LostWoods Blog

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.

Sometimes my mind is a complete blank when I’m trying to think of something to write here. Oh, it’s not that I don’t know of some educational topics that I could cover, but if I write about them, I want to do it right. That is, give you a good understanding of the issue without talking totally over your heads. In other words, take something serious — and occasionally scientific — and make it into something that is interesting, understandable and relevant for a cat owner. Sometimes that’s easy for me — in case you hadn’t noticed, written language is one of my skills — but other times I’m completely useless. So tonight instead of writing something fun or useful, I’m mostly just rambling.

I don’t know if I mentioned it on the blog, but Galia has had a color change. You might not notice it if you aren’t looking for it - and even then, unless you see her in person you still might not notice, but she is a black SMOKE and white, not a black and white. Remember when I wrote about silver — the inhibitor gene? A refresher if you don’t remember, or if you’re a newer reader who hasn’t slogged through all the previous posts… The inhibitor gene or silver gene, as we sometimes call it, inhibits the placement of color on the base of the fur. So next to the skin the fur — depending on what color it would otherwise be — is white, pale gray/blue, or very light cream. The gene is variably expressed, meaning that in some cats, the color will only be inhibited for a small section of the hair, while in others it may prevent color on nearly the entire hair. On Kefira, for example, her hair is nearly all white, with color at the very tips only. While I became a silver breeder accidently, I’ve fallen in love with it — especially silver torbies like Kefira — and am one of the few NFC breeders around that really likes breeding for silver.

Back when I talked about the inibitor gene before I posted pictures of Dilan and Taiba. Both of them are tabbies, so we call their color “silver” or a variation thereof. Dilan is a red-silver (cameo — for who knows what reason in CFA!), while Taiba is a blue-silver patch tabby or blue-silver torbie.

Now Miss Galia, she’s not a tabby. You can see quite clearly in her pictures that she is a solid colored cat with white. I know, that sounds silly. Solid somehow indicates that she’d be one solid color all over. Strictly speaking, I guess you’d call her a bi-color. But genetically, she is a solid colored cat with the white spotting gene. And she also has the inhibitor gene. If you look at the base of all her hair, it is nearly white. The description of a smoke says that at rest they should look like solid colored cats, but in motion, you’ll see the lighter color. That’s Galia exactly.

I think black smokes are stunning cats and I’m so excited to see her color develop. With Finny being a silver, I knew that if he and Kali both carried solid (they are tabbies — the dominant gene, while solid is recessive) that they could possibly give me a smoke, but I didn’t think either Galia or Charlie were. It’s just been in the last week that I can really see Galia’s smoke showing up, but there’s no doubt. Put them side by side and look at their fur and they are very different.

I think the kittens are drawing straws for who has to keep lisa-mom and Ken-dad trained in the proper way to sleep with kittens. Every night this week a different kitten — just one! — has shared our bed. Tonight will be either Crenshaw’s or Pepino’s turn.

Oh! I just remembered! I didn’t share the helpful kitten photos with you all. I just posted them to the discussion groups. I told them I didn’t know why I’m always so tired. After all, I have very helpful little kittens. At least Galia and Charlie. First they helped me do the dishes last night.

Then after they finished with that, they helped fold the laundry. 

While I don’t have pictures of their efforts, they are also very happy to help with the litter boxes and with sweeping the floor. They make sure I don’t miss anything by batting at any bits that fly up from the broom. Such helpful little kittens!

Guess I had more to say than I thought, huh? It’s like they teach you in writing classes, sometimes you just need to start writing, then the words will come.

Yes, I’ve been busy tonight. On my site I’ve added the 14 week photos of the Warrior Cats and the eight week pictures of the Melons. I also made a few updates to the Cats and the Alters pages to note the HCM results of the cats that have been tested. Thunderstar left for his new home on Saturday, so I updated his page, too.

On the Rockatts site, I added the Warrior Cats pictures, plus 11 week photos of the F Litter. I can’t believe they are so old already! I think it’s time to bug Jim & Donna for new pictures of the Hurricane Litter at ForestKatz now that I’m caught up with these two sites. And yes, someday I need to get to work on the RedCanyon site for Brenda.

It’s getting to be my bed time, though, so little news tonight. Kittens and cats are all well. The Melons are getting braver by the day and have conquered the lower couple levels of the big cat tree. Kali continues to kill household items for them. Shira thinks she’s a kitten and insists on playing in the bathtub every night. Peanut has been very loving, reminding me to keep his claws clipped or it hurts when he kneads on my chest. Yes, life is moving along as usual at LostWoods.

We got up very early this morning to make the six hour drive to Washington State University to have echocardiograms done on Peanut, Talia, Kefira, and Basia to screen them for HCM. After thorough physical exams the cats were left in the care of Dr Heaney for the echos.

A few hours later we came back to the excellent news that all four of them are normal!

I’ll write more about all this in a day or two. This post is being written from my crackberry so I don’t want to write a lot on the tiny keyboard. But I’m happy about the results and wanted to share the news.

Two posts in one day! Whee! But this evening I picked up the mail and to my delight there was a package from Preston Smith with Basia’s photos from Wichita Falls. Preston did an awesome job and I couldn’t wait to share them with you.

Now I have to decide which one goes on my website… It was so hard to decide on just a few photos and I think it will be nearly impossible to pick out one favorite!

I do have new pictures of the Melons to put on the website. I was finishing up the photo session when I got called into work, so I didn’t get the site updated last night. I will do it this evening after I get home.

I decided to take outside pictures this week since the kittens are getting bigger. They weren’t quite sure what to think about the great outdoors - which is quite alright. Crenshaw in particular was absolutely certain this was not a place he wanted to be - especially up in the tree. He told me in no uncertain terms that he wanted down NOW! Galia was the most at ease with everything and even played with the shrubs a little bit when I had her posing on the rock in the back yard.

I decided to put the pictures of them on the rocks on the website, so here are tree pics of each of them (including a very unhappy Cren.)

Kefira also had an outdoor adventure. I was thinking I hadn’t taken any new pictures of her in ages, so this would be a good time to do so. Ha! She thought it would be a good time to run up a couple trees and to race around the lawn chasing bugs, just out of my reach. I did get a fun shot of her in a tree, but I forgot to send it to myself at work, so I’ll have to try to remember to post it another day. I will be out of town the next couple days, so it will likely be after that sometime.

As for the Warrior Cats… I’ve been begging for new pictures. They start going to their new homes this weekend and I need at least one more set of photos before they leave. The begging will continue…

And in news from the weekend, NFCs all over the country — okay in Texas and California — had a good time at shows. Ariane was shown only on Sunday and got finals in four of the six rings. I hear that Magic was also wowing them at the same show, as was ForestKatz Gabriel of AZWegies. Down in TX, ForestKatz Mr Wickett of KSNorskatt and ForestKatz Faith were making an impression on the judges. It’s so nice to see wegies getting some recognition in the show hall. Congrats, all!

Just in case you’ve been wondering if Kali is still “killing” various household items for her children (if you were a reader of the blog last summer you’ll know what I’m talking about), the answer is yes.

Kali is still especially fond of killing spoons and bringing them up to the bedroom for the Melons. Baby spoons — the ones I use to give baby food treats at shows — are still the most common ones I find on the bed and floor. This morning I saw one on the rock, rattle, and roll toy. I’ve seen the kittens carrying the spoons around, so apparently her lessons that these are  toys and/or a source of tasty food are sinking in.

So far Kali has not brought up any knives, forks, or cat food cans like she did last year, but the kittens are still young. She did steal a piece of pizza and take it to them the other night, though. I didn’t see her take it, but I noticed it was missing from the pan on the counter. I looked around the kitchen but didn’t see it. When I went up to bed later I found the crust on the floor, thoroughly stripped of the cheese, sausage, and sauce. Only the crust remained, and even it was well nibbled.

Kali has also been carrying around the catnip cigar. I suppose she’s taken to heart the t-shirts that say, “If you don’t talk to your cat about catnip, who will?” She is telling the Melons all about catnip — and I imagine she’s telling them how wonderful it is, because she seems to think so every time I let her have any. When we planted the garden this spring, I planted a couple of catnip plants. They haven’t exactly thrived, but I have hopes that in the coming years we’ll have plenty of fresh catnip to keep Kali and the rest of the furries happy.

It seems that the kittens’ day begins and ends on my bed now that they can get up there. Mornings begin between 4 and 5 a.m. when the babies all come to life and have parties, complete with games, on the bed. Kali joins them and provides breakfast and snacks. By the time I get up — around 6:30 — they are winding back down for naps. At least until I get up. Then they decide that maybe they aren’t so tired after all. All five of them love to “help” me in the morning, in between climbing up my legs to get my attention. Well, Pepino is usually the leg climber. The rest just run around my feet.

During the day I’m usually not there to see what they are up to, but I come home to find evidence that the games and explorations have continued throughout the day. The kittens apparently are worn out from the aforementioned activities, so they are sound asleep on my bed. But never fear! My voice is all they need to find enough energy to awake and wreak further havoc on the bedroom.

The last couple nights they’ve been downstairs socializing. Monday evening I carried them downstairs myself, but last night I called them and encouraged them to follow me down the hall, then down the stairs. As the evening went on, I noticed Pepino and Crenshaw had gone back upstairs and I once again found them napping on the bed. Honey & Charlie were napping on the cat tree. Galia was still wide awake, looking for trouble. I decided this would be a good time to feed everyone their wet food for the evening.

Galia followed me out to the cat room where she was happy to join the big cats for a feast of Fancy Feast Medleys. I took another plate to the living room, woke up Honey and Charlie, then went upstairs and brought Pepino and Cren back down to eat. After having a good meal, the kittens went back to their regularly scheduled mayhem while I watched the Olympics.

About 10 Kali must have decided it was bed time. She came into the living room and called the babies. They she headed into the front hall, still talking and calling. When the kittens didn’t immediately follow her, she came back and talked in a more insistent voice, exhorting the Melons to follow her, NOW! Everyone except Galia obediently followed her through the hall and up the stairs. Galia was cuddled up beside me and there was no way she was leaving to go upstairs. I picked her up and took her to the stairs. She promptly turned around and came back into the living room. I picked her up and carried her up to the bedroom. It wasn’t long before she was downstairs again. It wasn’t until I went upstairs and stayed that she was willing to remain there.

After I finally went to bed myself, Kali jumped up on the bed, soon followed by five naughty kittens. Eventually everyone settled down and I heard contented purring as the babies had a late night snack before falling asleep. All was well with the world at LostWoods.

When I was down in Wichita Falls I had the opportunity to have Preston Smith (www.prestonsmithphotos.com) take pictures of Basia. The shots turned out great and I had a difficult time deciding on the six (should’ve been five, but I ended up paying for one more) poses from all the wonderful choices. Today Preston sent me a preview of one of the shots I hadn’t chosen. It’s adorable — was on my short list, but lost out to some other shots. When I get the rest, I’ll share them with you. In the meantime, here’s Miss Buzzy.

I forgot to mention last night that I’d updated the ForestKatz site with new pictures of Buzz’s little sister and brothers. Stop by and see them now that their eyes are open. I think I’m in love with Dolly. NO! There will not be another baby girl coming to live at LostWoods from ForestKatz (not this year, anyway) but she’s sure cute!

Now that Taiba is off living with Greg and Lynn, Basia and Natane have turned to each other for company and play. They get to chasing each other back and forth from room to room — first one in pursuit, then the other. Then one will hide and wait for the other. When the other approaches, the first will jump out and they will both leap straight up in the air and take off in opposite directions. The jumping is amazing — they get great air and often do flips or turns in mid-air like little gymnasts doing the floor exercise. (Can you tell I’ve been watching the Olympics? And the gymnastics - I was once a gymnast — are among my favorite sports to watch?) I love watching them! I tried to get some new pictures of Natane last night, but she wasn’t interested in posing. I’ll try again. She’s still fairly “naked” but she’s getting big and is very pretty.

Speaking of Taiba… She’s doing well in her new home. Greg and Lynn have sent me some pictures of her, so I’ll try to remember to post one or two of them.