Still Here!
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.