LostWoods Blog

In more than one way, Talia is a Great Grandma. You see, she is grandma to the Melons and she is still taking extra special care of them. Kali has weaned them, but never fear, Grandma is here! She washes rear ends, she snuggles with them in bed at night, and yes, she lets them nurse. I don’t know if she has milk — I don’t think so — but they nurse anyway. And you’ve never heard such a chorus of loud purring. It’s enough to keep a person awake — or lull them off to sleep with visions of happy cats dancing in one’s head.

As if it weren’t enough that Talia is taking care of the Melons, Dawnflower — Talia’s great granddaughter — has also decided that nursing is a great way to relax at night. And so, there she is — this four month old kitten, bellied up to the milk bar with her little aunts and uncles.

Speaking of babies… Keegan’s six kittens are doing well. Maggie delivered two big babies a day and a half after Keegan. All the babies are being lovingly tended by both the moms. There’s a very happy bunch of wegies down there in Arizona.

Glad to see that some of you have joined the NFCBC forum. Please be patient with us and visit often. It takes time to get people used to forums — they are new and confusing to a lot of us — and the meat of forums is the information that one gains through asking questions and reading the answers other members put out there. If you have questions, be brave and ask. If you know something about grooming — your favorite grooming product or tool for example — reply to a message. And don’t be shy, introduce yourself to the rest of the members.

I’ve added another article — this time at Crenshaw’s new mom-to-be’s request — about introducing a new kitten to the family. It’s under the Health & Nutrition Articles. Why there, you might ask? Well, we decided we needed a board about behavior and behavior is often tied to health, so that’s where it ended up. And kitten intros are a behavioral issue… At least until I think of a better place to put it!

I took 13 week photos of the Melons tonight, as well as a new picture of Dawnflower. They are up on the site. The Melons on their litter page; Dawn’s on her own page. I can’t believe they are this old already! Enjoy!

Stealing a title from an email I received today. It is also the title of one of the sweetest photos I’ve seen in ages. I’ll post the photo at the end of today’s post.

Keegan — remember Keegan? — went to live in Arizona with new breeder, Deb O’Shaughnessy. Deb also owns Rockatts Coke, aka Maggie, who is one of Athena and Comet’s kittens. (Since then, Deb has added ForestKatz Gabriel to the family and he will be the daddy of Maggie ’s and Keegan’s children next year.) So Maggie and Keegan are half sisters. When Deb got Keegan, Maggie spent a couple hours being put out that her devoted slave, Deb, would need another cat in the house, but after a short time Maggie decided that this poor little kitten needed a mother or a big sister or something. And so she has taken care of Keegan ever since. They are the best of friends.

When it came time for Maggie and Keegan to have boyfriends, they went to separate parts of the world — Maggie to Texas, Keegan to Colorado — where they both got pregnant within a week of each other. (Despite Maggie having gone to TX much sooner than Keeg went to CO.) When their pregnancies were confirmed, they both went home to AZ where they took up where they left off as BFFs.

Maggie’s babies were due early this week, but as I’m writing this, they have still not arrived. (Unless, of course, she is busy having them right now and Deb has not called to say so.) Keegan’s kittens were due in a few days. Early this morning Keegan decided she would have her babies. Maggie was there with her every step of the way — comforting Keegan, cleaning up the babies, washing Keegan, and now nursing the kittens. The vet says it’s okay that she’s nursing and it may stimulate her hormones so she’ll deliver her own babies soon. Maybe Maggie knew that she’d be too busy with her own babies once they came, so she’s been waiting until after Keegan delivered hers so she’d be able to help her.

I’m sure all the babies will be happily cared for by both moms. They’ll probably have no idea who their real mother is — they’ll just be very lucky kittens with two wonderful mommies.

The kittens are on the small side, and unfortunately one was too small and stillborn. But considering the litter (with the little one) was seven kittens, the other six are acceptable weights. Deb, Maggie, and Keegan will take good care of them. Deb has temporarily named them Screamer, Van, Big Red, Skunk, Spot 1 and Spot 2. LOL! She says they will get real names after she consults with Keegan and Maggie. If Deb doesn’t get her website updated in the next couple days, I’ll share some kitten pics she has sent me.

Here’s the photo, as promised, of Keegan, Maggie and Keegan’s six newborn kittens.

I’m done hinting… While we are still working on a few organizational things, I think we are ready to announce the birth of a new club for everyone who is interested in Norwegian Forest Cats — the Norwegian Forest Cat Breed Club: Information, Education, Support, and Friendship for Norwegian Forest Cat Lovers.

Sound like something you might like? I hope so because it’s as much for you — the people who own or just love wegies — as it is for breeders like me. One of the most interesting parts of the new club is our website: http://www.norwegianforestcatbreedclub.org. Or at least I think so. Here’s why.

The website is set up as a forum where people can not only read articles about various topics — some of them you’ve read here on my blog — but you can also ask questions, read others’ questions and the replies, share your experience and knowledge in response to questions, post pictures of your fur kids, tell stories about your cats, and yes, get to know other cat crazy people just like you and me!

Go visit the site and wander around looking at things. In the Forum Hints & Helps Articles (linked on the right hand side of the pages — after you enter the site) you’ll find a bunch of How To’s to help you do things if you’ve never been on a forum site before.

If you’re interested in joining, there’s a post on the “I Want To Be A Member” board that tells you all about it. But, the short story is, it’s free to try out for a month, then we have a 6 month intro offer that is $5, and full year dues are $15. You can only use the 6 month intro once. Guests do have access to read some of the stuff on the site, but members gets full access to all the articles and boards, and can post their own questions and replies. There’s a board just for sharing pictures and stories about your cats, plus another board for general chat — no cat content needed. As we all get more used to using it, I think that board will be a great place to get to know other cat people.

Once you visit the site you’ll see why I’ve been MIA so much lately. It’s been a challenge to learn how to do everything to set the site up and I’m still working with others to create more content — more articles especially. Over time, there will be a lot more there — don’t let the relative scarcity of info and posts put you off. On top of the site development, I’ve also been madly writing documentation so my fellow charter members know how to use the site. Only a few people in our small group have ever used a forum before and it can be somewhat intimidating until you’re used to it.

Oh, in case you’re wondering about the organizational structure — because I don’t have anything about that on the site yet — it will have a small (5 people) elected Board of Directors, led by a chair person. We anticipate holding elections every other year, beginning probably in 2010. For now the board is all volunteer and I am serving as the chair. When we do elect officers — and any other things we might vote on — every person who has been a member in good standing for at least 6 months will be allowed to vote.

That does not mean that this was all my baby. I have put a lot of time and energy into the implementation, but the club itself is the result of weeks of private discussion between a number of people. I was one of the more reluctant ones — a voice of reason, I’d like to think, who kept throwing up the obstacles of “we need a plan”, “what makes us different”, “who is our intended membership”, “why should they join”, etc. Eventually, the cries of “let’s do it!” and “good idea” won me over and we got to work.

Oh, one bit of bad news for my loyal blog readers… the educational stuff — at least the full article type things — that I have posted here in the past will more than likely become articles on the NFCBC site instead of showing up here. But the silly little cat stories and random musings I do will still be on the blog. You’ll still hear about the antics of the LostWoods kittens and cats right here. And if you ask me a question about something you are wondering about, I’ll answer — but maybe not in the detail you’ve become accustomed to.

So… what is new at LostWoods? Well, the kittens are back to ALL sleeping with us again. Last night the bed was very full — five kittens, Dawnflower, Basia, Talia (who is still mothering the kittens), Rand and Dilan were all in bed when I was trying to get to sleep. NO room for feet! The Melons have mastered jumping on the kitchen counter from the floor — no intermediate step like a chair or the wine rack needed to help them get up there now. They are driving me crazy! Several of them have also fallen in the bath tub this week — swimming lessons, I call it. LOL!

Oh, if you haven’t read Michelle’s comments on one of the recent posts, go look for it. She’s filled us all in on her eventful vacation. Thanks, Michelle! I love hearing from all of you and I could almost imagine your adventures.

Go check out the new website! Good night!

Finally! I’ve taken the 12 week pictures of the Melons and updated the website with them. For your enjoyment, here’s a picture of them all together refusing to look at me and the camera. Little brats!

Maybe I’ll get another good litter shot of them before they leave for their new homes, but who knows?

I also took new pictures of Rand and Natane this evening. They are on their pages on the website, but I won’t make you go looking for them. Here they are.

Not much else new that I can tell you about today. I’m still working on that project I’ve hinted about. A couple more things need to be done — I know I keep saying that! — before we make it public. Soon. Really!

Here are three of the pictures I took of Firestar on Sunday.

He wanted to be adventurous, but I managed to keep him from climbing the tree despite his best efforts.

And here’s another teaser about the project that is consuming a big chunk of my time…

“Information, Education, Support, and Friendship for Norwegian Forest Cat Lovers”

Sound like something you might be interested in? Stay tuned. No, I am not redoing my own website or changing my blog. This is something entirely new. The only change around LostWoods is that some of the stuff I write about in my blog — my little educational/informational things — may end up on the other site instead. One more hint… it’s not “my” new site, although I’ve done a big chunk of the site development. It’s a site that ties back to ideas from and work done by more than just me.

I am very excited about a new site I’ve been working on and everything else has pretty much fallen by the side for the past week. Luckily for all my faithful blog readers, the site is now live and only in need of small tweaks as we go forward. I can now come back to my regularly scheduled babbling. In a couple days, I’ll tell you all about the new site and why you should be as excited about it as me. Trust me - if you like my blog, you’re going to like the new site, too.

If you hadn’t noticed — which you probably all did — 11 week photos of the Melons are on the website. I can’t believe they are already 11 weeks old! Time flies. They are still taking turns sleeping on the bed with us, sometimes more than one of them, but almost never all of them, but always at least one. Talia is still mothering them and they adore her. Kali is still killing household items for them — the latest was a measuring cup. I’ve heard the babies talking about what they want to say in their story, so I think they might write it soon.

Dawnflower has settled down very nicely and gets along with everyone now. She is so sweet and affectionate. She wants to snuggle with someone any time she’s not playing. Firestar’s new owner picked him up on Sunday and reports that he is wonderful, although her older cat is not totally convinced of that. I took some pictures of him on Sunday afternoon and will post them here. However, I don’t have them on this pc so it will have to wait until I remember to do it from home.

I forgot to upload the Melons’ pages and the Litter #21 page to the server after I finished my updates the other night. So no matter how many times you’ve refreshed your browser, you wouldn’t have seen their new pictures. I have remedied that and you should see the 10 week photos now.

This afternoon I was calling the babies to come so I could take them to the vet. (Yes, I’m late with their first shots, but all is well with the kittens.) Everyone but Pepino had come running, so I went looking for him. One of his favorite places is the orange fluffy bed in the living room. Sure enough. There he was, cuddled into the center of it. But to my surprise, Talia was curled around him, acting very protective, like he was her kitten.

I scooped him up, loaded him into the carrier and off we went. An hour later — after Dr Jennifer had thoroughly poked prodded and vaccinated them, then gave them treats and played with them — we came home. I set the carrier down in the front hall and turned them loose.

Off they scampered every which way. I went into the office to take a quick look at email before I started supper. While I was in there, I heard a kitten squeak in distress and Ken yell at someone to “put the Stinky down!” I ran out to the living room to see what was going on.

Talia had grabbed one of the kittens by the scruff and was carrying it off. After Ken yelled at her, she put it down, but she was walking around the living room talking to them all and trying to convince them to go with her. She went over to the fluffy bed and sat down. I brought her Pepino — who’d been falling asleep on the couch — and set him down in the bed with her. She promptly stretched out and let him nurse. An hour later they were still there, although Pepino was no longer nursing.

This is much better than Talia wandering around the house calling for a man. She can just adopt! And Pepino looks pretty content, too.

A little hint of things to come… I’m very excited about some things that have been happening — really over the last few weeks, but coming together in the past few days. I hope next week sometime to tell you more, because I think you will be interested, too — if not quite as excited as I am. Nope, no new babies. And that’s all I tell you right now. Patience!

I did get the pictures taken and the Melons page updated on the website last night. I am hoping — but don’t hold your breath — to get a litter shot of them one evening this week. Once again, I took advantage of an absolutely beautiful evening to take pictures on the photo tree. I’ve decided I should call it that because it’s where I always pose the kittens. They were fairly well behaved and are more comfortable with being in the tree. I’d put Galia down on the grass beside the tree for a minute and she promptly starting climbing up the trunk. So stop by and see how the cuties are growing up.

I also took pictures of Firestar and Dawnflower. Firestar was a big pain. He was much too adventurous and wanted to climb up high in the tree. He also thought chewing on the pine needles was a good idea. I ended up with zero — yes, none, not one — photos of him that I liked. So I will try again.

Dawnflower was a very good model, though. She is such a pretty girl! And apparently, she wanted all of you to know it, too.

She is adjusting to living with us, although she’s still a bit hissy. But she sure wanted to play with me last night. Not the other cats, me. Firestar has decided everyone is okay and is now playing with Rand and Natane. Basia was kinda grouchy last night — I think she’s a little jealous of the new kittens getting my attention. She is, after all, a jealous little twit. LOL! But I gave her lots of loves this morning before I got out of bed, so maybe she’ll be more cheerful this evening.

I’ve been missing in action and I apologize. I’ve been suffering from a bit of a bad attitude about the cat fancy lately and when you add that to being busy at work and home both, writing in the blog was a little low on my priority list. But I’m back and will make an effort to do regular posts again.

If you haven’t noticed, I did post 9 week photos of the Melons on the site last Tuesday, although it says they are still the 8 week shots. Really, they are 9 weeks old in them! I will be taking photos this evening so I can post 10 week photos later tonight.

In other LostWoods news, I met Sondra in Casper this past weekend to pick up Firestar and Dawnflower. Firestar will be going to live with his new mom in Missoula this weekend. Dawnflower will be staying with us for now. I’ll try to get some good pictures of them this evening, too. Firestar is doing great adjusting to being with all the new cats he’s met. This bodes well for his new home, as he will have a “big sister” to play with there. Dawnflower was still hissing at almost everybody this morning — although when I left the house she was gobbling wet food from the same plate as several of the others. Wet food can make a cat forget that they don’t like someone. :-) Natane and Basia have tried to make friends with her already, but she wants nothing to do with them. I think she’ll be fine in a day or so, though. It’s just scary meeting all those new cats.

So… you’re probably wondering why the bad attitude… It’s been a disappointing and disturbing couple weeks for me. First, a few years ago I place Megwyn (LostWoods Blue Moon Rising of Vanir, aka Meggie) with Cheryl McConnell. Meggie has been spayed and placed in a new home. I have no problem  with her being placed in a home where she can live out the rest of her life as a spoiled and beloved pet. However, I want to know where all my kittens are — it’s why, if you get a kitten from me, you sign a contract agreeing to let me know if you ever need to give up the kitten and you’ll give me first chance to take him or her back or arrange for a new home. But I haven’t asked for contracts from most of the breeders I’ve placed kittens with. I have always thought that if I trusted them with my babies as breeding cats that I could also trust them to act in the same responsible and courteous way I would in the same circumstances. But I’ve been told that Meggie’s new owners do not want me to have any information about themselves. No explanation of why. When I’ve placed retired breeders, I’ve told the new owners that I will be giving their contact info to the original breeder — and I give them the breeders’ information, too. It’s not optional — for me, it’s simply the right thing to do for the breeder, the owner, and the cat.

David and Donna (the only info I have about Meggie’s new owners are their first names), if you should happen upon my website or blog, wondering about Meggie’s breeder and how she came to be the beautiful sweet cat she is, feel free to contact me directly. I’d love to hear from you. I also have a couple hundred pictures of Meggie on cd and I’d be happy to send you a copy so you have a digital photo album of her first six months of life. I promise I won’t be pestering you every week or trying to sell you another kitten. I just want to stay in touch about Meggie now and then.

Then, to add to my mood, some fellow breeders and friends were turned into animal control. The complaint was false and the person who anonymously reported them more than likely knew it was false. It appears to be an attempt to cause trouble for them. They do not know who did it. Could be animal rights activists, a disguntled pet buyer, a neighbor, or — I hate to say it — a fellow breeder. Perhaps the thing that disturbs me most about this particular situation is that my friends have mostly older (five years or older) cats, with a few exceptions. IF animal control was to find something wrong and take a hard line, it is possible that the cats could be confiscated. And older cats generally do not fare well in shelters. Whoever sent the complaint did not think about the consequences to the cats. These are cats who are loved and well cared for! Why risk them for the sake of making trouble? You cannot possibly have the best interest of the cats in mind to do something like that.

A week later, other friends came home to find AC outside their home, too. Fortunately that situation was quickly resolved, while the outcome of the other is still in the air. Still, it really upsets me to see anyone go through that.

Also, the ongoing saga of fighting, flaming, and arguing for the sake of arguing continues on the NFCFA list. I know that a lot of you aren’t NFCFA members, so you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say that. And it’s probably better that you don’t. Again, I truly don’t understand how people who supposedly want to do the right things for their cats — people who share the common bond of loving Norwegian Forest Cats can be so hateful to each other. Makes you want to spend all your time with your cats and ignore humans totally!  I think there will be some big things happen as a result of the past eight months or turmoil, because a lot of people are just plain fed up. I hope, in the end, this means some good and positive things for everyone who is interested in NFCs. We’ll see.

Well, enough for now. I’m trying to retrieve my positive attitude by avoiding email and stuff, but I have a number of emails and kitten inquiries I need to respond to this evening. Obviously, it’s going to be an evening of photos, email, and cat chores. Oh, and I have new pictures of the ForestKatz Hurricane kittens to post, too. I’ll let you know when I get all the updates done.