This is how the beginning of our evening with the kittens looked like (it is Stockholm, and summer, it is still not completely dark yet).

In the living room, Leroy was sleeping on one of his sheep

While in another room, the kittens were slowly waking up from their afternoon nap (Bea, Blanche and Jossan is behind them)

Balthazar and Belle, on another highest part of the cat tree

"You were saying?"

In a few days they will start opening their eyes. For now they are just getting rounder.

Siamese kittens are born white. They may look all white and pink to you on the pictures, but you probably notice that some of them have started getting dark ear edges and nose tips. They will fully develop their point color as they get older.

The pointed Siamese pattern is a result of the partial albinism gene. The point restricted pattern is bound to an enzyme which, when exposed to temperatures above 37°C, causes the hair root to produce little or no pigment for the growing hair. That is why the Siamese kittens are born completely white – it is very warm in mom’s belly!

The neck and the body of the cat are warmer and don’t develop any or little pigment at adult Siamese. Their point color is restricted to the areas of the body that are cooler, such as the face, ears, legs, and tail. But, if your Siamese is a bit overweight, a layer of fat works as an insulator and the cat can become darker in its body also!

Day #3, we are growing!

We weighed them this evening and three of them went 20 gr up already and one went up 28gr! Jossan is so proud of them, and the big cats come and sit and watch the small ones few times per day, from a meter or two of distance.

I wonder what Albert is thinking… he is so excited, and scared and curious at the same time. He can just sit and calmly watch his mom and his small siblings for hours.

Look at that profile!

Also, we got some exciting news from Norway. Three weeks after Arwen’s and Albert’s date, there are the signs! Arwen’s tummy is getting rounder, and her nipples turned a stronger shade of pink. Look at the pretty tummy pictures here!

There is 38 days left until the kittens arrive, if everything goes well. Jossan is going up in weight just fine, 430gr since the start of the pregnancy.

She was clumsy and quite active lately and played and rolled on the floor with the toys, and even fell once (10 days ago) from a shelf, but she still continued going up in weight really well and shows no signs of discomfort at all. We are going for a checkup and an ultrasound exam in 2 days (on Tuesday).

Our cats showed a lot of changes in their behavior during the years, also behavior towards us, like – who is whose human and who claims whom etc.

At first, I was Maven’s human, although she showed a similar amount of affection to us both. When we got Leroy, he was fast to claim me, and be very loud and firm about his decision, and Maven took Jocke as his human. Maven showed signs of  depression for almost half a year after we got Leroy. She clearly had mixed feelings; she both liked that she was not the only cat anymore, but he took some of the attention that was all hers before and she was not happy. She got over it within a few months.

When Jossan came, she claimed me (all the new cats/kittens claim me, I guess they need their ‘mom figure’), and Leroy was not happy about it. He tried to push Jossan out of my lap and similar, but it all ended with sharing the same place with his little copy and sulking a bit. Leroy loved Jossan so much, but he did not like sharing his human. What he did was to take both Jocke and me as his humans, but I feel that until this day he did not completely forgive me that I show affection to other cats as well.

Siamese are possessive and jealous cats, and while they love other Siamese and the whole ‘mini lions tribe’ thing, they need quality time with their humans in order to feel good and be happy. After some time all the different feelings settled, and as we got Miii and Albert, they also learned to “share us” and have their slots of one-on-one time with us during the day (although most of the time all of them are with us).

The interesting thing with Maven is that since we moved to the house, she claimed Joakim completely, and when we are lying on the couch, watching TV or with laptops in our laps, she will come and lie on Jocke, and Siamese will come and lie on and around me. Maven is affectionate with me, but she does not sit in my lap, not for long (before we moved to the house, she did not sit for long in Jocke’s lap either; big changes, like moving can trigger changes in their relations and habits).

The cats respect the boundaries they set when “claiming” humans. We cannot do much about it, it is always them who ‘choose’. We can only give all of them a lot of attention and love, then everyone is nice to each other and there is a harmony in the group. It is very interesting to observe cats as individuals, but also when they live in a group, especially Siamese, who are real pack animals. Maven is a mixed breed, but she is very vocal, and behaves similar to Siamese in some aspects. But, she is more of an individual, and cares less about the cat group than the Siamese do. She likes to sleep next to us, or alone; the Siamese sleep next to us or next to each other. They are like mini lions indeed, many behaviors that exist in lion tribes, exist in their little group as well.

Maven was the first to hug, pet and take care of her sheep friend. She would clean herself, walk all over the sheep, put it in the right shape and then sleep on it or beside it.

But, then, Leroy also liked the sheep. He was jealous of Maven and stole the sheep whenever he could.

Leroy also loves the sheep

Then the other cats wanted the sheep as well.

After a few weeks of occasional quarreling about the sheep, we went and bought them 3 more sheep! One in beige color as the first one, and two white ones.  Of course, NO ONE wanted any sheep when there were so many around, but after a few days, everyone loves sheep again.

Jossan licking the sheep goodnight

Everyone loves sheep!

Siamese and the white sheep

Maven is a black smoke cat (her fur is warm in tone in the autumn, since she spends a lot of time in the sun in the summer, and the fur gets lighter), and here you can also see that the bottom half of her fur is completely white! (The silver gene makes it white). If we would shave off the tips of Maven fur, she would be mostly white!

Alessandro attacks Jossan’s tail

And he attacks…

Archimedes is awake now and he thinks that Alessandro’s tail looks quite yummy! Serial tail-biting!

Filed under: Group dynamics, Kittens, Mischief, Playing, Sleeping Tagged: Albert, Alessandro, Archimedes, Augustin, playing, Siamese kittens, tail ]]> http://cats.jelenaandjoakim.eu/2010/07/31/waking-up/feed/ 0 Jelena AugustinAlbert1 AlessandroAttacks1 AlessandroAttacks2 ArchimedesBites http://cats.jelenaandjoakim.eu/2010/07/31/afternoon-nap/ http://cats.jelenaandjoakim.eu/2010/07/31/afternoon-nap/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:29:56 +0000 Jelena http://cats.jelenaandjoakim.eu/?p=1241 ]]>

Of all the cat beds they have, the kittens picked the smallest, thinnest pillow, because their mom happened to fall asleep there. The Siamese pile is formed again!

The tummies are full, and the kittens are all sleeping. Notice one small nose coming out of the pile in the background.

The tipi is becoming too small for Jossan and her seven kittens. We ordered a bigger tipi two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Jossan does not want her children to sleep in a cat bed without a roof. Instinctive fear of predator birds, we guess, and also, it is much warmer in the tipi than it would be in a bed without a roof. Jossan refuses to move into cardboard boxes with blankets inside; she likes luxurious stuff. Spoiled!

The kittens are 9 days old here, and they all have opened their eyes.

When we talk to them and their mom they crawl to the edge of their igloo and look at us. They seem to be very curious. Here they fell asleep after one of our socializing events.

BEFORE…

Some time ago, this is how the Siamese used to lie together, on a pile in one of their beds:

Please, notice: Jossan is the smallest one, lying in the middle of the pile.

AND, NOW…

This is how they look together today (sorry, Miii, you are out of the picture and out of our bed…)

Pregnant Jossan, much bigger than before, is hugging Leroy:

She sleeps a lot and is much calmer since she came back from Goofy. She threw up twice in the mornings last week, and she almost never throws up. Last week her nipples became pink in color. She started gaining weight.

So exciting!

We bought her food for kittens and she takes some yogurt and milk for cats daily. Otherwise she eats as usual; 3 different kinds of dry food are always in the bowls. The cats also eat either raw beef, canned chicken breast or canned tuna daily.

They should really be nicer and more thankful for all the food we give them, the sand they spread over the apartment, the toys that lie everywhere and don’t get me started on that kitty-furniture on which they lie to watch over their servants. But we really don’t deserve better.

We pay to become slaves and somehow think it’s all worth it. Adorable fuzzy little furballs

This picture could not have been taken before one week stay at a cat hostel. Spending time together on a much less space than usual does wonders for their love for each other. Every time we got them back from there they were nicer towards each other.

Our cats always stay at Solgläntans kattpensionat when we are out of town for a longer time. One day they can be without us. Two – four days they can be at home with a cat-sitter. Usually our friend Thomas takes care of the little ones. He sits and codes on his computer and they let him.

They take good care of our and other kitties in Solgläntans. They are cat enthusiasts that also take care of homeless cats and find them good homes. That is their primary area of engagement. If you live in Stockholm area and need a good place to leave your kitty while on vacation, we warmly recommend Solgläntans kattpensionat.

A mini blue lion, isn’t she?

Angel likes to stretch one leg like this sometimes when resting.

This picture is the first proof caught on camera that Josephine and Angel started tolerating each other. The sisters got separated when they were 12 weeks old and met again a year later, when Angel moved to our place. Jossan was very jealous at start, but it has been getting better really fast.

So, everyone is either yawning or sleeping, but I can’t. It has been sunny outside for a few hours now. During the summer we get a bit of darkness here, between 11PM and 02AM, now when the day is longest. If I miss that window to fall asleep, I just turn into a non-sleeping zombie and in the worst case do not sleep at all until the next dark period. If I am lucky, I fall asleep around 4AM. Well, not today. :/

I am not so sure that taking an afternoon nap with your head on the phone is such a good idea…

How high can Maven jump if her pillow RINGS!?

All three cats think that it is the best present ever! A present to them, of course.

How much can those things stretch, really!?

Leroy and mini Leroy, sleeping on Maven’s pillow.

All three cats share the sleeping places, but each has their most favourite ones. This pillow is one of Maven’s favourite resting spots. She likes to lie there and look at people and cars out on the street, or just be near Joakim when he works on the stationary computer.

We were not so active for some time, but now – here we are again!

This is how it looks when Leroy and Jossan are sleeping in the flower cupboard (well, it was supposed to be a flower cupboard, but Leroy occupied one of the shelves for good, and Jossan followed. Our Saintpaulias still got 3 shelves, not that bad after all).

Close-up: