What's in a name?

Today all my babies got their nicknames and as is becoming somewhat of a theme here, all the names have a story behind them :-)

I'll start with Dorothy's pup as it's probably the most straightforward, Dorothy is the lead character in the film 'The Wizard of Oz' and she has a small black dog called Toto, so that is now her pups name.








As some of you will know, Sybil is named from the Fawlty Towers series as she came from Torquay, I have used all the main characters from this show so needed a new theme that I could ideally tie in with Sybil. I decided that Torquay would be the link, Agatha Christie was from Torquay and her two most famous subjects are Miss Marple and Poirot, as Sybil has a one male and one female kitten, these are the names they are now known by.


Now it gets really tenuous, I wasn't aware that Diva was pregnant until she started to show, therefore I referred to her pregnancy as the immaculate conception, this led me to biblical connections, Jesus etc, but this just didn't seem quite right, then it struck me, Monty Pythons Life of Brian! So allow me to introduce, Brian, Reg, Harry the Haggler, Biggus Dickus (poor lad) and Judith. I think I need to get out more :-)

Where there is a will................

Diva produced some beautiful babies to Gary last year and the plan was to repeat that mating late this year. However Diva had different ideas, unbeknown to us she had a quick affair with Manuel which last night resulted in the birth of 5 wrinkly bald babies.

At 1st inspection we have 2 black and white boys, 1 red tabby boy, 1 black torti girl and a minky coloured boy, all are doing well and Diva is loving being a Mum. I imagine these babies will develop into fantastic pets as both parents are incredibly affectionate cats, they will, I suspect, look more like the sphynx, mainly because they are all completely naked!

Dorothy is gradually becoming more relaxed about leaving her baby and has now started to want o sit on my lap again, however, no sooner is she with me than she has to go and check on her pup again. Will try for a photo over the next few days but it is hard as being black and having your mum curled around you makes the pup a difficult subject. You can of course see how she is doing by clicking on the live webcam link to the right of this page.




Sybils kittens are wonderful, very chilled out (with Sybil as their Mum, they couldn't be any other way) and absolutely beautiful. They will both be looking for new homes in due course.

itzapromisepoodles' photostream

itzapromisepoodles' photostream on Flickr.

Yesterday we enjoyed a lovely afternoon on the beach, joining Mary and Sarah with Evie and Fiki (Audrey and Dollar grown up pups)

2 Long hard nights

Dorothy started the first signs of labour at about 9pm on Sunday evening, shivering and generally restless, the 1st stage of labour can last anywhere from a couple of hours to 48hrs, this means that from the time they start labour I am pretty much with them, just in case they need help and to re assure them if they need it. Sunday night was a long one, I stayed up all night to monitor her, but things didn't really change.
Monday was spent in a similar fashion, Dorothy didn't want her breakfast (though a bit of roast chicken later in the day went down well!) and carried on with the shivering and now occasional bouts of panting.

By 10:30pm on Monday night there was no change. I was shattered and decide to set a pen up next to my bed. I set the alarm to go off every 90 mins. At 1:30 am we were still no further forward, but at 2:30 I woke to hear Dorothy scrabbling around and was just in time to see her deliver a healthy black girl. It was only when I went to check this new baby and open the sac that pups are born in, that I realised that this was in fact the 2nd pup and unfortunately the 1st, an apricot girl, was still in the membranes. Despite trying to breath some life into this little pup I was just too late. You can only imagine how rotten I feel. Thank goodness Dorothy has at least one baby to love.

She is proving to be a devoted mum, if a little anxious over her pup. I have got the web cam up and running, but the pup is surrounded by Dorothy so there isn't much to see at the moment, though of course she will be much more visable as she grows and starts to get up and about.

Sybil's 2 babies are thriving, both are beautiful, as I knew they would be :-)

Diva is running the risk of explosion!

Huge fat Sybil produces 2 tiny kittens!

At long last Sybil has had kittens. She was hugely fat and I was expecting her to have 4 or 5 kittens, her timing was not good, we were due to have a few long awaited days away and she had managed to hold off conceiving until her due date fell in the period we were away. Fortunately a friend stepped in for me, and offered to be midwife :-). Sybil is very experienced in these matters and needed no assistance, she actually had 3 babies, but sadly one was stillborn.
She has surprised me with the colours, normally she has various shades of ginger or torti kittens, this time she has produced a blue cream and white girl (she has only ever had one of this colour out of all her litters) but the main surprise is that her little boy is a silver tabby and white, a colour combination that she has never had.

Mum is her normal relaxed self and the kittens are well fed and content.I will be waiting a few weeks before I decide if either of these kittens are available.

The other surprise I have had is Diva, my sphynx. I was hoping to put her to Gary this autumn as a repeat mating to the litter she produced last year, Gary is currently performing stud duties elsewhere and is due to return in the next month or so. Diva is very much an indoor cat, so I was confused when she started to exhibit signs of pregnancy. I can only assume that Manuel has got to her, as he was brought indoors to mate Sybil (as she won't conceive in a cattery!), I can't imagine any other tom cat braving a house with 10 dogs. She is currently fit to burst.

Dorothy is due Sunday onwards, Sunday is 63 days from her 1st mating, but she mated over a period of about 4 days so they could be towards the end of the week. She is not terribly big so I would guess she will have 2 or 3 pups. The web cam will be up and running :-)Apologies for her grubby appearance, but it has rained here nonstop for the last week, she will have a nice bath once the pups have arrived.

itzapromisepoodles' photostream

itzapromisepoodles' photostream on Flickr.

A few pics from this mornings walk