Lola

Lola left us on Friday evening to go and live with Michelle and Oliver. It was a very sad occasion for me as Lola has always been special, having come from a premature litter where only 3 kittens out of the 6 survived.

In some ways, because she is so special to us, it made it easier to let her go as we knew she was unhappy being here with new cats and kittens being introduced all the time.

We had a lovely update on Friday night and again on Saturday and Sunday, to let us know that Lola had settled in beautifully and had already claimed the place as her own! She has behaved perfectly (so far!) and spends most of her time on a specially made platform where she watches the swans and the boats going past.

Michelle and Oliver were true to their word and sent me plenty of photos of Lola and I thought I would share some of them on here. The photo of Lola asleep was taken on her very first morning on the boat so she had been there about 12 hours.....just goes to show how happy and relaxed she is!

General Update

First of all, I need to apologise for not updating the website.  We have a new computer and unfortunately haven't got around to moving over all the files and the software for the website.

We are very pleased to have found the perfect home for Lola.  As hard as it is to let her go, we think we have found the perfect new slaves for her and she will be leaving us tomorrow.

Lucky Lola is going to be a 'ship's cat'!  She will be living on a houseboat on the Norfolk Broads and I have already told her new owners that I will be waiting expectantly for a photo of Lola taking in the views from the boat windows - will update more once she is settled.

We may possibly have one more spayed girl up for rehoming in the next few weeks but will update more at the time.  It still amazes me how our girls here get on so well together when they are entire and yet some seem to change when they are spayed and just won't settle with the entire girls. I am very lucky that all of the owners or our retirees keep in touch and we get regular updates on how they are doing.

Paddy (Whitefox Blazing Star) is thoroughly enjoying his retirement and has just come back from a surfing holiday in Cornwall with his new owner!  Apparently he loved the surf but wasn't quite so keen on the sand!

We also had a lovely update and photos from Anna and Scott, the owners of Woodside Porthos.  He has grown into such a beautiful boy and has his mum's superb feral, wild look about him.

I will add another update shortly with photos of Ruby (Villarroel Flamenco), Pixie (Woodside Emiliana) and Sunny (Woodside Pacifica).

Youngster Looking For A New Home

It is with much sadness that we have decided to rehome Woodside Maclaren aka Lola. She is our gorgeous red classic tabby neutered girl who is super affectionate and friendly.  Unfortunately, over the last few months she has been able to cope with living in a multicat household and is constantly sitting in a corner growling and hissing at the other cats.

She has never been bred from and was always kept back just as a neutered pet and not for breeding.

We feel it is unfair to keep trying to settle her down and even having the whole house filled with feliway has made no difference at all!

If you feel you can offer Lola a forever indoor home without any other cats or any possibility of there being any other cats then please contact us on woodsidecats@mac.com

New Photos

We have some new photos of some of our youngsters here at Woodside.  We have also had some changes - WhiteFox Blazing Star, after giving a good few litters in his life, has been neutered and gone to a new home. We never like to keep our stud boys active for more than 2 years as we feel that the earlier they are neutered, the better they settle as pets....even if it is hard to let them go!

In the short-term, we have the use of a gorgeous blue tabby and white stud boy to use with Pacifica and Emiliana and an up and coming brown tabby stud boy to use with our Kassaro and Villarroel youngsters.

Should all of our youngsters develop as we hope, our next Woodside litters will be in 2012.

Villarroel Flamenco aged 8 months

Kassaro Floreeda aged 8 months

Woodside Emiliana aged 4 months

Woodside Pacifica aged 4 months

Off They Go....

Malia's babies have been leaving us this week and I can't believe they are nearly 14 weeks old already. Javier left on Wednesday to go and live with Janis and her gorgeous Russian Blue boy Mika, Yago and Luciano left us yesterday to go and live with Susan and Guy and Enrique leaves us today to go and live with Jenn.

Pacifica was always going to be staying here with us and after realising that Emiliana wouldn't fit in with the homes we had lined up for her, she has managed to sneak her way in with us too! If the perfect home comes up for her then we will consider letting her go but if not then she will stay here with us.

We are now going to be having a break from breeding for a while to let all the cats settle down and have a rest and we are hoping to start up again in late 2012. We will be looking at importing a stud boy to bring in new lines and then look at maybe an additional girl or 2 depending on how our current youngsters develop here.

We will update our blog and website with photos as our youngsters grow and as our plans develop. We are also hoping to get our GCCF prefix in 2012, now that we are members of the Maine Coon Breed Society.

2 Kittens Re-Available....

We have one male and one female kitten possibly available for rehoming on 2nd July....please contact us for more details.

2 year old Red Tabby Male Available for rehome

Our gorgeous Paddy has been neutered a couple of weeks ago and will be available to rehome in about 4 weeks time.

He is a loving affectionate boy who has no known health issues and loves other cats. We did have a lovely home lined up for him but unfortunately a change of circumstances means that they now cannot take him.

Please contact me for more information.

Some Changes....

We have decided to scale things down for a couple of years whilst we complete our extension and building work so we have neutered Storm, and found him a lovely pet home and we have also spayed Star, who will be staying here with us as a pet.

There is too much disruption going on in the house to have calling and matings and kittens being born so we decided that it would be better to spay Star, who was calling constantly and to neuter Storm who we knew would settle down beautifully as a pet before he became established as a stud.

Paddy will still be a working stud boy with a local breeder friend of mine so he won't be getting too frustrated and Cleo and Ruby are still very young so I don't need to even think about them being mated yet.

As such, the next Woodside kittens will not be born until at least mid 2012, if not a little later depending on the girls.

Los Gatitos Espanoles - Malia's kittens at 7 weeks old

I haven't updated for a while as these kittens are keeping me super busy! Mum still has no interest so the weaning process has been a very slow one to make sure that their tummies can cope.  They started on Lactol and boiled chicken and we have now progressed to Applaws kitten biccie and boiled chicken and applaws kitten wet meat. They are growing beautifully and are super affectionate and confident.

I have attached a few photos of them but they aren't the best quality as these kittens refuse to sit still for more than a second!

All of these kittens now have lovely new homes to go to when they are 14 weeks old

Woodside Emiliana

Woodside Enrique

Woodside Javier

Woodside Luciano

Woodside Pacifica

Woodside Yago

Los Gatitos Espanoles - Malia's Kittens at 38 days old

It has been a tricky couple of weeks as Malia has unfortunately stopped feeding and caring for the babies. I have taken over and luckily the kittens are happy to have me as their substitute mum and are thriving. They are eating very well, putting on weight and are litter trained too.

Here are some photos taken today, as well as an extra one of Pacifica doing what she does best - making a lot of noise!  Enrique is available.

Woodside Luciano

Woodside Emiliana

Woodside Javier

Woodside Pacifica

Woodside Pacifica

Woodside Enrique

Woodside Jago

Los Gatitos Espanoles - Malia's babies at 27 days old

I managed to get a bit of a photo shoot done but they are so lively now that it is difficult keeping them in one place! Here are the pics we managed to get, with a bit of an Easter theme!

Woodside Emiliana

Woodside Enrique

Woodside Javier

Woodside Luciano

Woodside Pacifica

Woodside Yago

Weaning

The babies are 27 days old today and I have been supplementing them with formula milk for the past 10 days or so to help them gain weight and take the pressure away from Malia, who really is doing her best.

Yesterday, I checked on them and found them helping themselves to mum's biccie so I decided to try them on some RC Babycat, soaked in formula milk. Luckily, 5 of them took to it really well and are happily lapping away at the milk and biccie.  Emiliana still thinks that mum is best and seems to think I am trying to poison her but I am sure over the next day or two she will start to enjoy the mixture too.

The babies have put on around 30g in 24 hours, which I am sure is down to the extra food and formula that I have been giving them as well as Malia being able to have a bit of a rest in between.

Will get photos done later today once all the others are fed and groomed.

Storm, Cleo & Ruby

We have nearly finished our new cat garden so I thought I would give Storm, Ruby and Cleo a chance to test it out and it seems to have been a success.  Just need to get some sleepers in to give a raised border and then we're done.

Los Gatitos Espanoles - Malia's Kittens at 20 days old

Well the kittens will be 3 weeks old tomorrow but seeing as we have building work going on and will probably be busy over the weekend I thought I would add photos today instead.  All of the kittens are growing very well but Malia is getting worn out now so I am helping her out by topping the kittens up twice a day to give her a bit of a break. Woodside Enrique is available.

Woodside Emiliana

Woodside Javier

Woodside Pacifica

Woodside Luciano

Woodside Yago

Woodside Enrique

Los Gatitos Espanoles - Malia's Kittens at 12 days old

I took some more photos of the kittens today as they all have their eyes totally open now and are developing so well. I am able to tell the red boys apart now as they are all looking and developing differently so that's a relief - they were so similar in the first few days! They all weigh between 254g and 331g.

All of the kittens are optioned except for 1 red boy.

Woodside Emiliana

Woodside Enrique

Woodside Javier

Woodside Luciano

Woodside Pacifica

Woodside Yago

Some Updated Photos

As it was such a lovely day on Saturday, we decided to let Ruby and Cleo have a little bit of time out in the run.  They loved it and spent most of the day watching the birds and chasing flies! Storm loved having them out there next to him and was chirping and chatting to them the whole time.

I took some photos of them all out there to show how well they are growing - the girls are both around 2.1kg/2.2kg now and they are losing their kitten fluff and getting the most beautiful shiny coats in. Storm is a lovely stocky boy and we are very much looking forward to his first matings this year.

We are also hoping that next weekend, our cat proof fencing enclosure will be going up.  This will mean that instead of the cats having to get their exercise on a harness, they will now have their very own garden to run about and explore in. The cats will be getting their very own decking 'sun deck' as well as plenty of cat safe trees and plants and possibly a small pond for them to have fun with!

SueRagDandy Phantom (Storm)

Villarroel Flamenco (Ruby)

Villarroel Flamenco (Ruby)

Kassaro Floreeda (Cleo)

Kassaro Floreeda (Cleo)