LostWoods Blog

As promised… Pictures from Susanne of Crenshaw in the snow.

The dog sharing the fun is Norman, a Bernese Mountain Dog. Susanne breeds these magnificent dogs and currently has a litter of puppies living in her house. She is working on getting a puppy cam running on the internet. When it is available for viewing, I’ll be sure to let you all know. I’ll be doing a website for Susanne in the future, too. More chances to see Cren’s “siblings”.

Cren is quite interested in the puppies. He supervised the delivery and, according to Susanne, he stops by the whelping box often to inspect them. So when the puppy cam is up, you may see him from time to time, too. I wonder what he’s going to think once they are more mobile? They are just over two weeks old right now, eyes just opened, and they are starting to escape from the box. But the real fun is yet to come…

I’m still waiting on news about the arrival of Tori’s babies. While I’m impatiently waiting, I’m sure it’s much worse for Jim and Donna. The latest report I have is that after a day or so of nesting, last night Tori gave that up in favor of wanting to leave the bedroom to see if the other cats needed discipline. No sense lying around doing nothing when the Queen can be keeping her subjects in line!

Happy Monday! Okay, well, here’s hoping you’ll have a tolerable Monday, as Mondays go. I thought I’d start out the week by mentioning a couple show related items. First, Basia, Talia, Natane, and I will be at the TNCC show in Portland, OR January 29-31. Here’s a link to all the information you’ll need if you’re in the area and would like to visit the show. TNCC Show. I’m looking forward to showing the cats after a long dry spell with no shows.

March 13-14 I’m planning to be at the Denver, CO show. Denver show info. I think I’ll be showing Basia and ? I’ll be bringing McCoy home with me from that show so he can commence with the romancing of Basia, Kefira, and Danica. I must be nuts to be thinking about three litters all at about the same time, but neither Brenda nor I want McCoy to be up here for an extended period of time. It’s much less disruptive to his life if he visits and goes home as soon as possible.

Speaking of cats coming home… Unless something comes up, Brenda and I will be meeting in WY this coming weekend so I can pick up the pregnant Miss Dawnflower. I’ve missed Chompers and can’t wait to see her. Plus I’ll be glad to have her home with babies on the way. Brenda is also going to bring Keegan so I can see her. She’s been visiting McCoy (and I’ve heard news of romance in the air) so this is a good chance for me to see her and take some pictures and give her some cuddles. Keegan was one of those kittens that I found it nearly impossible to give up. And she acted like she remembered and still loved me when I saw her in Denver last year. She’s a special cat.

Now for a couple pictures of a LostWoods kitten all grown up. Azhure, aka Zhuri, is from Peanut and Shira’s second litter, born in 2003. She was the original “Fish”. She never got upset about falling in the bathtub as a kitten, like some do, although she also never jumped in on purpose at my house. But not terribly long after she went to live with his new parents, they wrote me to tell the story of how they started running a bath for their dog, went out of the room to get the dog, and when they came back, there was Zhuri splashing around in 4″ of water. I see both Shira and Peanut when I look at Zhuri’s pictures. And have I mentioned how much I LOVE seeing pictures of the fur kids as they grow and mature?

In the next couple days I’ll post some pictures of Crenshaw in the snow. He looks great playing in the snow!

The year has started off with a variety of insanity around LostWoods. First, while Kali is still not interested in Mr Fin, Danica — whose boyfriend, McCoy, isn’t coming to visit until mid-March — is in heat. The good part about this is she seems to have gotten over her fear of the other girls and is roaming the house more freely than in the past. Amazing what that drive to find a mate will do! So Dani is acting a little nuts. For awhile she was doing her best to seduce Bug and Talia (both spayed females) — probably because they are the biggest cats in the house. Then she decided that Spaz (neutered) might make a fine boyfriend. Since he is sometimes willing to accomodate our girls, that was a somewhat better idea on her part. But yesterday, while Ken was home sick, she decided that Colter would also be a good mate. According to reports from Ken, she was rubbing against Colter and trying to mount him. Colter was not impressed. I told Ken to take pictures if she did it again and he did one better. He recorded a short video of Dani’s seductive antics. In it, she doesn’t mount Colter, but she does seem rather enamored. And then she decides to play with his tail. Not sure if that’s part of her mating ritual or not! Here’s the video. Pay attention to the end when the Queen of Everything decides to defend our poor abused dog.

cate_cat

Now the for Peer Pressure part of this post. I can’t remember if I mentioned that Talia has been getting rather chubby. She, like her lisa-mom, needs to go on a diet. But unlike me, she’s got a personal trainer. I think.

I only fill the dry food bowls once a day. I like the cats to eat all or nearly all of the food in the bowls before I put more in, else the kibble at the bottom gets stale and they won’t eat it at all. So every day the cats must think they are going to starve because they can see the bottom of their bowls and they circle like sharks when I start scooping out the food. Talia is always right in the middle of things, pushing her way to the bowl that has just been filled.

So the other day I was filling the bowls. I filled one. Talia went to it and tried to take a bite. Kefira slapped her across the head. I filled a second bowl. Talia tried to eat from it. Kefira slapped her again. Third, fourth, and fifth bowls — the same thing. Talia didn’t attempt to eat from the sixth or seventh bowls while I was in the room. Maybe she was waiting for Kefira to leave.

It’s not like Kefira to act like this. She’s generally a quiet cat who tries to stay out of the way of the other girls. She’ll defend her babies like a wildcat, but other than that, I’ve rarely seen her swat anyone before. Now the question is… did Talia ask Kefira to be her personal trainer? Or did Kefira decide Talia was getting fat and decide to take matters into her own paws? Don’t worry, I have seen Talia eating, so she’s not going to starve or get hepatic lipidosis. But I am trying to decide how best to help her reach her weight loss goals — short of encouraging Kefira to slap Talia around.

I’ve been suffering from serious kitten withdrawal since Fire and Smoke left. It’s less work for me when there aren’t babies in the house, but it’s a lot less fun, as well. So when the news came today that Dawnflower is indeed pregnant with Gabe’s (ForestKatz Gabriel of AZWegie) babies, I was thrilled! Here’s the first picture of the babies.

I’m not so good at seeing what’s what in ultrasounds, so I guess we all just have to take their word for it that there are four babies. The kittens’ due date is February 13th, so I’m thinking this might be the Love or Valentine litter.

I am really, really excited about this litter. Dawnflower is a gorgeous NFC, with outstanding boning and size. Gabe is a great cat, too — awesome type, fabulous boning, and a bonus tail light. (Or tail “orb”, as Deb calls it because it’s huge.) With all the white between these two cats, I am hoping for some more high whites and maybe a tail light or two. But coloring is the least of it. I think these kittens will grow up to be outstanding examples of the breed, regardless of their paint job. So say some prayers for a healthy and safe pregnancy and an uneventful delivery.

The next question is whether Brenda and I are going to be able to meet up before then so I can bring Dawnie back to Montana. Deb is taking Dawnie to Colorado, leaving later today. Deb is also going to be leaving Keegan with Brenda so Keegan and McCoy can repeat the breeding that produced Shane, Simon, Scarlet, and Fantasia. Brenda and I will try to work something out to meet in Wyoming in January. Otherwise, Dawnie will stay in Colorado and raise her babies at Brenda’s house. Keona is also pregnant, so Brenda might have her hands full with two litters of naughty babies running around.

In other baby news — or lack thereof… Jeremy sent me a text message on Saturday telling me he thought Kali was in heat. So I told him to take Peanut back to the stud room, bring Fin in from the stud room, and put Kali and Fin together in the laundry room. I came home feeling optimistic about Kali and Fin babies before too terribly long. Sigh… Kali is not in heat. Fin is interested in her, but she’s not acting like she’s particularly interested in anyone. So I’ll have to wait a little longer. Oh well. One of these days, I hope!

Later this afternoon we’re headed to Billings to spend Christmas with Ken’s parents and some other relatives. But before I left, I wanted to take a bit of time to wish all of you the happiest of Christmases! I hope that wherever and however you’re spending the holiday you’ll be safe, warm, and surrounded by love.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

When you live with cats, there’s always new things to learn and question about their behavior. Lately I’ve been noticing that many of my cats are addicted to lying on things. Now, you’re saying, “yes, lisa, they lie on beds, on the couch, on the floor, on the cat tree… What do you expect? Them to sit all day?” But what I mean is given the opportunity, a cat will lie on a single paper towel on the kitchen counter rather than the counter itself. They will lie on the blanket that is placed on the bed, rather than the bed. Doesn’t matter if the blanket is thick or thin, the mere addition of a layer of softness to the bed is a draw. The more layers, the better — no matter what those layers consist of.

Then we add in the element of height. With a Norwegian’s desire to be UP, a single paper towel on the kitchen counter is a more desirable bed than the thick fluffy bed on the floor. Actually, sometimes the counter without the paper towel wins that contest, but with a paper towel — no contest at all! A fluffy bed placed on top the dryer or the dining room table (umm… don’t ask…) will beat out the counter with the paper towel, though. Given some clean laundry to lounge on, Bug and Spaz especially would spend their days happily hanging out on the dining room table.

But, they also know if there is anything under their “beds”. That is cause for games and extreme efforts to remove whatever object is violating the comfort of the nap spot. I often find bunched up blankets and rugs (and assorted other beds) around the house after some cat has had to retrieve a toy from under them.

So the Christmas trees… Sigh… One angel on the angel tree met with a violent and untimely death. She was happily hanging out near the top of the tree and something happened. I found her head still attached to the cord and attached to the tree, but alas, her body was in many pieces scattered throughout the dining room. Everyone pled not guilty, but I have my suspicions.

And the tree in the living room continues to be some cats (who shall remain nameless but who might be the torbies in the house) favorite place to nap, play and observe the rest of the happenings. On Monday Ken was home sick from work and took this incriminating picture of one of those torbies.

Also, you’ll probably be quite relieved to hear that Kali has not killed a single pair of Christmas socks so far this season. She is obsessed with rabbits’ feet and everything else is safe. Maybe she’s maturing. Or not.

News from Arizona where Dawnflower has been visiting her boyfirend has it that some romance has been happening and we could have Valentine babies. I’m not sure if Dawnie will be coming back to Montana to have the kittens or if she’s going to have them in Colorado. I imagine it depends on if Keona is pregnant (we have our fingers crossed that she and McCoy were successful) and if we can work out the logistics of getting Dawnie back to MT before then. Dawnie’s half-sister Fantasia (who look a lot like Dawnie — Deb calls them both the “blondes” because of all the white they have) has also been romancing with Gabe. We’re all very excited about these potential new additions to the family.