Little Alpha is still growing every day. His eyes are open now, and he’s learning to play. His mama has started teaching him about the litter tray too, and he’s socialising with the other cats through the nursery gate. He has the instincts of a model, though, posing for the camera – whereas mama cat was too concerned with if she could pounce on the camera to do more than look derpy 🙂 (but still adorable)
Alpha is getting so big! He’s losing his kitten fuzz, and starting to show his adult colours, with sharply defined black spots on a sandy, tawny coat. His eyes are open, now, too, and he’s starting to track movement and shapes. His little kitten purr is the cutest thing.
The last two weeks have been very busy. A possible complication in Cloud’s pregnancy led to a an after-hours vet visit and an emergency caesarian section – a week before the birth was due. Although three kittens were born, only one of them made it through the night. We’re all so sad for Cloud’s loss, although happy that she’s come through the experience okay.
We’re also very pleased to introduce little Alpha. He’s still very young, and will need extra special care for a few weeks yet because he was born premature, but he’s feisty and adventurous already. His eyes aren’t even open and he’s exploring already.
It’s our very first litter at Sunchaser, and we’re very proud of our little girl for being such a diligent mama. There has never been such a loved (and clean!) kitten before, or at least not in this house.
Cloud is due to give birth to her kittens next week on Saturday or Sunday – which is super exciting. It’s her first litter, and ours as well. She’s looking ready to be done with being pregnant already – she’s huge and barrel-shaped to the point where she waddles rather than walks at the moment, and can only just reach to scratch her ears.
She’s still eating well, and we’ve only had one incidence of morning sickness so far (poor kitty is hungry but her kittens are taking up so much of the room in her body that there isn’t much left for her tummy – if she eats too much, too fast, she can’t keep it all down). Aside from being a little ungainly, though, nothing has changed; Cloud is still the sweetest, purringest baby and wants to play or just curl up next to me while I read a book or do some work on the computer.
We’re not sure how many kittens will be in the litter, but she looks too big for it to be only one or two. All our fingers and paws are crossed for a safe, easy delivery and a healthy litter. I’ll post pics once the babies are born.
Cloud is increasingly obviously pregnant – she’s getting a bit barrel shaped around the middle, and is waddling around looking for good nesting sites in all the cupboards and in our bed. She’s pretty happy, although a bit ungainly at the moment, and very affectionate. It’s super cute; she comes and stands up next to me and wraps her ‘arms’ around my leg and mews for attention, like a toddler. She’s also eating like a horse.
George no longer has the run of the house (it was inevitable that it would come to an end, eventually – we can’t have him in with the girls long term in case of unexpected pregnancies), because Cloud seems to view him as a threat to her kittens. This isn’t uncommon, especially since he’s not the father. He still isn’t spraying, though, so he’s still allowed inside and isn’t banished to just the outside run; instead he is now Library Cat. The library is the only area of the house we can effectively close off to keep him and Cloud separate. He seems to like having his own private territory, but the plaintive meows tell me that he thinks his territory should be wherever his humans are. The wails and meows turn into rumbling purrs as soon as I go in there with him, and he comes and gives me face rubs and cuddles. I think we may have to get a companion for him so he doesn’t get too lonely.
In other news, we’ve decided that we’re going to retail some basic gear to make life easier for our kittens adoptive parents. We won’t keep items in stock, but we’ll do a monthly order (we do anyway, for ourselves) of kitty litter, cat food, and a few other bits and pieces. All our kitten packs will include ordering info, and a list of available products & prices. This info will be ont he website as well.
Cloud is home again, and settling in. She’s showing all the signs of being pregnant, too – so we should have kittens on the 22nd or 23rd of April. Very exciting! Many thanks to Tracie – and to Ozspots Golden Eagle – for taking such good care of her. It looks like she had a lovely visit in Adelaide.
Cloud (Ozspots Venus) is one of the sweetest cats I’ve ever met, bright-eyed and bold and curious. She’s also fully grown now – and at a year and a half old she’s had a couple’ve heat cycles already. She’s not a very loud caller, but she clearly knows what she wants, and what she wants is a tomcat. Right now please.
Unfortunately George (Ozspots Pennyroyal) isn’t showing any interest as yet. He’s still growing (he still hasn’t completely grown into his paws, and he’s almost 6 kg now!) and he’s still too much of a kitten to know what to do with a calling queen. He knows something’s going on, but not exactly what to do about it. Cloud was getting quite frustrated with him. Hopefully he’ll work it out by next spring; all the advice we’ve had has been that slow maturing boys often make the best stud cats.
In the meantime, though, Cloud really needed some attention, so we’ve sent her on a little adventure to meet a gentleman by the name of Ozspots Golden Eagle. On Wednesday morning, we got up especially early (even before the chickens, or the neighbour’s rooster) so we could take our beloved Cloud to the airport. She’s off to Adelaide for a few weeks to visit Golden Eagle there. She’s having her first date today, and I think it’s going well so far.
With any luck, by the end of Feb she’ll be happy and satisfied, back home with kittens on the way.
I’ve been terrible about putting up any news, but it’s been a slow year. Our kittens have grown up into sweet natured, playful, friendly cats. Cloud (Venus) has learned to open doors, although not the external doors or the door to the pantry! George (Pennyroyal) taught Cloud and our little rescue cat, Prism, how to use the cat flap in the new house. Everyone has been pretty chilled.
We’ve missed a few shows, unfortunately, due to both coming down with the flu. Twice in one year! That’ll teach me for not getting flu shots. So on that front, there’s no news at all.
Cloud is now old enough to think about kittens, and we’re hoping for a litter in early 2016. We should see some tawny (black spotted) and black silver babies, and maybe some other colours too – we’re not sure yet if Cloud carries the genes for chocolate or for dilute colour, but it’s likely that she does. If so, we might see chocolate, chocolate silver, lilac, lilac silver, or even blue or blue silver kittens as well. Watch this space.
George has been ill the last couple’ve weeks, but he’s recovering well and the vets are happy with his progress. We’re keeping a close eye on him, but he seems completely relaxed and happy to be home.
Our beautiful girl arrived a couple’ve weeks before Christmas, and she’s the sweetest, most adorable kitty ever in the history of kitties. I may be biased, it’s true. Venus started purring at us before we even got her home, and was trying to rub her face on us through the pet carrier in the car on the way back from the airport.
Since then she’s explored the house, the cat run, and (on leash) the garden, discovered the fascination of watching chickens through the window, and met dozens of our friends who wanted to come and see her – and purred at all of them. We’ve discovered that she absolutely loves playing with people’s hair, but she’s such a gentle cutie that she always does it with her claws sheathed.
All in all, we absolutely adore her. She is a credit to Nola and to the OzCatz breeding lines.We’re looking forward to meeting her future paramour, Ozspots Pennyroyal, who’ll be arriving in a few weeks.
Welcome to the Sunchaser Ocicats website! We’re not quite open for business yet, but we’re looking forward to the arrival of our first Queen, Ozspots Venus (currently almost 8 weeks old, and still with her mother), and our first Stud.