued their great gains and weighed in at 9.7 and 8.6 oz this morning — their one week check. Both of them have their eyes most of the way open now, too. New pictures are on the website. Talia has quit moving them and is now allowed to leave the room to get some “me time”, but she spends almost all her time with them anyway.

Tucker and Caboose have been declared healthy and received their first vaccinations. They have decided they love Uncle Peanut and Uncle Peanut loves them, too. It was so cute to watch them playing with him on Saturday. He’d jump up in the kitty condo and bat at them from the openings. Then he’d jump out and they’d chase him into one of the other sections - or he’d chase them. When they all ran out of energy, all three went over to Peanut’s box, went inside and curled up together for a nap. Peanut always loved playing with the kittens before he started spraying and had to be away from everyone, so it makes me so happy to see him playing and loving on kittens again. I’ll try to get pictures of Tucker and Caboose in the next day or so. Yeah, I know, I keep saying that!

The other photos I’d like to get soon are of Beau and Kefira. He’s such a handsome guy and the pictures I have on the website are very old. And Kefira is really growing some coat, so I’d like to get some of her with hair before she gets pregnant and loses it all.

Almost through another Friday at work. I took a break from real work to make a drawing of our house/garage/shop/stud room for you all. It is NOT to scale, but I tried to make it fairly close to reality. I didn’t draw a floor plan of the house — much too ambitious for me!

Click on it for a larger view — and if the picture manager you’re using to view the drawing will allow you to, you might also want to zoom in to read the labels better.

Briefly, the house is a big rectangle — two story — connected to a one story room that is our cat room (with three closets — not drawn) and a utility room. From there we go out to the garage. The garage sits perpendicular to the house. The shop/stud room is connected to both the house and the garage, but you have to walk through the garage to get to it. Or go outside through the back door and the back yard.  

The black lines are solid walls — or walls with windows. The orange lines are doors. The pink lines are the garage doors. The red lines are the chain link dividers in the stud area/shop. There is a window in the center of the wall (in the center stud area) that opens to allow access to a 10′ x 18′ outside run.

Rangashrii asked what kind of shop we have. It’s not a shop in the sense of a store - shop that sells things. Rather, it’s a workshop for repairing things, storing tools, etc. At the moment, it’s mostly just a jumble of stuff stacked all over the workbench — something I intend to remedy this weekend. There are also floor to ceiling shelves on the one side of the shop that we use for storage. Currently each stud area is 10′ x 10′. Once we’ve redone it, each stud area will be slightly smaller (8′ x 10′) because we need to carve out a space for the dogs to stay at night. They’ll still have plenty of room to play and stretch — and when only one boy is in residence, he’ll have run of both sections.

As I’m writing this, it occurs to me that many of you probably have no idea what work I really do — other than being a crazy cat lady, that is! Both Ken and I are computer geeks. He does mostly mainframe network engineering. I have done all kinds of things in the computer world but am currently working on UNIX systems as a system admin, as well as being the Backup Goddess. That is, I am responsible for making sure that 400-600 backups run correctly each night. We back up Windows, Novell, MS Exchange, AIX, and Linux servers, as well as Oracle and MS SQL databases, along with an assortment of other application data. I also do restores, adhoc archival backups, and am involved in our business continuity area. And when I’m not doing all that, I am learning more about storage administration (having done that in the mainframe world — I now am learning the UNIX and SAN side of things) in preparation for taking on a larger role in that area. For fun (???) I create and maintain website for some of my cat breeder friends. Gee, aren’t you thrilled to know all that about me? LOL!

One last note before I close for the day. Little Miss Aviendha gained a whopping 1.1 oz yesterday! Rand gained another .9 oz. Talia must have really good milk this time around. I briefly thought I’d won the war of where the babies would live. Talia did not move them all day yesterday, nor did she move them in the evening. But just when I thought she might actually get to come out of her room, she moved them back under the bed over night. Sigh…

Rand and Aviendha are growing like weeds. Aviendha apparently thought that Rand might get too far ahead of her, so she gained .9 oz yesterday. Rand gained .8 oz. He is the biggest kitten we’ve had at 3 days — outpacing both Kyrith and Bannack by a few tenths of an ounce. Talia continues to put them under the bed. I continue to get them out. And so it goes…

We still haven’t worked on the shop/stud room. This weekend we’ll be doing some cleaning and organizing in both the garage and the shop in preparation for the construction work next weekend. At least that’s the plan. It’s starting to get quite cold at night and I’ve been running the heaters in there. One of the driving factors in wanting to get the work done in there is that the ceiling is open to the rafters and there is no insulation up there, so the area is hard to heat — and expensive, too, as we are losing a lot of heat out into the garage from the shop. So I think Ken is pretty motivated to get the work done.

Not much else new at LostWoods today so this is a short post. Been very busy at work, too — which cuts down on the time I have for thinking up and researching other cat topics. Sorry, everyone! I hate it when work interferes with my real love — the cats! LOL!

Yes, that’s where Talia’s babies are — under the bed. I move them back to the closet. Talia moves them back under the bed. I suppose we’ll keep it up until one of us finally gives in or the kittens get big enough to go where they want.

Both Rand and Aviendha are doing great and have gained more weight. Rand is now a pudgy little 6.0 oz baby. Aviendha is more on the average side at 4.7 oz this morning. Like I said yesterday, both are on track to double their weight in a week. Rand is very quiet and doesn’t complain when I move him from under the bed to the closet. He did, however, hiss at me when he was only a few hours old when I startled him. Aviendha is mouthier, complaining when I pick her up — which disturbs Talia greatly.

I forgot to mention on Monday that Cyra the Fish went to another show last weekend. She had a great show, including a Best AB Kitten award in one ring. I’m so proud of our little girl! To do this well at only 4 1/2 months is wonderful and I’m sure she’ll continue to wow the judges. Grand kitten ForestKatz Treat was the best Alter in the show — for the second time in as many shows. Way to go, Treat!

Tucker and Caboose are settling in extremely well. Any time we go into the shop/stud room, Tucker coming running to us, his motor already going at full purr. Caboose is just a little slower to come to us, but is friendly and purrs nearly as loud. They figured out that they could get out of the back part of the stud room and go wherever they want. We use chain link fencing to separate the areas and they can squeeze their little kitten bodies through the gaps by the gates. Once they are a little bigger they won’t be able to do that, but by then, I will be fine with them going in the garage and the shop at will — they are, after all, garage kitties with a job to do. They go to the vet on Monday to get their shots and be tested for FIV and FeLV. Once they have the all clear, they will get to meet and spend time with the other cats part of the time.

Rand and Aviendha are doing great, both gaining nice amounts of weight since birth. Rand gained almost an ounce and Aviendha gained half an ounce — easily on track to double their weights at a week.

I was excited to see that Rand is a black and white, as that proves that Mr. Fin got the gene for producing solid colored (non tabby) kittens from Shira. I kinda wish that Aviendha had been the black and white, but maybe it’s better that she isn’t as I’d have had to find a way to keep her. I have no need for yet another boy, so I’ll be giving up Rand when the time comes.

Brenda’s husband Jeff took some pictures of McCoy and Danica. I’ll post one here (click on it to see a bigger version). Don’t they look fantastic together?  

Just think of what stunning babies they are going to have someday! I’ll be posting one of Danica’s new pictures to the website this evening.

Running on empty here as Miss Talia has kept me up most of the night the past two nights. But she FINALLY decided to stop playing around and deliver two beautiful babies this morning. The first is a 4.5 oz black and white boy with wonderful markings. The second is a 3.8 oz blue mackerel tabby girl with white — nice markings as well. Both are nursing and acting very strong. Talia is content to be in her bed with the babies. All is well. I posted a picture of Talia and babies on the web site and expect to get individual pictures later today.

Next, the long awaited Danica arrived on Friday in Colorado. Her Auntie Brenda picked her up at the airport because Sondra is out of town this week. McCoy promptly took Danica under his care — romancing his future mate already! And for anyone who hasn’t figured out who Danica is, she is Wegiekatt Danica of LostWoods, formerly known as Eva. She’s the daughter of LostWoods Fiala of Wegiekatt and HattKatts Red Dane of Wegiekatt. Pictures are also on the website. Brenda’s husband Jeff has taken some new ones of her and as soon as I have them, I’ll post a new photo.

In other kitten news, Ken wanted us to get a kitten/cat for the garage, so we’ve adopted two barn kittens from a family in Montana City. Tucker is a short haired black male kitten — very friendly and sweet. He purrs the minute he sees me. Caboose is a tortiseshell female kitten, also with short hair. She isn’t quite as friendly as Tucker, but she loves to play. I suspect in no time they will be as much a part of the LostWoods family as the other cats, even if they are going to live in the garage most of the time.

And to answer a couple questions… Hairballs… my friend Sondra swears by Purina One Hairball Formula. Her cat Rain had a real problem with them and since she switched his food, he’s been much better. Nothing is perfect, but any improvement is welcome. I’ve also noticed that hairballs are the worst in the spring, summer. Fall and winter bring a decline in the number I find around the house.

Peanut is doing fine. Boys recover a bit faster than girls, but even the female cats recover very quickly from their alter surgery. It may take a month or two for all the hormones to be out of Peanut’s system, so for now he remains in the stud room. In about a month, I’ll try him out in the cat room and see how he does on the spraying front, then we’ll go from there.

Anyone who doesn’t know how quickly cats heal need only look at Shira. Human females take many weeks to recover from a hysterectomy yet Shira really only had a couple days of down time. The day after the surgery she was quiet and slept more than usual. The next day she found time to slap Uncle Zeke for no reason at all, give Taiba a thorough washing, and do a full house inspection. Since then she has been back to full speed as the Queen of Everything.

Besides keeping the others in line and inspecting the birthing room for Talia, her main mission in life has been protecting us all from renegade, killer teasers.

No teaser is safe. It used to be Shira was mostly interested in killing feather teasers. Her favorite victims still are feathery — one with purple feathers and a bell, the other a fluffy blue feathered toy. But after killing each of those every night and bringing them upstairs to us, she expands her prey to include the glitter ball teasers, the mylar teasers, the fur teasers, the rodent on a stick teaser… It doesn’t matter — whatever prey she can find, she kills. She does drown a mouse or glitter ball in the fountain now and then, but mostly it’s the toys on sticks that she thinks must die.

After a successful hunt and capture, Shira proudly carries the latest victim up the stairs. As she comes, she yowls. “Look what I have killed! Aren’t you proud of me? We shall feast on the bones of this vanquished teaser!” Or something like that. Whatever she is saying, she is proud and very vocal. Every kill must be celebrated.

Every morning this week I’ve found at least four teasers in the hallway upstairs, another one (or more) in our bedroom, and occasionally another on the stairs. Some mornings I gather them up and put them on the table by the tv. But even if I don’t gather them up, each evening I come home from work to find the teasers scattered throughout the main floor of the house. Apparently the killing must go on in the day time as well. She just doesn’t need to take them upstairs because we’re not home to appreciate her skills.

This behavior is something Shira has always done, but only when she had kittens to train in the ways of the world. Now that she will never have kittens again, maybe she feels it is necessary to hunt full time to prove her worth. Or maybe she’s been listening to Ken tell me we need to get a cat for the garage to keep the mice down out there. Do you think she’s trying to volunteer for the job?

Last week it was the end of Shira’s breeding career. Today I took Peanut in to be neutered. While Peanut was not the dad of the first LostWoods kittens (Guyldenlove Quake had that honor — and he was neutered a couple years ago), Peanut was my first stud and the father of most of the LostWoods litters to date - 12 litters, 52 kittens here, plus the litter of three with Muffet. Several of his kids went to other breeders and have produced kittens of their own. Many of those kittens look amazingly like their dad - he threw his “type” repeatedly and I’m thrilled with that. As with Shira, I’m sad to see the end of his breeding days, but happy that he’ll get to relax and enjoy life a bit more. And, as most of you know, Peanut’s son Fin is continuing his dad’s line at LostWoods and soon one of Peanut’s granddaughters will be arriving in Colorado to be part of the family (co-owned by me and Sondra Evans of Rockatts) as well. 

I’m hoping that Peanut will settle down and give up spraying everything in sight once he’s neutered and the hormones are out of his system. I’d like him to be able to be out with the rest of the cats and be a beloved pet again. He was such a sweet and loving kitten. He’d snuggle up to me at night and purr like mad. He loved playing catch with his rattle mouse and enjoyed killing his “rodent on a stick” when I’d get it out. In recent years he’s been much more focused on girls and not all that interested in toys. Now and then he’ll play, so I think once he’s neutered he’ll have fun playing again.

Peanut will spend the night at the vet clinic then I’ll pick him up midday tomorrow.

Speaking of Peanut’s granddaughter, Danica… She has a reservation to fly to Denver tomorrow morning. We’re all so excited about her and I’ll finally tell you all about our pretty new girl after she arrives.

Any time we head off to a show we have hopes and expectations. Our hopes might be high — this show is the one where the judges will see how magnificent our cat is and he’ll be best in show or at least final in every ring. Or they might be lower — hoping that our cat will behave for a change or he’ll get a few finals. Or we might be hoping for just one final from that rogue judge (LOL, Jim!) that likes our cat when nobody else does. Hopes are what we dream about while knowing the reality will probably be something less.

Expectations are more grounded. We go to a show knowing that one of the judges has always loved our cat and so we expect to get a final in that ring. Experience tells us that there’s rarely competition for winners ribbons so we expect our young adult to come home a Champion. We expect that he’ll be overlooked for a final because he’s immature, naked, or an open. However, expectations are never a guarantee of how things are going to go, even if they are based more on reality that our hopes might be. The judge who loves our cat inexplicably dumps him, leaving him two points short of granding at that show. An open gets an unexpected final. The naked cat is judged by someone who knows and appreciates that coat is a smaller part of what makes a NFC than his great head, resulting in a final. You just never know.

So… this past weekend was one of exceeded expectations. My weekend started with a decision on Friday to take the shorter (miles) but longer (time) route to Chehalis. It was worth every second of the extra drive time as the road wound through the beautiful Wenatchee National Forest. It’s a perfect time of year for watching the colors change in Washington. Fall has always been my favorite time of year and it will never grow old coming around a curve in the road and seeing a stand of red and orange trees caught in a blaze of sunlight.

I arrived in Chehalis and very shortly made the acquaintance of Tenobia’s new owner, Diana. She’s delightful and Nobie apparently recognized that. Instead of being nervous and shy like I expected, she explored the hotel room thoroughly and then made friends with Diana. I couldn’t ask for more.

Saturday morning I checked in at the show, got everything set up, and settled Fin and Taiba into their cage. I then checked the catalog to see if there were any other NFCs entered in the show. Much to my surprise, in kitten class I spotted LostWoods Majestic of Foresttales (formerly known as Kheldar). I knew his owner planned to show him, but she’d always shown in TICA, so I didn’t expect to see her at this show. A friend had talked her into coming so there they were! He looked wonderful — he’d grown so much! He adjusted to the show hall amazingly well and was sweet as could be. Kheldar got two finals at his first ever show — a 9th best AB kitten and a 9th best LH kitten.

I’d gone to the show expecting to take Fin to six rings, get six winners ribbons, and bring him home a Champion. And so I did. But we also brought home two rosettes — a 9th Best AB Cat and a 10th Best LH Cat. An Open (remember — a cat without a title in CFA) doesn’t get a final very often, so this was a big thrill — especially since Fin still doesn’t have that much coat. I was walking on air.

And then there’s McCoy… Brenda took him to Utah for a show this past weekend. It’s a fairly new club and a smaller show, so we were hoping for a few finals. McCoy had done pretty well at the other shows he’d been at, so that wasn’t too unrealistic a hope — in fact, you could probably say we expected a few finals. What we got was way beyond any expectations we had. McCoy finalled in 12 of 16 rings and ended up as the 2nd best kitten overall in the show. He got 5 Best Kitten awards — 2 AB, 3 LH. Check out the Show News page on my site for the full list of his finals. Way to go, Mac!!!

Miscellaneous news… Danica is still stuck back east due to weather restrictions. We’re hoping for this Friday. Talia looks ready to have babies any second. She’ll be confined to the guest room this evening after I finish cleaning in there. She’s in there a lot already, hanging out on the bed and checking out the closet. I’m sure she finds it woefully lacking, as I’ve done nothing to prepare her birthing bed yet. She’s due on Saturday. Shira is doing fine after her surgery. The same old Queen of Everything.