All about the cats

Firstly a bit of a brag, Fawlty went to his 2nd show and for the 2nd time he won his class and got best of breed, as he is now classed as an adult this also gave his his 1st CC, he needs 3 to become a champion. Showing is not and never will be my thing, but my friend enjoys it so she takes Fawlty.

Bobs kittens are now starting to take an interest in the world around them, won't be long before they are causing mayhem :-)

Kitten pics

Bobs kittens are growing fast, a lovely contented litter. Bob is a really chilled mum, still wanting to spend most of her time cuddled up with her babies but enjoying her periods of time away from them too. Although I haven't posted any pics of them on here for a little while, I have been updating my Flickr account, so feel free to take a look at more pictures there.

Crufts

I'm back from a lovely couple of days at Crufts, very tired and completely broke but had a wonderful time. Obviously the highlight for me was seeing the two dogs with an Itzapromise connection strutting their stuff on the green carpet. Delta, owned and bred by Sharon was sired by Morse, she is such a beautiful and well proportioned girl with a lovely outgoing personality. Although she moved beautifully and was perfectly behaved in the ring she wasn't placed on this occasion (the judge was obviously blind, lol)

Margo is a homebred silver, out of Dime and sired by Cash. She is owned and handled by Shelly, and is one of the prettiest poodles out there (Yes, once again I may be slightly biased). She was a little star in the ring and was placed in her class. Just when you think your week can't get any better you go to the newsagents the following day and are greeted by Margo gracing the front page of The Guardian :-). I will take this opportunity to remind everyone that I hope to be repeating this mating in a couple of months.

All clean and dry

Bob is being a fab Mum, all 5 kittens are thriving, in fact their suck reflex is so good it presented us with a bit of a problem last night - when Bob got out of the nest to have a bite to eat, all the kittens just held on only plopping to the floor of the pen 30 seconds later, whilst this was very amusing to watch it could easily be a disaster as the kittens would chill and die very quickly if left there. We popped the kittens back and introduced a bed with slightly higher sides in the hope that it would scrape the kittens off the nipples as she left the box. This worked pretty well and only one super determined kitten managed to exit the nest with Mum, it duly plopped on the floor but as there was only one Bob was able to cope and promptly picked it up and popped it back with his siblings :-)

Here are some pics taken today, as you can see one is already opening it's eyes at less than 24hrs old!!

Bobbabies :-)

Bob has done a super job, not only has she produced 5, yes 5 healthy babies, she had them in the space of 2 hours in the afternoon, so no staying up all night waiting for me :-)

Will take some pics tomorrow once they are dry and relaxed, but these were taken as they arrived today. At 1st glance we have a black, a blue, a cream and 2 reds, I haven't looked to see what sex they are yet (and I often get the initial look wrong!)

Not long now

Bob is looking a bit of a porker now, kittens are due at the beginning of next week, I'm just praying she doesn't hold on to them for too long as I am planning on spending a couple of days at Crufts at the end of next week as a couple of poodles with Itzapromise breeding are entered this year. Good luck to Shelly with Margo, a Dime/Cash pup and to Sharon with Delta, who is out of Sharon's own line but sired by Morse.

Plans for 2016 (subject to me changing my mind, lol)

Despite not having any litters of puppies or kittens I have been kept busy with training and socialising Eliza and keeping on top of the grooming in exceptionally wet and muddy conditions. But I have to look to the future and make decisions about possible litters for 2016.
The plan, at the moment, is that we should have a Bob/Manuel litter of kittens next month, Tibbs was also mated by Manuel but I'm not convinced that she is pregnant, middle aged spread has taken a hold and she now has a solid build making pregnancy less likely and harder to detect. Mrs Miggins will hopefully be mated by Fawlty in the next couple of months, at the moment Fawlty is very much a case of, all the gear (very well endowed) but no idea, but I'm sure he will work out what he should be doing at some point :-)

I have been struggling as to which dog to mate on the next season, I will not be in a position to keep a pup myself but have had a good number of enquiries for pups from all 3 of my adult girls. I have made the decision not to have two litters together as it is just so much work and so hard to make sure that each pup gets the individual attention it deserves, but the fact that my girls only have a season every 7/8or 9 months means a long wait between litters, especially if the mating is not successful, anyway, the decision I have made is to repeat the Dime/Cash mating on the next season, I then hope to mate Spirit on the next lot of seasons and last, but by no means least, Tiffany on the season after that. I know that this will disappoint some who are waiting on Spirit and Tiffany, but hope that you understand that in order to give my pups the best possible start the litters have to be carefully planned.

I have to include a few pics of Eliza out and about, also a quick clip of some of her clicker training. We are working on several basic commands and are using clicker training, she is like a sponge and absorbs all information, I see fun times ahead with her.