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I do not even know where to
begin with describing Eleanor. She is, without a
doubt, one of the best mom's we have ever had. Her
ability to juggle a large litter is remarkable and is
second only to what Olivia did, when she took care of
Mitzi's brood, along with her own.
Eleanor's first litter
consisted of 6 kittens. At the time, her sister
Lilly was with her, but her other sister Sylvia came
down with mastitis and Eleanor and Lilly took
(literally) some of the kittens to help out. The
second time she had kittens, she had 8!! While we
had to supplement them a couple of times, she definitely
preferred to take care of things herself, in her own
way. Generally, she would have six kittens a day
gaining weight, with two, staying stable, or loosing a
little. The next day, it would be two different
one's who were stable, or lost, while the others gained,
with the two that had previously been held off, being
given preferential treatment the next day (they always
caught up with the total gains).
We have no idea how she
did it all, but what we can tell you is that she ate a
great deal during it!! I believe she was relieved
when the kids started to eat real food! :-)
We certainly hope that
her future litters and the litters of any of her
children, have a few fewer in them, but no matter what,
we know they will all be wonderful children!! |
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The daughter of Eleanor and Gabriel,
Bluebelle is a wonderful girl. Early on, we had
thought she was going to be going to a friend of ours,
but when that fell through, we decided to keep her.
We are glad we did!
Bluebelle
has most of her mother's positive attributes, along with
a few of her own. Like her mother, she is very
sweet, very laid back and tolerant of almost everyone
else she meets. She has been able to transition
from one group of girls, to another, with little
problem. When her mother became pregnant the
second time, we separated them shortly before she gave
birth. After a few weeks, it became clear that
Eleanor wanted Bluebelle back in with her and the
kittens.
Though we are used to this behavior
(to a degree) from the Norwegian's, we have not seen it
all to often among the Maine Coon's. In fact, we
have often been concerned with non-mothers disturbing
the mom's, to the point where they could abandon their
kittens (something we REALLY want to avoid). In
this case though, Eleanor put Bluebelle right to work,
babysitting the kids, grooming them, etc. and she did it
all without complaint.
When the time came for Eleanor's
kittens to "come out" and be exposed to other areas of
the cattery, Eleanor directed Bluebelle on where to
position herself to "observe" and each stood watch over
things. If a kitten appeared to be in distress,
either of them would go to their side and offer a word
or two of support and help them along their way.
The chirping and chattering that would go on between the
two of them during these outings was something to
behold.
As Bluebelle developed, we realized
that not only did we have a girl with a fabulous
attitude and good looks, we had a girl who was becoming
noticeably larger than her mom as well. Long and
lanky like her mom, she has a few pounds on her... in
the "appropriate" places and proportions, of course!
She is several inches longer and sits taller, with
bigger boning and a slightly "fuller" body. Her
length makes her ideal to be mated with some of our boys
who are a bit "stockier", the combination of which, we
hope will produce some spectacular children.
12/09
Bluebelle may have decided
that having children is just not her thing.
Raising them is no problem for her, she works with her
mother, very well. Going into heat and mating with
a boy, seems to be where she draws the line. While
we will continue holding out some "hope", it is rapidly
fading, but we will give it a bit more time before
making a final decision.
Regardless though, she is a
BIG help to her mother (Eleanor), so she will stay to
help her with future litters. |
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"Shoe Be"
is one of Pip P.'s first group of kittens and is one we
have decided to keep for showing and possibly breeding.
She is a silver classic tabby (we think) with an
attitude that matches her looks... She knows she
looks good and is not afraid to make sure you know it
too.
Stay
tuned as we see how she develops... |
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Pollyana, Pip and Mystic are
Polydactyl (Mitten Paw) Maine Coons. Not all their kittens
(when breed) will come out as poly's, but even with this trait
aside, they are beautiful girls. |
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The following girls are
retired from breeding. Some have gone on to their
second careers and have been, or are being, shown.
Others "assist" mothers with new babies and others still
are living peacefully in the house, with no particular
responsibilities. They've earned that right!! <G>
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GP Molly Brown
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RETIRED
MOM...
With A New Career - Show Kitty!!
Molly is the sister of GC
Charlie Brown and the daughter of Rachel and Gabriel.
She is a "well built", brown patch tabby girl who is
about as talkative as her mother (and that is saying a
lot!), with an extremely outgoing personality.
Initially, we were not absolutely sure we should keep
her for breeding. We had spayed her sister Murphy
(who was larger), for a client, who ended up not taking
her and as Charlie developed very well, we wanted to
keep the lines available. Molly surprised us by
having a good growth spurt as she got older...
Sometimes good things come to those who wait. :-)
Actually, she was always very good, but her eventual
growth, was the icing on the cake. :-)
As of 1/09, she has been mated once to
Archibald and has produced two wonderful kittens and is
proving to be as good a mother, as her own mother was
(Rachael).
Important Update Molly reached her "Premier"
(Champion) title at the show in St. Louis on April 17, 2010.
As a retired mom, three years old, this was her first outing and
she did remarkably well with all the hoopla involved in the
show. While not her brother (Charlie Brown), she really is
rather spectacular and a wonderful example of what the Maine
Coon is all about...
PR Molly
Brown has surprised the heck out of us. While we have
always known she was a "good" cat, we did not really realize
just how good she might be. Silly, I guess, as she is
Charlie's sister, but we just did not put the two together.
Molly did exceedingly well this past weekend, at the show (with
two finals) and so we have decided to take her to shows and get
her, her GP title. This is important for the cattery, but
also
means that any adoption will have to wait, until after she
receives her title.
Update 8-16-10
At the Mo-Kan show this past
weekend, Molly Brown attained her "Grand Premier"
title!!!! She will continue being shown towards a
"new" standing that will be announced shortly. <G>
Congratulations Molly and
Sueann... Great Work, both of you!! |
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Prissy is an absolutely
gorgeous girl, who has a few personality quirks.
She came to us quite shy and pretty timid, not liking to
be around people. We knew this up-front, but felt
we could work with her and get her to change...
Today, she still does not like being around / on people
(us included), but it is NOT due to shyness... She
simply has decided it is all one big game!!
She will come and sit on our desks, or
jump up on the couch next to us and look... As
long as we do not make "eye contact", she will sit
there, often kneading with her paws and even reach out
to touch us at times. But... If you make eye
contact with her, she'll move. Other times, if you
need to get a hold of her for some reason, all you have
to do is to walk right up to her and pick her up...as
long as you do not look directly at her, it works...
Look directly at her and it is a lost cause.
As of Jan. 09, Prissy has only given
us one set of kittens - Archibald and Betty Boots.
While we hope she will be mated again, she has to go
into heat and she has to accept the boy when she does.
Two or three matings done since her first kittens have
proven fruitless, but we will keep trying for awhile
longer. If nothing else, she will stay in the
cattery... She is best friends with Olivia and
Mitzi and the three of them work together when any of
them have kittens. |
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What can I say about
Mitzi?... Without question, she is beautiful, with
long flowing fur, a sweetheart with a bit of attitude,
but most of all, she is all "blond". While that
"stereotype" is often overused, in this case, it fits.
If we had the chance to name her all over again, we
would probably have to go with "Ditzi Mitzi". She
is just clue-less much of the time and does not seem to
understand what she is supposed to be doing.
Actually... now that I say
that and as much as we joke about it, I suspect it is
more a ploy on her part, to keep from being expected to
do things. After all, if you are "not all there",
no one expects much from you. The reality though,
is that Mitzi can be, a terrific mom. With her
first litter, she became very sick and though Olivia
helped her (and us) a great deal, Mitzi hung in there to
care for her kids through it all. It was her
second litter when the questions started to come up...
Her second litter
consisted of one kitten - Horatio. Born two weeks
or so after Olivia had a litter, it was almost as though
Mitzi felt it was not necessary for her to care for her
own child... After all, Olivia was there. Several
times, Olivia had to go and find Mitzi and "talk to her"
about her caring for the kids and the expectation that
she participate in feeding, cleaning, etc. At one
time, Mitzi was lounging on the bed, Olivia came to the
door of her room and "called"... Mitzi continued to
groom herself. Olivia came over to the foot of the
bed and called again... Mitzi's ears perked up a
bit, but she made no move. Olivia jumped up onto
the bed, made a few comments and then head butted Mitzi.
Eventually, Mitzi got up and followed her back to the
babies to do her part, but it was obvious her heart was
not in it.
Since that experience,
Mitzi has fended off all advances made by any boys she
has been put with... Almost as though she knows
what is involved - 5 minutes of fun, leads to weeks of
caring for little fuzzy children!! :-) |
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Betty Boots is the first
B Street girl to stay and be a mom for us. She is
the daughter of Prissy and Theodore and her brother is
Archibald. Where he has been a bit shy and
reserved, she is completely the opposite.
Outgoing, gregarious and even down-right pushy.
Up to now (1/09), Betty's idea of
"mother-hood", with her two matings, consists of having
one, blue male kitten...period. Two matings, two
blue, male kittens... No more, no less.
Though an excellent mother, she does
have a few minor "faults" with her raising children...
For some reason, she seems to feel that they "ought to
be doing something" within a few days. With both
her babies, you would find her, three days after
birthing, standing outside her birthing box, "calling"
her son to come out and play. A little, gentle,
reminder, has usually put her back on track, but it is
still a bit of a shock to see her trying to play so
early. Once the boy grows a bit, his fulfills her
needs, but initially it is a bit much to ask.
She is, in all other ways, a terrific
mother and we always look forward to the boy she brings
us. :-) |
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Little Bear
is an "interesting" girl. While a bit stand-off-ish
at times, at others, she is unbelievably friendly and
outgoing. She is the daughter of Sylvia (from a
mating with Gabriel) and has, without question, some of
her mother's attitude.
We have gone back and forth
with her, on whether we should continue breeding her.
The problem (for us) is that her kittens do not seem to
start off "well", or start off being obviously
impressive, but seem, with time, to develop into good
looking, impressive cats. It's just difficult to
show them when it takes two years...<G>
As of December, '09, we
have breed her again with Archibald and have our fingers
crossed... |
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