LostWoods Blog

The kittens continue to grow, learn, and delight. As I mentioned the other day, I took some group shots of them last week. One is on the home page of the site now, but I’ll post some others here. I was trying to get both a good group shot and some photos that showed Keona next to Ohanna for the sake of comparing them. So the pictures don’t show Natane to his best. And as you can see, Keona and Ohanna weren’t behaving all that well.

I don’t have a lot to say today — amazing, isn’t it? But one side note… If you get a chance to see a copy of the Kittens USA magazine, look for some wegie babies in four different places in the mag. They are Basia’s half siblings — the ForestKatz Berit’s Angels litter.

A quick note tonight… I posted the new pictures of the Winter Gifts to the website. They were much more cooperative this week, although I caught them in one of their crazy play times so they all thought they should go after the teaser at once. Not holding still or posing while doing it, though! I hope to get a litter shot of them in the next couple days now that they do like teasers. Anyway, enjoy seeing how much they’ve grown!

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday when I was talking about our morning routine was Ms Basia’s morning antics. Basia sleeps with us nearly every night and she’s been a bit put out at those little kittens being in her bed, stealing the attention for themselves. So she’s been even more cuddly than usual. But even before that she had a little habit that is as annoying as it is endearing.

Each morning the alarm goes off and I silence it. I then lie in bed thinking about getting up. Basia snuggles up close to me because she knows I’ll pet her while I’m waking up. After a minute or two, I’ll reach over to get my reading glasses and my Blackberry so I can take a quick look at my email. (Sad, I know, that I check email from bed first thing every morning!)

Buzz does not think I should be checking my email, though. This is HER time with me. I should not be distracted from focusing totally on her. She walks on my chest in between my face and the Crackberry. If I try to raise it above her so I can still read, she leans into my face, blocking my view of everything but her fur. If I push her to the side and pet her with my free hand, she still insists on being on my chest. The issue at hand is my full attention, not merely her need for some loves. Once I put the Crackberry down in defeat, she lies across my chest or neck and purrs like she’s the happiest cat in the world. Once again, she is the center of my attention. All is right with the world.

Although the kittens are loving life in the cat room, I’ve started taking them back upstairs to be with us at night. It’s just part of their training to be loving and social cats. Okay, maybe everyone doesn’t want their cat sleeping with them, but I do. Last night, for example, I had Basia, Taiba, Dilan, Rand, Zeke, Keona, and Ohanna all in bed with us. Yes, it was a bit crowded but I like it that way.

The downside of sleeping with kittens is they wake up much earlier than I do. At 4:30 in the morning they are wide awake and the games commence. It’s not quite so bad once they get a little older, but the young kittens wake up ready to PLAY! And so four little bodies run across the bed. They dive off the sides of the bed. They jump at the sides of the bed and climb back up. They pounce on each other and get into ferocious wrestling matches on the bed. Since they are just learning important things like not to bite so hard when playing, there are inevitably squeaks and howls of protest when one of them gets too rough. And through it all, us humans are merely hills to be jumped on and over, as well as providing good places to hide. And should we move, we’re just another toy to be attacked and conquered.

Once I give up and get up to take my bath, the action moves from the bed to the bathroom. Oh, they still run into the bedroom from the bathroom as part of the games, but the action is centered in the bathroom and it’s a wonder I don’t sit in the tub half the morning laughing at them. They dash in circles around the toilet, chasing each other. They climb on the wire shelves beside the bathtub and knock over bath gels and other bottles. They attempt to jump up on the side of the tub, then complain when they fail. They hop around in the sideways, puffed up style of ferocious kittens before hopping onto one of their unsuspecting siblings. One goes to hide behind the door, while another bats at him or her under the door from the other side. They race out into the bedroom only to come on a tear back, sliding on the vinyl floor as they try to stop. Two who are hopping around daring the other to attack get ambushed by a third who was hiding around the corner of the vanity. The action never stops.

Once I’m ready for work in the morning, I call them to follow me downstairs. They are still figuring out what my calling “babies!” means, so sometimes I have to gather them up and carry them to the stop of the stairs. Once there, they seem to understand we are all going downstairs and sometimes beat me down. Of course, I’m being careful not to step on anyone (not just the kittens, but any of the other half dozen cats who are headed down with us) and they aren’t as they plunge excitedly down the stairs. We then all head for the cat room where breakfast will be served in short order.

And so starts a normal day at LostWoods…

The kittens have been venturing further afield every day. A recent fun place to visit and nap is the laundry room. They are no longer frightened by the washer and dryer and like to nap in the basket I left in there for the cats when they are sent to “jail.” Yes, the laundry room is the jail when naughty cats make too big of pests of themselves when we’re trying to fix a meal. The other really fun thing in the laundry room is the dollhouse. I went in there Saturday to put a load of clothes in to dry and three little girls heads peaked out at me from windows of the dollhouse. Here are Ohanna and Isadora.  

Tomorrow night is picture night. Hopefully they will all cooperate and I’ll have some cute new pictures of my mischievous kittens.

I was telling Brenda about the kittens playing on the furniture (cat furniture — not human furniture) in the cat room. She asked for some pictures so I took some last night for her. I thought maybe you’d all like to see them, too.

Several of the kittens were happy to demonstate how much they enjoy their room. One thing I do need to add to the room are a couple chairs for humans to sit on when they are out there. I usually just end up sitting on the floor, but it would be nice to have a chair so I could sit and watch them or read a book while enjoying their antics.

One more picture for today — in the cat room again. This time it’s Kefira and Keona sitting on the cardboard scratching sofa. (www.imperialcat.com) I think I wrote about them awhile back, but just in case I’m imagining it, Imperialcat makes really cool corrugated cardboard scratchers/loungers for cats in a lot of different and fun shapes. This one is the small sofa — I bought it at Walmart for $16.64. Prices vary depending on the size and shape of the scratchers. 

I guess while I’m on the subject of fun, useful, and interesting stuff I’ll mention a website I like: www.petplace.com. There’s a lot of good information there, plus things that are just fun like cat videos. You can sign up for a daily email from them. They do advertise some in the daily email — tying a product to some information about litter, for example. Some days are just announcements about additions to their website — like new videos. But still a worthwhile and interesting addition to my inbox.

If you haven’t already looked, the six week pictures of the Winter Gifts are posted. They still haven’t mastered posing. I think I’ve been slacking off on my modeling lessons. I’d better get with the program before they never learn to pose! Still, they are learning all kinds of things — more every day. Last night Natane and Ohanna ventured half way up the cat tree. They were about three feet above the floor and looking quite proud of themselves. They are very reliable about using their litter boxes now. They eat dry food and wet food and drink out of the Drinkwell fountain. No longer babies, but kittens now. Although they will always be my babies!

The other day Patti Harriman forwarded some pictures from Fiala’s new owner. Fiala (LostWoods Fiala of Wegiekatt) went to live with Patti when Fiala was about 15 months old. She had several litters of kittens, including our beautiful Danica, and has now retired to a life of being loved and spoiled in another home. Fiala will be four years old on May 2nd. I thought you might all like to see what a beautiful mature wegie she is.

Olly-dolly (as she was known at my house) has always been one of my favorite kittens. She is beautiful and showed great, but she was also sweet and loving at home. Letting her go to Patti was one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do, even though I knew from the time she was small that she’d be going eventually. It did teach me, though, that if I’m planning to place a cat, I should do it sooner rather than later, because the longer I have them, the harder it is to let go.

I found out that my Kitten Inquiry form is not working. Another casualty of the discontinuation of FPSE. So now I need to figure out how to create a new one that will work without them. Remind me that I like learning new things and this is a relatively minor blip… Probably won’t take me nearly as long to figure this one out as it did to update every single page on my site a few weeks ago. I hope.

In case anyone is also holding their breath waiting to hear if Avi and Polgara arrived safely, they are safe and sound in the home of their new owner. Kelly called me about 9:15 last night to say they were home with her and doing fine. Avi was a little shy and tired from her long day. Polgara was sweet and affectionate — as Kelly said, everything about her says she’s a happy cat. I missed waking up to Polgara kissing me and lying on my chest this morning. Okay, the kisses at 4 a.m. where she insists I pay attention to her I won’t miss all that much, but I did miss her this morning. I also missed Avi bouncing around on the bed last night before I went to sleep. Always hard to let go.

Polgara and Aviendha flew away this morning. I’d set my alarm for 5 so I could get them to the airport in time. (Silly people in Salt Lake City told me I had to be there at 5:45, but the SkyWest counter in Helena doesn’t open until 6 so I ended up sitting there for longer than I needed to.) I woke up about 4:30. On one side of me was my lover girl, Basia. She almost always cuddles with me in the morning. On the other side of me were Polgara and Avi, snuggled up so close together that at first I didn’t know if there was one cat or two there. As I was petting them Avi came up and sat by my head purring, while Polgara moved to her favorite spot on my chest and purred almost as loud as Avi. It was a nice way to say goodbye to my pretty girls.

There was a mix up on their flight arrangements — panic on my part when I got home and double checked all the flights — that has been fixed now. I hope. I will not be totally out of panic mode until I hear they have arrived safely tonight. It’s going to be a very long day for them and me.

On a happier note, the Winter Gifts are having an absolute ball discovering all the fun things to do in the cat room. They have all learned how to get on top the first little house of the big cat tree andthink that is a marvelous place to take naps. They think the fabric and pvc pipe play structure is way fun as they climb, chase, and hide in it. They love napping in the blue fluffy bed, but they’ve found other places that are good for a quick break before continuing their daily schedule of play and exploration. I sat on the floor with them last night and just watched as they ran from place to place playing. Avi was having fun with them, too — she loved to bat at and bite their tails. Maybe it’s a good thing she’s gone. Safer for tails, anyway.

Good morning! I thought I’d start out the week by bragging about McCoy a little bit. He and Brenda (as well as Sondra and Danica) were at the TICA show in Denver this past weekend. Smack had a decent show, getting seven All Breed finals out of 12 rings: 9th Best AB Cat, 6th Best AB Cat, 2 - 5th Best AB Cat, 4th Best AB Cat, 3rd Best AB Cat, and a BEST AB Cat. Due to some mysterious circumstance, he was also 3rd Best Bengal in the Bengal Congress. As near as I could figure out from Brenda’s and Sondra’s giggly commentary, the show was supposed to have a Congress (a special ring to judge only cats of a certain type or breed) for Bengals, however, they did not get enough entries to do so. So they opened it up to other cats. But Smack’s ribbon says he was 3rd Best Bengal — something I find just a little disturbing… LOL!

Danica, on the other hand, did not have a good show. She was extremely hormonal and was less than pleasant to show. (I won’t use the word that Sondra used to describe her — use your imagination.) Sondra ended up pulling her from the show because she was such a pain.

As for what I did with my weekend… other than a lot of time spent on NFCFA connected things, I cleaned house, played with kittens, and combed cats. On Sunday after I finished washing all the litter boxes and scrubbing the cat room floor, I brought the kittens down to explore. they had a blast investigating the play structures, eating out of the big cats’ bowls, checking out the big cat tree, and best of all, discovering the big blue fluffy bed! They played on it. They napped on it. They ran across it. And when I came down this morning and stuck my head in the room, there they were — all four sound asleep in it. I tried to take a couple pictures with my little camera (since it was the one close by) but I don’t think they are all that good. I’ll download them tonight and see if any of them are worth posting.

I’m very busy today, so this is shorter than my usual babbling. Hopefully things will calm down all around and I’ll get more time to write and share pictures of the babies. They are adorable!  

The babies are quickly approaching the cutest age ever. At five weeks old they are now interested in me, toys, food, each other, the other cats, the little scratching couch… They are on a voyage of discovery every minute they are awake. It is so much fun!

I’ve posted their five week shots to the website. Keona was very excited by the teaser I was using while photographing them. She wanted to PLAY! Ohanna and Natane were a little afraid of the teaser — they weren’t quite sure what that noisy thing was and why it was waving at them. Isadora was interested, but she also thought exploring the bed would be fun, so holding still wasn’t exactly on her agenda. But I got pretty good shots of all three girls. Natane’s picture is adequate, but nothing I’m excited about.

Natane is on hold for a breeder. We’ll see how he develops. Izzy has a pet home waiting for her and her new mom and dad are very excited. Keona is on hold for me and Brenda — again looking to see how she develops. Ohanna, my little sweetie pie, is trying to convince me she loves me more than anyone in the world and she should stay here. But I’m am hardening my heart to her wiles and waiting for the purrfect home to come along for her.

Not much else to say tonight. I have a yucky late winter cold that is making my head all stuffy — when my nose isn’t running like crazy. So I think I’ll call it a night and try to subdue it with some extra sleep.