I get pictures of Albert’s kittens from Norway regularly from their breeder, Janne. All the kittens (of course) got their good looks from both of their parents, but Arista is princess-like and girly like her mom, while Aslan who is called Gabriel at his new home in the north of Norway is very similar to Albert in his looks! He was Albert’s mini-me since he was a kitten. I also see on the photos that Arista holds her head and has poses like her mom, while Aslan really looksand moves like Albert.
Here are two pictures of Albert’s kittens Arista and Aslan (Albert is father to two more kittens in Norway - two lilac point girls. He also fathered five kittens in Sweden. All of them have good homes and are healthy and happy). Many more pictures can be found here, on Janne’s blog. Aslan’s picture is taken by his ‘mom’ and Janne took picture of Arista.
Aslan, 8 months
Arista, 8 months
Albert, 20 months
Don’t you think that Albert’s kittens look like him? I think he cannot deny them!
Albert is so sweet and nice in temper, but I know he has a dark mind. How do I know? Just look at him! When he thinks that no one is watching, there he is, thinking about the next ritual murder of the pink pig!
Jossan’s kittens father, Goofy (S*Edo Créma de Luxe) took his Grand International Champion title earlier this autumn! Congratulations!
This week we’ve received a CD with his pictures from his ‘mom’ Sofie (she has a cat blog here). Thank you Sofie!
We thought that handsome Goofy deserved one small presentation here. Albert’s dad is 3 years old.
All the kittens have moved out; Blanche three weeks ago, then Bea two weeks ago, Belle 10 and Balthazar 9 days ago. We miss them a lot, but how happy we are to receive updates and pictures about our small darlings. It is going well for all of them.
What happened with Balthazar?
We were worried about Balthazar, but now we feel that he got the home he was meant to live in from the start. His humans love him so much, and he got a 2 year old Bengal cat, handsome Doyle, as a friend! Those guys are both so pretty and I got tears in my eyes when I saw the videos and pictures I got from their ‘mom’:
Safe distance, after a few days of 'hide-and-seek' (all the pictures and the video in this post are taken by Mikaela, the kitties 'mom')
This is what I found online about Bengal cats:
Bengals are highly intelligent. They like to have close contact with people and are very entertaining, because they love to play and will find something to occupy themselves. They bond strongly to their owners, either individuals or whole families, in an almost dog-like fashion. Many learn to walk on a leash, to fetch, and to ride in cars. Bengals love water. They like to play in it or with it and many join their owners in the shower or bath tub. They are not lap cats. Though a favorite person is allowed to hold his or her Bengal for a while, the Bengal prefers to sit on or near “his” person at his own discretion.
We met Doyle before Balthazar moved and he was so nice; very curious and friendly and vocal, which I liked, but he did not like to be lifted. When I tried to lift him the first time he was a bit surprised, but only said one little : “Ugh”. The next time I tried to do that (to feel his weight) his meow was more complaining, so I put him down and just petted him. He is a very nice cat, and I love animals, so it was an amazing experience for me to get social with a Bengal cat. He seemed pretty intelligent and his non-verbal communication was quite developed. It is race- and individual-specific, but you also can see when people worked with their animals; their psyche, comprehension and communication skills are more refined at animals that got a lot of time and care.
"Talk to the paw!"
"YOU talk to the paw!"
Doyle was (of course) scared and cautious and loud when Balthazar moved in, and so was Balthazar; Doyle was the biggest cat he’d ever seen! It took them a week after one hissing_hiding_and_being_scared_but_oh_so_curious start until they became best friends.
Little wonderful white Balthazar, he got his perfect home for good. Many thanks to his humans for all the love for the little one and the good home they gave them (and all the pictures! )
Doyle and Balthazar sleeping together in their cat tree.
Blanche moved into her new home nine days ago. That is an interesting home; two humans and three Siames cats, two of which are as white as Blanche! Yes, two Foreign Whites.
White Siamese (or – Foreign Whites) are not common. There are very few in Sweden and Norway. The first ones I saw in Sweden were Snow Queen and Snow Princess, the cats from a small cattery called Love me tender. I was in love, but it took a few years until we got our first white Siamese, this time from our own breeding. That is Albert. We kept him fertile for some time and two ladies were interested in mating their Siamese cats with him. Thanks to that now there is five more white Siamese in Sweden and Norway, and two of them will stay at their breeder’s homes.
Also, there are two more whites we got – Balthazar and Blanche. Blanche, Jossan’s white daughter moved to Love Me Tender cattery!
Blanche was tough while we were there, for a few hours. But then we left and she realized that she is small, the other cats are big. They smell and sound differently and everything is new and scary! The humans were nice and she was petted, kissed, fed and played with, and the big cats left her alone, so it was not all bad after all. She is sleeping in her humans’ bed every night, under the blanket.
A day after she moved to her new home, she was already playing around in the apartment, but was also afraid and careful at times. During the following few days she was playing tough with the big cats, roared at them (she is tiny and they are big ) and even followed them and ‘attacked’ them as a little terrorist!
With time she got tired of all that and being the baby she is, she needed some more love and attention from the big cats, not only humans. The big cats were curious, but certain rituals had to be fulfilled. Cats have their rules and protocols and they stick to them!
Yesterday: Blanche sitting next to Sessan. Sessan is ignoring her.
This evening we got a picture from her ‘mom’. Sessan, one of the big cats came and lied next to the little Blanche and licked her! Then Coco licked her also. What a happiness for little Blanche! She is a part of her new cat family!
Today, finally: "You are small and yucky, but I'll lick you. But, only because I feel like it".
Blanche’s new mom blogs about her cats here, it is in Swedish.
We miss Blanche, but we are happy that she is so loved in her new home and that it is going so well for her! Many thanks for the pictures and regular updates to Blanches new mom, Dragana.
Balthazar is back and he has been here for two days now. It turned out that the girl who bought him is allergic to cats.
We drove to her and got Balthazar home Thursday night. (We wanted to spare him from the stress of travelling by bus, so we had to drive there in the middle of the night after we got a late call. We were back at home around 2AM).
Balthazar was out of here for two days only and he is so young so I think he will forget fast that he moved. He was so happy when he got back home to his mom and sisters.
Balthazar
This was so unexpected and saddening. We’ve never experienced anything similar, and we hope that it will never happen again.
We wish only permanent loving homes for our kittens. We are very careful with who gets to buy our kittens. But sometimes unpredictable things happen. Luckily this move lasted for a short time, and we hope that Balthazar will forget it fast.
The kittens turned 11 weeks today! They are so big now. Next week they are getting their second vaccine and in two-four weeks they will be moving to their new homes. The feelings are mixed. They are all moving to very good homes and we are looking forward to see how it goes for them in the future.
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
And this is how it looked most of the time (one of their favorite toys is on the picture, it is made to look like a real dragon fly and we cannot leave them alone with it because of the plastic parts. They are crazy about it. The big cats adore it, too):
Albert is still playing like when he was small. He is nervous occasionally, because he is fertile, but he has a wonderful temper that didn’t vanish in spite of his raging hormones. We will probably neuter Albert soon, and then he will stop thinking about ladies and only play and be content.
Here are some individual pictures taken two days ago.
The kittens are having long running sessions few times a day. It is funny to watch them running like crazy, while the big cats sit still and just observe the small spinning balls of fur. Sometimes the kittens run into things since they cannot stop!
Blue point girl, 5 weeks. "I am dangerous!"
"I am confused. And cute."
White boy, 5 weeks
"Look, I'm a lion. Mini or not, A LION! Respect my authorita!"
Seal point girl, 5 weeks
"I am pretty. And sweet. And first with everything."
White girl, 5 weeks
"Not in the mood for posing today! I always look gorgeous anyway."
We took some pictures of the kittens today. Now they meow back when we call them and run towards us. They are wrestling and jumping around a lot. They are quite clumsy, but simply adorable!
A little boy and his blue sister are wrestling:
Talk to the paw!
What is on the other side?
Should I go out of the house or go back and nurse some more? Decisions, decisions...
The kittens are very cute, but it is so hard to take pictures of them since they are moving all the time! In a week or so it will be easier, then they can be distracted and focus on one thing, now everything is interesting and new!
I like one picture that Jocke took today, which turned out a bit artistic; it was overexposed, but you can see those pretty baby blue eyes on the little white girl.
Albert loves to lie in the sun. There is plenty of space on the couch close to the window, on the floor, on the cat furniture…
But sometimes Albert wants all the 20 sqm of sunny spots for himself! Greedy Albert!
"Bad Miii! Go away from my sun! MY SUN!"
But, Miii is so cute! She deserves all the sunny spots in the world! Albert is still small and silly and has moments when he wants EVERYTHING for himself.
Did you know that in Norway they do not have only Norwegian Forest Cats, they also have beautiful Siamese!
Arwen (NO*Masked Bandits April in Paris)
Arwen (NO*Masked Bandits April in Paris), a beautiful blue point Siamese lady from Norway came to us over the weekend (she was here for about 30 hours) to visit Albert.
Both Albert and Arwen were inexperienced, but two important factors were just right:
1. Arwen is a very brave and at the same time gentle lady that did not let the voyage distress her too much and she did not totally despise the little almost 10 months old white Bebis who seemed to have a huge admiration for her. She was not too crazy about him, but she did not hate him.
"Jag tycker om dig!"..."Jeg liker deg ikke!" (photo by Janne Flusund)
Well, it could have been a better start, some would say. What about love at first site and all? But, for Albert that ‘not really hate’ was more than enough. So we come to the factor #2
2. Albert was very goal-driven since he was a kitten; while his siblings played and dragged toys around just to fall asleep exhausted next to their mommy, Albert killed toys paying a great attention to detail, for a long time, barking and growling at them like a little dog, not a cat; disintegrating them with precision and dedicataton you thought only Dexter had. He had the same approach with Arwen. Precision and dedication. Only, now it was about attraction, not killing.
Albert: "Precision and dedication"
Albert rolled like a girl, talked, sang, circled around the tough blue beauty, tried everything. She hissed a bit at him, showed a paw, ignored him, tried to stare him to death, but he just continued to sing… 6 hours later there was a familiar sound from their room you cannot mistake for anything else. An event!
Albert and Arwen continued dating during the night and the next day, completely exhausted towards the Sunday evening. Arwen and her matte had to fly back to Oslo, but it seemed that the love birds had the job done, so to say. Albert was so tired when Arwen left, he just lied on the couch and slept and slept… He played a bit with us this morning before we went to work and greeted us and played when we came home, but now he is sleeping again. He is back to being just a kitten, our all crazy 1st class stud of a great determination and not so bad skill (apparently). But now all he cares about is his toys and to cuddle with us. “Girls” - what is that? Give me my rats! Our little white guy is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde impersonated in a cat.
It's been a hard day's night...
We keep our fingers crossed that Arwen stayed pregnant and that there will be some nice tempered beautiful Norwegian-Swedish Aceso Siamese in the near future! Arwen’s matte has a blogg here and her cattery name is Aceso. Also, check out this vidio of Arwen taken by her matte. Arwen is one smart cat!
Usually they are pretty careful and just look at us doing things, being supportive, but sometimes they cannot resist the urge to get involved. They are so helpful, it is in their nature! Here is Albert, helping me with the curtains…
We lived in an apartment earlier, which we arranged in a bit sterile, modern style, but this house requires different style and it takes some time to live in it and feel what suites the interior. It is fun to arrange things, and all the help makes it so much easier… hm. Or, does it? Well, this is how that window turned out, not so bad we think.
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.
We took Albert to an animal hospital today. Not our usual one, but to the one with a special equipment; we had to test Albert’s hearing. He is white, and all cats that have dominant white pigment, must not be deaf if they will be used in breeding.
White Siamese are different than other all-white cats; they are not deaf more often than non-white cats (that is – if parents are not carriers of red pigment). If you want to know more about white Siamese (Foreign Whites), you can read an interesting article here. Another interesting and informative post about Foreign Whites, in Swedish, can be found here.
We know that Albert is not deaf, but the test had to be done anyway.
Poor Albert, we had to let the veterinary sedate him and put all these needles it the little one to examine the response in his brain to the sound waves. Look at our poor kitten, he is sleeping. His eyes are not completely closed, and they put him special eye-drops to keep them moist since he cannot blink while sedated.
All these needles and drugs... Not fun! You know that I am not deaf, I only have selective hearing!
I did not walk all over Jocke's orchids because I did not hear his 'NO'. I just could not resist admiring them!
Well, his hearing IS excellent, even the machine said so, and now we have all the pappers if we are going to use him for breeding. He is our little furry baby, and he will not be stud for a long time (cats, especially male, are much happier and more relaxed when neutered. They think only about cuddling and playing, not about girls, girls, girls… maumaumau). But, it would be good for awfully slim numbers of white Siamese in Scandinavia if he had some white (or masked) offspring that could also contribute further to the Siamese and FW gene pool in Sweden.
BTW, there is no difference between masked offsprings of white Siamese and other masked siamese with ‘ordinary’ (non-white) Siamese parents. The white gene is dominant (if a cat is white, it can pass the white gene further, if it is not white, it cannot be a dominant white gene carrier and pass it further on its offspring).
Albert, almost 8 months old, is examined and healthy, and his hearing is fine (we have never had any doubts about that ). If an owner of a non-red color carrier Siamese lady is interested in meeting Albert in winter/spring 2011, you may mail us at info [at) lavoixcats.se so we can talk about it. We live in Stockholm, Sweden.
It is that time of the year when a beautiful flower called amaryllis blossoms. Amaryllis is not a flower that cats should chew on, since it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, depression, lack of appetite and other kind of nasty symptoms.
Although cats are not all crazy to chew on the things that are poisonous for them, our Albert is still very young and likes to chew on whatever. So, we lifted amaryllis high on the book shelf where it’s supposed to live until Jelena’s mother takes it with her (Jelena’s parents are visiting and her mom, a dog person who never owned a cat, only dogs, bought an amaryllis plant).
Albert saw the flower and of course it looked yummy and the little long cat tried to reach it:
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!
