Tag Archives: cats

Jan 30 2011

The winner takes it all. Or?

Well, no. Last Friday, in our cat group was more like – Leroy takes it all.

This picture of Miii and Albert posing in front of the Christmas tree won the 3rd prize (shared) on the Siames i Fokus Christmas 2010 competition and our prize arrived in the mailbox two days ago! Three yummy furry mice toys! (Thank you Nilla!)

Albert apparently thought that he and Miii were the ones who deserved the prize the most, since they posed for the picture, and went eagerly for the mice, but Leroy thought that such an opinion was ridiculous. He tossed two of the mice under the sofa immediately and then started playing with the third one. Alone!

Oh, that is a yummy mouse!

Albert, you may watch while I am playing with the mouse.

Look, the mouse is flying! I am flying!

Someone help!!! Grandpa Leroy is a big bully! Muaaaaaaa
Jan 24 2011

Butterfly curtains

We are arranging one of the rooms as ‘the kitty room’, where we keep their furniture, clean towels, beds, some of our books etc.

In the future this is where we will have the kittens when they are small. Right now the litter boxes are also there, but we will place them in the cellar later.

We kept the wallpaper on one wall (put by the previous house owners). This was one of their children rooms, and there are butterflies on the wallpaper. We thought it looks cute in the kitty room.

We also bought a curtain with butterflies as well and yesterday we put that up. Ribbons were highly appreciated!

(För er som bor i Sverige – vi köpte gardinen här: hissgardin Audrey . Jag tror att det finns tyg och gardinlängder med samma mönster).

Albert and his siblings turned 8 months yesterday. They all are big and healthy and loved.

…

Here is Albert, enjoying the new curtain!

Jan 15 2011

Birdwatching

If it is not a naptime, it is suspiciously silent in the house, and not a single cat is beside us, we usually know where to find them.

We put a lot of bird feeders in the trees and on the poles around the house in places where we and cats can enjoy watching them. Birds come to eat during the daytime, more often when it is colder. Occasionally they sing and cats love to watch them. Miii and Maven call us sometimes, they have a special sound for ‘Look, a bird!’. It sounds like high-pitched barking, several fast barks in a row.

You were looking for us? The birds are having lunch!

Usually there are many more birds outside eating, but I managed to capture only one of them on picture. Or actually, two, but you can see only a little of the bird #2 on the other side of the bird feeder.

Birdie num num!

 

Dec 22 2010

Cats helping with Christmas decorations

The big Christmas tree is up! It is made of good  German plastic and steel, 215 cm tall, sturdy and elastic, it stands firm in spite of Maven and Albert climbing on it and poking all the ornaments around.

Miii and Albert are sitting pretty

Albert climbing the tree

Albert is turning 7 months tomorrow. That kitten must have the bluest eyes in the universe!

Dec 18 2010

Albert property laws

This is Albert’s first Christmas and he is delighted with all the ornaments! He likes to drag and carry them around, and chew on the branches.

I’ve tried real tree, plastic tree, hoping he will leave something alone, but, nope – he likes it all, nothing is safe and everything is tasty.

Every morning the poor Christmas tree is disintegrated and the ornaments lie all over the living room.

The worst was when he just discovered the beauty of everything that goes with Christmas.  Now, two weeks later, Albert is a bit less creative with his constant rearrangements of our living space, but still not uncreative enough, to put it that way…

I am helping!

Tasty!

How do you mean - I can't eat that?

Yes, I can!

Why are you here? That is mine!

You too! Go away! Mine!

Crowded? No! There is always enough space to fit me! And - more glitter!

 

Oct 28 2010

Mess

This is how it looked on the upper floor when we just moved in. Jossan and Leroy are exploring the new space.

And this is how the living room looks a week later. Maven likes to lie in boxes, but bags are also good. Soft plastic bags are dangerous for cats in the same way they are dangerous for small children and we are trying not to leave them around. This is a bag made of thicker and harder plastic.

I am sorry about the flash, Maven! (Though it is funny, those shiny eyes make Maven look like a little cat-robot!).

Here is a bigger picture of a small part of our mess:

Oct 27 2010

Visit to the humans owned by Archimedes and Misty

Three days ago we were so happy to visit Archimedes and Misty and their owners.
Those are two very happy and loved cats. Archimedes, pet name Ash, is so big now, we could not believe our eyes when we saw him! He is almost as big as Jossan and looks a lot like her. From some angles you can see that his head is larger and his proportions are typical for tomcats. Also, he has better shape of ears and a bit rounder eyes than Jossan, but from the pictures I took, if I did not know it was him, I’d think it was his mom!
Misty has the softest fur I have ever felt on a cat (she is a Cornish Rex) and is very mild and loving in nature. Ash is quite active and cute as he’s always been, completely comfortable around people; he is one little purring and playing machine. He greets everyone, as he greeted us, but I also think that he did recognize us. He showed us a lot of love, but at the same time he seemed very happy and content with his humans and Misty.
Look how nice they have it there!
Oct 22 2010

New house, week #1

We still do not have internet connection at our new home. The new house is beautiful, but right now everything is just messy. We have a pile of cardboard boxes and basics to dress and wash and go to work. The cats have everything, though. :)
 
The first day Maven was thrilled with the new house. Leroy was very excited and curious, too. Miii something in between curious and scared. Jossan and Albert were scared, but I took them in my arms and slowly carried them through parts of house showing them around while petting and kissing them. We won’t let them go everywhere at once. They have their ‘safe room’ where they spent the first 10 hours when we just came there, surrounded with their furniture and litter boxes and all they need, they can go and hide there if they want to feel safe. But, now they do not retreat there at all, they dare to go up and down the stairs and are less afraid.
 
The first night we hardly slept at all, since Maven seemed to have realized that that was not just a funny day out, and that we were sleeping there, probably even staying for longer time, so she cried all night. She was so sad, so sad.

The Siamese, on the other hand, realized it is not that bad after all, and slept next to us and also in their little beds between our bed and the radiator. Maven cried and came and lied next to my head, hugged me with her little paws, then cried again and ran around. Poor cat.

Second night was already much better, Maven cried only a little, and now they all are running around and playing as usual. They still did not get to see more than half of the house, we are waiting for them to feel at home here.

When one of the cats goes far and can not see the other cats, she/he calls for them. Most of the time all five go around like a pride of lions and explore their surroundings in cooperation. I hope to get an internet connection at home soon so that I can post some pictures.

Oct 18 2010

Moving soon

The moving company truck is coming in 8 hours. We still have so much to pack and also, we have to disassemble some pretty big pieces of furniture. We have 2 more weeks to move, but then we have to do it ourselves, by car. We are trying to pack as much as we can now.

The cats are helping, of course!

Miii is checking if everything is closed properly.

‘You are not leaving without me!’

Leroy is tired, he has been helping us all day. Albert and Jossan are taking a nap as well:

I am tired and just now I wish I were one of my cats…

Back to packing!

Jul 17 2010

Kittens, 7,5 weeks old

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Our kittens got names after famous scientists whose first names start with ‘A’: Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist; Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek mathematician, physicist and astronomer; Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author; Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, a writer and the world’s first computer programmer; Augustin-Louis Cauchy, a French mathematician; Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer and innovator and Antoine Lavoisier,  a French chemist.

We are happy with the new homes the kittens will be going to. Beside nice humans who will adore them, all of them will have a cat friend there.

Archimedes will live with Misty, a (now) 10 months old Cornish Rex; Alessandro will move in with Skeletor, a mixed breed with a behavior of an Oriental cat; Ada and Alfred will move together to their new home; Augustine will move to a new home where he will live with 5 years old Elora, and Antoine will move in with another Siamese guy, almost 4 years old Frasse. Albert will probably stay with us.

Here is a few pictures taken yesterday. Antoine and Alessandro were too fast to be caught on camera!

Jun 27 2010

Coming soon…

… pictures from the photo session, week 5!

The kittens turned 5 weeks today, and we weighed them and took their individual photos. Have a look at a few pictures that are very cute/funny, but did not make it to the best of (because there were so many good ones)…

the seal point boy

one of the lilac point boys

and the chocolate or lilac boy. The Beast! :)

(BTW, the best of is coming soon…)

Jun 19 2010

Excursion to the living room

Today the kittens went for a walk in the living room, where all four big cats watched the small ones as they researched their surroundings.

“Where to go from here? What are these scary mini-plants?”

“Grandpa Leroy is here, that is good!”

“Oh, no! But, my bottom IS clean! The big cats clean it all the time!”

These two were sniffing the floor. Walnut wood, now that is weird!

The fireplace, their mom’s favorite place for mischief!

Jun 6 2010

Kittens, 2 weeks old

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More details and their weight can be found here.

Jun 2 2010

New pages

There are new pages in the menu on the right:

Buy a kitten from us , where we write more about our breeding cattery and what we aim for with our breeding program (yes, we’ve just started, it may seem to you, but we had studied the subject of breeding of Siamese thoroughly and prepared ourselves well!)

La Voix first litter , where individual pictures of all seven kittens will be posted regularly.

Mar 21 2010

Dating time again!

Jossan’s dates with the dark handsome guy, Flippen, did not work out. Jossan did not get pregnant in spite of three dates they had and her being very much in heat. She simply never accepted him as a mating partner. We liked Flippen, very much so, but Jossan did not.

Two months ago we did the FIV/FeLV tests again and started looking for a new date. It was not easy. I secretly suspected Jossan to be a racist, as shameful as it may sound. I talked to the veterinary about it, and apparently, that is not a phenomenon unheard of – it happens with some dogs and cats that they dislike the partner we choose for them if they are extremely different in color. That puzzles me; one would think that nature encourages diversity and that mixing of different genes is good for species (and quite a difference in color can be a good indicator for variations of genes), but no, something is apparently not quite right with that reasoning. Whatever the reason is, Jossan seemed to dislike Flippen and I suspected it was because of his color. So I started looking for a Siamese/Oriental that is light in color.

After some time I found a cat I liked on pictures, and whose pedigree was an excellent match for Jossan‘s; the white prince, IC Edo Créma de Luxe, M, SIA w 67. His pet name is Goofy.

Here is the picture I got from his owner, Sofie. The picture does not do him justice, Goofy is more handsome in person. His tail seems short on the picture, but it is a bad angle, it is actually quite long.

Goofy has the most amazing set of deep blue eyes, tight and silky fur, white as snow. A white beauty! Those beauties are hard to find, there is not so many of white Siamese (or – Foreign Whites) in Sweden, or anywhere, really.

Goofy is not extreme in type, but he has all the good parameters. He is a very alert young male cat with strong muscles and magical appearance. Also, he seemed social and not afraid or shy. I talked with his owner, Sofie, a few times on the phone before we met and it felt right from the start. They live in Sala, about 110km from Stockholm and we went there with Jossan last weekend, when she was about 2-3 days into her new heat cycle.

And, you know what – my little racist loved the white charmer! She was cuddled next to him in the same cat-bed after less than two days she had spent there! We do not know whether they successfully mated, but we hope they did, the right sounds are reported to had come from their room. In two-three weeks we will know!

Joakim took Jossan’s picture, and the one of Goofy I got from Sofie.

Jossan is back at home now, and she is still a bit in heat, but that is not uncommon. Whether or not a female cat mates, her estrus cycle will last about seven days, and sometimes longer.

The thing is that cats also have their preferences and taste, and we pick their partners according to their pedigree, show results, or whichever other parameters we find important, but our little darlings simply may not like our choice. We do not know best. In nature they would have more freedom to choose. Jossan is one strong-willed cat, with a lot of integrity. And this time it seems we managed to find the cat she liked and accepted as a potential father for her kittens. So exciting!

Jan 15 2010

Waiting time

We got Jossan back home on Tuesday. She was very stressed when we arrived to get her and cried a lot and complained about everything she had to go through. Siamese are loud cats with a lot of opinions. A lot. And she comes from a long line of Siamese that are loud even for Siamese. My head, my head, my head… Yes; and Jocke’s head…

When we got home, the other three cats were extremely happy she was back, especially Leroy. Jossan was happy, too, but very tired and slept for hours. The other cats licked her thoroughly and hugged her while she was sleeping. Maven and Miii hissed a bit at Jossan as they licked her, since she smelled strange.

She is out of heat now, and all we can do is wait. It takes at least 3 weeks before we can see the signs of a possible pregnancy. Jocke thinks that she did not allow Flippen to approach her this time either, but I am not so sure. There are tiny traces of biting on her neck skin, which is a good sign. I hope that the dating worked out this time. If it didn’t, we will have to look for another Siamese or Oriental tomcat that suites her, temper-wise and pedigree-wise. We are against inbreeding, and we need a guy with a nice temper (also, wide space between ears and wide open ear base are preferable). Flippen is a very good match for Jossan, IMHO. But, who knows what she thinks.

Oh, well. She is here, happy and sweet (to me) as usual, and everything is good again.

Jan 10 2010

Cool cards

We are very happy and grateful for every Xmas and New Year card we get. We are equally thankful for every phone call, email, sms or a thought about us! All are equally precious to us. Not everyone has time, a habit, or a wish to send cards and greetings, but some do.

Two Christmas (paper) cards, Twinklemice (from Doug and Gemma) and Bunch of Cats (from Tanja and Ivan) we got this year were little extra cool, and you can see why:

(Dear Someone, if in this way I breech some copyright laws, please do not sue me, I am neither evil nor rich; just tell me and I will remove the picture in question).

Oct 6 2009

Little helpers

JossanLookingInTheBag

Last Friday we got a surprise package from Danijela!

LeroyAndJossanPlayingWithCandy

Oooh, how happy we got when we discovered tons and tons of some of Jelena’s favorite candy in the bag!

The cats were helping tremendously. They love to organize stuff, though we often have different opinions on what “to organize” means.

Sep 17 2009

Teeth brushing

Leroy’s gums are a bit inflamed. He had a mild form of gingivitis before, and is prone to it, but a regular care prevents it. In order to calm the inflammation and help killing the bad bacteria, we put propolis drops in his mouth after we cleaned the teeth cleaning.

Leroy does not like the taste of propolis that much. Now, that was a serious understatement; he does not like it at all. After some drooling and foaming (he looked like he got rabies), Leroy went into the sulking mode and showed us clearly how insulted he was. All the Siamese spent the night out of our bed, in another room! Jossan also got some propolis. Maven and Miii did not; they have never showed any signs of gingivitis so far.

It is hard to brush their teeth with any brush; the smallest we could find in pet stores were too big for their small jaws. We tried brushing with the “finger brush” that is made of micro fiber, but that was too big for Jossan, even for Leroy. Now we use cotton swabs (Q-tips) for massaging their gums and cleaning their teeth and that works fine.