Bob and her kittens

After nearly a week on I/V fluids at the vets Bob was finally well enough to come home a few days ago. She is still far from being right but is now well on the road to recovery. Initial scans showed peritonitis, though we don't know what triggered it. On Saturday morning she finally started to expel all the toxins from her body, she now has gangrenous mastitis and although this looks absolutely horrific it is actually nowhere near as painful as you might think as all the nerve endings in the area have died. She now has to go through a process of sloughing off all the dead tissue, then granulation of the wounds will start, at this point it will be more sensitive as nerves will return to the area, and eventually she should heal completely. She is tolerating all her treatments without fuss and I really think the hardest part for her is not being able to nurse her kittens. I am adding a couple of pictures of her wounds but will put them right at the bottom of this page as you may not want to see them.

Tibbs is doing a sterling job with both her own kitten, Polly, and Bobs kittens. Although she does not have enough milk for them all (I am bottle feeding the kittens every few hours) she does keep them clean and warm.

Warning - graphic pictures below, please be assured that Bob is under close veterinary supervision and is receiving all the necessary care to ensure a full recovery.

Breeding plans

The last few months have not been the easiest, firstly Dollar bloated, then I lost Manuel this was followed by Tibbs split litter, of which only Polly survived and now Bob remains poorly and at the vets whilst I have had to bottle feed her very young kittens.  This has put a lot of strain on me, not only physically but emotionally and when the dogs came into season it meant I had to take a step back and think of my plans.

Dime was due to be mated this week, and I got as far as travelling to see the stud dog, but having thought long and hard about it I made the decision not to mate Dime on this occasion. The dog I planned to use is absolutely fabulous and I fully intend to go back to him on Dimes next season as I desperately want a pup from this pairing, but I just feel that the timing is not right for me at the moment. So I can only offer apologies to those who are waiting for a Dime puppy and hope you will consider waiting another 6 months, I really do think this is going to be a litter worth the wait.

On a brighter note, Polly is just the most adorable kitten, super friendly and just perfect in every way (I may be just a touch biased there).

Bobs kittens are doing very well, all things considered. Tibbs and I are sharing the load with them, I feed them (she doesn't have much milk) and she cleans them, keeps them warm and loves them as only a cat can. As I type this Bob remains on a drip at the vets, but reports are that she is starting to turn a corner and we hope that she will be well enough to come home by the weekend.

This little clip is of the kittens waiting to be fed, they are quite demanding, lol.

Auntie Tibbs

It's been a turbulent few weeks with the cats, 1st we lost Manuel, then we had Tibbs with her split litter, one of which, despite fighting hard for her, we lost and now Bob has a nasty infection and is currently at the vets on a drip (she is showing signs of improvement and I am hoping she will be home tomorrow). Thankfully, as is typical of many queens, the mothering instinct is very strong in Tibbs and she has stepped up to the mark and is happily nursing Bobs babies. I am also trying to supplement Bobs kittens as Tibbs milk supply has only needed to feed one kitten for the last 4 weeks so it will take a few days for her to up production. What is amusing is seeing Polly, who has never had to compete for anything, being pushed out of the way by the tiddlers, who are not backwards in coming forwards. Just in case the animals felt I didn't have enough to worry about, Dimes progesterone test says that she needs to be mated in within the next 0-48hrs!!

Surprise!

This litter was most definitely unplanned as Bob had only recently reared a litter of 2 kittens, but I can't claim that I'm not pleased to have it. Many will know that just about 9 weeks ago I lost Manuel after a short but aggressive illness. In his last few days he was brought indoors for nursing. Despite being extremely poorly it would appear that where there is a will(y) there's a way. I present Manuels swan song, 5 stunning kittens. The last pic in the album is a video of the birth of one kitten, so you may or may not want to see it if you are a bit squeemish. At first glance it looks like we have 2 blue girls, a blue/white girl, a torti/white girl (that will almost certainly be staying here) and a black/white girl.

Puppies a little sooner than planned??

It was half expected as Eliza came into season a couple of months early, but Dime is also now in season and this brings forward my plans for her last litter. This time she will hopefully be visiting a cracking blue boy from a good show line. I hope to keep a puppy from this mating in order to continue my silver line. Pictures and further details of the sire will become available once everything is confirmed.

A little earlier than expected!

For the last 17 years my girls have been very dependable with their seasons always going at least 7 months between their seasons, often going 8 or 9 months, but Eliza has now broken that unwritten rule and has had her second season just 6 months from her first. Whilst this is not a problem, especially as she is too young to even consider mating her, it does mean that I am left wondering when the other girls will come in. My next planned mating should be with Dime so I am now on red alert, just in case she follows Eliza's lead.

Here are a selection of pics from some of our recent walks, one of which was a walk with 2 of Eliza's brothers and a Dime/Cash pup.

I am very pleased to report that Tibblate is thriving, due to now being a singleton she has no competition and consequently is very laid back, she is more often found smuggled into Emily's bedroom than in her kitten bed :) We have now decided on a name for her (as she is staying with us Tibblate is too close to her mum, Tibbs), she will be Polly and I think that that has to complete our Fawlty Towers theme as not only is Tibbs going to be spayed, I think we have used all the names of the regulars from the series, apart from 'The Major' and as we are not planning on keeping a boy in the foreseeable future that name will have to be mothballed :)