LostWoods Blog

Rangashrii requested some educational reading and Michelle just wants to read my ramblings. Hope you’re feeling better today, Michelle! As requested, here’s some info about silver and smoke coloring in NFCs.

I don’t think I ever wrote anything about basic color genetics in cats. So starting off… All cats are black. Uh huh. Yep. Look around. All black. Okay, well, some are red. Red is sex related and carried on another chromosome. But when I start talking about the modifying genes that change how a cat looks (instead of just being black), they apply to the red as well.

So we start with a solid black cat. Then we add in other things like tabby markings, pattern to the markings, and color modifiers. Silver and smoke are the result of a gene that you will often see called the “inhibitor” gene because it’s action is to inhibit the placement of pigment on the hair shaft. It is a dominant gene, meaning that if a cat has it, they will show it. You cannot get a silver or smoke cat from two non-silver/smoke parents. However, a silver (and for ease in writing I’m going to from now on refer to it simply as silver rather than silver/smoke) cat can have offspring that are not silver if the cat “carries” the non-silver gene and is bred with a non-silver cat or a silver who also is carrying non-silver.

Silver is variably expressed, meaning that the degree to which it inhibits the placement of pigment can be different from cat to cat. You may see a silver who has only the very base of his/her fur that is white, pale blue, or pale beige. You may also see cats — like Kefira, for example — who have color only on the tips of their fur. The rest of the hair shift is white. In any case, the color is inhibited from the root towards the end of the hair. In other words, you won’t see a cat with white tips and dark roots. Unless someone got a little crazy with the dye. (Just kidding!) Depending on the breed and the registry, the expressions of the gene may also have different color description names even though the base color is the same.

The difference between silver and smoke is that silver is what we call the gene’s expression in a tabby. So you’ll see silver mackerel and classic tabbies, or blue silver, or red-silver (cameo), etc. A silver tabby is genetically a brown tabby with the inhibitor gene. Kefira is a silver patch mackerel tabby, meaning she’s a brown patch mackerel tabby (genetically) with the inhibitor gene. Smoke is the expression in a solid colored cat. That is, a smoke is a black cat with the inhibitor gene. Blue-smoke is a solid blue cat with the gene and so on. Keep in mind that whenever I’m talking about a tabby or a solid color cat, I’m also talking about those same colors on cats who have white. A blue smoke cat with white areas would be registered as a blue smoke & white.   

So that’s your mini color genetics lesson for the evening. I’m sorry I was so late getting it posted. Sometimes I get distracted with other things. Now that I’m thinking about color genetics, though, I may post some more on the subject tomorrow.

… is something I’m usually lacking. I’ve said many times in my life that God is trying to teach me patience, but that I’m a terrible student. And when it comes to waiting for the arrival of kittens, I’m an F student all the way!

No, Kefira has not yet had her babies. She gets bigger and rounder each day. Every time I go in the guest room to check on her, she greets me at the door with a little chirp and runs into the closet. There she sits in her bed, purring and looking at me expectantly. I sit down on the floor and pet her. She purrs and kneads and usually lies down. And so we stay until my back starts hurting from sitting on the floor and I get up and leave.

Brenda, Grant (Brenda’s son), and I have picked out a number of names for the kittens. We did decide on two names for each. All of them have a “gift” name along with either a snow. winter, or silver name. Given how cold it’s been here, I’m sure there will be snow lingering after these kittens are born, so even though the snow isn’t falling right now, it will still be appropriate.  Nope, not sharing them until the babies have been named, though!

Another evening of not much news from LostWoods, I’m afraid. Sorry to be so boring. Guess I need to do some research and write some of those educational articles I’ve been thinking about. Hmmm… where to start? Well, if babies don’t arrive by tomorrow, maybe I’ll try to sneak one of those ideas in. Stay warm everyone!

A quick post this evening — been a long time since I wrote twice in one day! No, Kefira has not yet had her babies. However, I did get pictures taken and the website updated with Rand and Avi’s 15 week photos. Here’s a bonus shot of Avi.

She has really been active, silly, and loving for the past few days. She’s Ken’s newest spoiled little girl cat and loves to sleep on his chest while he’s watching tv. I suspect he started this while I was in Colorado because ever since I got home she’s been snuggling with him. But, he doesn’t like cats! LOL!

Going to go check on Kefira again, then do my cat chores before heading to bed to stay warm. Nine below right now. With the wind chill, it’s expected to be around 20 below tonight. Brrr! Maybe I can convince the cats to all pile on the bed with us tonight.

That’s what it was when I walked from the parking lot across the street to the office. This is what I thought winter weather in Montana was going to be like, but in the almost two years we’ve been here, these tastes of real winter have been few and far between. Yesterday it was in the 30s and melting was the order of the day. Today, nothing will be melting — instead the snow will be piling up again. And because I only have to drive across town to work and back, I don’t mind at all. Remember, I like snow!

At lunch time I’ll be making an extra trip across town to let the dogs out for a bit and check on Kefira. I’ve been thinking her due date was early next week, but she has been showing definite signs of nesting since yesterday morning. She’s confined to the guest room and she spend most of her time in the closet in her bed, kneading, purring, and grooming herself. She had the Leprechauns without me there, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she does it again. But I’d rather she didn’t.

I’ve been trying to come up with a litter theme for these babies and wanted something to honor Beau — or reflect that these will be his only children. However, no names in the category of “only” or “legacy” made me happy. Brenda suggested these be “Beau’s Gifts” and having not yet exhausted the names that mean gifts, I think they will be. Kittens just might have two names, though, as I’d like to incorporate silver or possibly snow (in honor of a lovely weather) into the name, too. So we’ll see.

Not much else going on to write about today. The cats were all wild and crazy all weekend long. Shira killed teasers. Basia, Taiba, and Polgara raced around attacking everything. Rand and Avi ran, jumped and wrestled. Bug snuggled in bed with me. (I guess that’s a little out of the ordinary, ’cause usually she is content to sleep on the floor.) Finny, Tucker, and Caboose enjoyed snuggling in the new fleece throw I bought them. Life at LostWoods, proceeding as usual…

I’m so glad this week is over, although I do have to work some this weekend. Fortunately, that can be done from home in between all my other chores. I love going to shows, but being away from home for several days always means the housework piles up. So lots of cleaning this weekend.

I took Rand in for a recheck this evening. (I know I said he was going in yesterday, but I was wrong.) He’s doing better. No fever. No new discharge in his ear — although there is still some bacteria. The eye twitches (for the life of me, I can’t remember the correct term this evening) which are a sign of vestibular disease (caused by the ear infection) are gone. He’s still tilting his head but Dr Jennifer tells me that can hang on for a time after the actual infection is gone. Because there is still some bacteria, I got a refill on the Clavamox and will continue giving it to him for awhile longer. Everyone at the vet’s office is in love with him and I’m lucky to have gotten out of there without someone catnapping him!

We have some new great grandkittens today, born at Catequil cattery. (http://www.catequilcat.com/) Aksel is one of Tori’s kids (a brother to Basia, different litter) and Luna (Moondance) is one of Meggie’s babies, so the newborns are great grandkittens on both sides of the family for me. Congratulations to Lynn, Aksel, and Luna!

In case you didn’t notice, I added some more pictures to yesterday’s post about the Loveland show. I have pictures of all the wegies in Championship and all the wegie kittens. I blew it and didn’t get pictures of Colyn and Logan. I’ll try to remember to get them at the next show where we are all together.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Don’t get me wrong — winning is fun and the LostWoods family (and extended family) earned some finals at the show. McCoy was 3rd Best LH CH in one ring, 2nd Best LH CH & 3rd Best AB CH in another, and 9th Best AB Cat in a third ring. Danica earned a 4th best AB Kitten final and Basia got a 6th Best LH final. Colyn finalled in 7 of the 8 rings. His “brother” Logan finalled in one. We were happy and excited about each of those awards. But sometimes the real winning is in fun, friendship, and the opportunity to show off our fur kids.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were 13 NFCs entered in the show. They were owned by six different people, so it’s not like any one of us brought a whole bunch of cats to the show. The entry clerk — a friend of mine and a MC breeder — was joking with us Sunday that she thought they were going to have to enter a couple more cats to make sure the wegies didn’t out number the MCs. LOL! All six of us are friends and all six of us were cheering for ALL the cats. There weren’t hurt feelings about Heidi’s cats beating Fin or McCoy beating Deb’s cats, or the like. We were all happy when anyone got a final and disappointed when no NFC got a final in a ring.

As a group, we were happy to share our grooming products and tools, assist the others in getting cats prepped for rings, and do anything we could to help each other out. Now me, I can say that I have a vested interest in nearly every NFC that was there because almost all of them were related one way or another to mine or owned by me. The three exceptions were Sondra’s Maxine, Kris’ Logan, and Heidi’s Narvi. But our camaraderie goes beyond blood relationships to the bond we share because of loving Norwegian Forest Cats and the friendship that has developed in the years we’ve been showing them.

Heidi and Brenda both brought food for sharing and we had a party in our benching area. We laughed. We took pictures of the cats. We talked about breeding plans. We worked on the cats’ grooming. We went shopping for cat toys. We planned for attending future shows and where we’d all be. But mostly we just enjoyed each other and the cats.

The other part of our weekend was showing off the cats to visitors. We were benched near the front of the show hall and our three(!) rows of NFCs was one of the first places visitors came. It’s always fun to talk to people about the cats and it’s always nice to hear them compliment them. I don’t know how many times I heard someone tell me that Basia was adorable or McCoy was amazing. But perhaps the most rewarding was the mother with her four year old daughter who spent a long while talking to me about NFCs because she’d like to get one in a few years for her daughter to show in Junior Showmanship/Junior Achievement. She loved Basia and her wonderful personality and I hope that we have won a fan for the Norwegian Forest Cat.

So even if we didn’t bring home as many rosettes as we’d have liked (yes, we’d have loved to bring home more — I can’t lie!) it was a successful weekend. We had fun and spent time with friends while showing off our cats to many people. Oh, yeah, and I got quoted in a local newspaper article. I’d do it again any time.

Some pictures from the weekend (click on them for a bigger version) follow.

Kitten judging in Wain Harding’s ring:

Championship judging in Nancy Dodds ring:

Basia & Danica in Bob Zenda’s ring:

Just for fun, between rings:

I’m still not completely unpacked from the weekend and I need to finish going through all my photos to find some to post here. I’m going to call it an early night tonight, so it’s still not going to get done. I went to the dentist this morning to have a filling replaced and a temporary crown put on a tooth I broke a couple weeks ago. I really, REALLY hate going to the dentist and my mouth still hurts. Yes, I’m whining… She did a good job, though — better than the last dentist I went to. He replaced another of my old fillings and that tooth has been incredibly sensitive ever since. That was about four years ago! So despite my whining, I am glad I went to her. I go back in about five weeks for the permanent crown.

I’ve added 14 week pictures of Rand and Avi to their litter page. Rand is still tilting his head to one side. He is going into the vet tomorrow for a recheck on his ear infection. He’s happy, he’s eating and gaining weight, he plays like a wild man, but his head still tilts. I haven’t seen any discharge from the ear since before the weekend, though, so I think he’s on the mend. It just may take some more time for his equilibrium to be back to normal.

Besides the baby pictures, I added a new picture of McCoy and a picture of Danica to the Cats page. Brenda doesn’t like the photo of McCoy — taken at my bench side photo studio — so she says she’ll send me some better ones. It is hard to get good photos at the show. Too many distractions. However, I was happier with these than I usually am with the pictures I take at shows. Danica has grown so much! She’s also a sweetheart. I struck gold when I decided to get her and Basia. Those two girls are absolutely beautiful in looks and personality both.  

Speaking of Basia… the picture I uploaded to I Can Has Cheezburger? caught the eye of several people who used it with their own captions. Some of those are on the Votes pages if you page through and look for them. They are much funnier than mine, and I think it’s possible one or more of them may end up on the home page.

Beau went home last weekend and will be neutered in a few days. Kefira is getting rounder with his babies, although with her first litter she didn’t ever look all that pregnant. Bria (her mother) was the same way and I always wondered if she was only going to have one baby. Kefira continues to shed like mad and I swear she’s going to be bald by the time the babies arrive. I’m really getting excited about seeing them. A couple more weeks…

I posted my candidate statement for NFCFA today. The link is on the right hand side of the page under “Pages” if you want to read it. For any of you from NFCFA stopping by the blog, welcome! Even if you don’t vote for me, I hope you enjoy the visit and come back again.

Basia likes to flatten herself to the floor with all four paws extending out from her body.  It’s just the funniest thing to see and I laughingly call her the “road kill cat” whenever she does it. I finally captured the look in a photo. Today I submitted it with a caption to ICanHasCheezburger. Go by and check it out:

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/View.aspx?HalpIhazbin128455043563750000.jpg

If you like it, click on the cheeseburgers above the picture to vote for it. There are five cheeseburgers in a line. If you click on the fifth one it means you rate the picture a five, the fourth a four, etc. BTW, go to the home page www.icanhascheezburger.com and have a laugh if you haven’t already added it to your favorites. I visit every few days to check out the new pictures.

More news later. Lots of pics and news from the show weekend. It was so much fun!

Deleting all the FrontPage extensions for all the sites and then reinstalling them solved the problem. I spent several hours last night rebuilding all the navigation for our sites and I think they are back as they should be. There’s a chance I’ve missed a page here or there and it will look a bit odd, so let me know it you see anything without the buttons at the top of the page.

Busy getting ready to go to Loveland, CO for a show this weekend. The added bonus of going to CO is seeing Brenda, Sondra, Heidi and other friends, plus getting to see my son, Justin. Jeremy is going with me and will share the driving if the roads are clear. Kinda questionable at the moment. They aren’t terrible, but there are snowy spots and it’s spitting snow as I type.

The show this weekend should be a good time — and an excellent opportunity to see NFCs. When I checked the show summary on Monday for counts, there were 13 NFCs entered in the show. Wow! They were the third highest count of any breed, behind the Persians and Maine Coons. This is truly remarkable. It was just a few years ago when I started showing and my wegies were usually the only ones at any show I attended. The judges will have to work to decide on who deserves which ribbons at this show and it will be fun to watch. LostWoods fur kids Fin, McCoy, Basia, and Danica will be there, as well as some extended family members. Ce’Nedra (now known as Skadi) is entered. Heidi — Skadi’s owner — will also be showing Liby, who is LostWoods Bozeman’s daughter, Alta, who is one of Comet’s grand daughters, and her male Narvi. Sondra is showing Maxine — one of McCoy’s littermates, in addition to Danica. Our friend Kris will be showing LostWoods Colyn and a boy from McCoy’s breeder, Logan. the other cat is as yet unknown although we think it will be one of two boys that also live in CO. One has a LostWoods girl as his mother.

I’m going to be posting a candidate statement about myself on a new blog page here in a few days. I’ll let you know when it’s up so you can stop by and read about me and my qualifications and thoughts about NFCFA. In the meantime, I’m off to finish scooping litter boxes and packing up all my show stuff.

Sigh… Still working with Tech Support to get my website and all the others we host on our account fixed. Now they’ve told me that the FrontPage extensions are corrupted, so I have to delete them from ALL the sites and reinstall them. Of course, it can up to three hours to deactivate, plus another three hours to activate. Then I get to test it. At the moment, I’m waiting for everything to deactivate, with hopes of activating them again later this morning. Then by the time I got home from work I’ll be able to try logging in and getting everything back to normal.

I decided to run for Breeder Division Secretary for NFCFA (Norwegian Forest Cat Fanciers Association) after hearing from a several people that I should throw my hat in the ring. I suppose it’s the right thing to do, since I often have opinions about how things should be. I ought to be doing some work instead of just telling people what I think.

Speaking of NFCFA… you don’t have to be a breeder to be a member. We have a membership class just for people who have or just love NFCs. Dues are $10 per year and include access to our online newletter, The Skogkatt. Dues go mostly toward association expenses, but we’ve also had a few fundraisers in recent years that have enabled us to donate thousands of dollars to feline health research. We’re always looking to improve and as owners/fanciers of our beloved wegies your opinion is valued, too.  Check out the website at: www.forestcats.net. I did try to look at the membership application and see that the link is broken (notice a trend here… no, I’m sure it’s not related!) so I will send a note to our webmistress about it.