Update on Mali

Mali went to her new home last night and it honestly couldn't have gone better.  She has found it very difficult since coming back here as she is terrified of other cats and so only started to settle once we out her in our outside enclosure.

When we took her to Helen and Matt's last night, I was very unsure as to how she would react to her new environment but as soon as we opened her carry box, she was exploring all over the place and purring like she'd always been there!  By the time we left, she had met the hamster, curled up on the sofa and sprawled out on the floor whilst letting all of us make a huge fuss of her!

It has been a very tough few weeks but the effort was worth it to make sure that Mali was settled and socialised enough to go on to her new home.

I cannot thank Matt & Helen enough for being willing to take on what we thought was going to be a very difficult girl.....just goes to show what the right home and environment can do for a cat.

Hopefully there will be more updates coming soon.

Update on Mali and Sparty

Sparty continues to do very well in his new home and his new owner, Hannah, just adores him.

Mali is now leaving us this week - we had a huge storm here last week and it really unsettled her so I didn't think it was fair to make her go through the rehome.  She will be going to her new home on Friday though and we are all keeping fingers and toes crossed that all goes well.

Will update more as things progress.

We also hope to have some news very soon on 2 new additions to our family :-)

Fantastic News

Woodside Sirius (Sparty) left for his new home on Saturday.  he had settled so well and we found the perfect home for him with Hannah and her red tabby Maine Coon boy Wilson.  Sparty has already eaten and used the litter tray and is exploring the house as well as showing a great interest in Wilson.  We are very pleased with how Sparty progressed here and we felt that by leaving him here for much longer, he would have then struggled having to settle down somewhere else.

We have also found a lovely home for Woodside Kansas (Mali) and we will be delivering her there on Friday this week.  She will be the only pet there, and her new owners are perfectly happy to keep it that way.  She has adjusted so well and is a really loving and affectionate girl now that she is away from the stress of our lot!  Am looking forward to helping her settle in to her new home.

Woodside Sirius and Woodside Kansas - an Update

We have a mixture of news here.  Spartacus (Woodside Sirius) will be ready for his forever home within a couple of weeks.  This gorgeous boy is so loving and affectionate that he will make someone a wonderful pet.  He needs an indoor home and would be happy with or without other cats.....if there are other cats in the home then they cannot be dominant as he gets scared easily!

Mali (Woodside Kansas) has had to move into our outside pen.  We have realised the reason she wasn't settling is because she hates the smell of our other cats and every time we go in the room, she can smell them on us.  They have also taken to laying by the door putting their paws under, and Mali is not amused.  Since putting her out in the pen, she is definitely happier and is enjoying the warmer weather.

I don't know if Mali will ever cope with another rehome, or if she does it has to be to a very experienced and patient owner who is happy to only have Mali and no other cats at all.  The would also have to be prepared to visit frequently before we would consider letting her go to them.

Will update more soon and will get new pics of both of them too.

Some News

I went to meet the stud boy who we will be using on our girls next year.  He is the son of our old stud boy, Paddy, and is just gorgeous.  He has all of his dad's temperament but at 10 months old is much stockier than Paddy was so I think he will sire some fantastic kittens.

Merlin lives with our very good friend Pat Dooley, at Patsita Maine Coons, and is an absolute credit to her and her breeding.

Sparty and Mali are still struggling with settling in.  Sparty is a very affectionate boy but still nervous, especially when Mali starts hissing and moaning! Mali is getting more confident but we are following advice that we have been given and just ignoring her completely until she feels happy enough to come to us.  She likes to sit and watch what we are doing and her and Sparty both have 'paw fights' with our cats under the door so I am hoping that we will have more positive news on them both in the next couple of weeks.

Update on Kansas and Sirius

Kansas (Mali) and Sirius (Sparty) have now been with us for nearly a week.  Sparty is definitely coming around and loves his fuss and attention.  He is eating well, using the litter tray and becoming very vocal about being shut in the spare room!

Mali is still struggling unfortunately.  She is eating and drinking and using the litter tray but still very, very nervous.  I am allowing my 3 daughters to go in and see them regularly as they seem to respond better to children than adults, and Mali will enjoy a fuss on her own terms but lets you know when she has had enough.

We will eventually be looking for homes for these 2 but any new owner will have to be experienced with cats and be prepared to come and visit regularly for a few weeks at least to get to know the cats and gain their trust.  We will also visit their new home to make sure we are happy with them leaving us.

They have already been through a huge upheaval and we want to make any further transition as easy for them as we possibly can.

Will update more in the next few days.

We also hope to have exciting news in the coming weeks....will post more on our blog in due course.

Woodside Kansas and Woodside Sirius

It's been a while since I updated and we still cannot access our website so looks like we will be building a new one shortly to give updates and news throughout the year.

We have sadly had to take back Woodside Kansas and Woodside Sirius, after their owner's daughter became highly allergic to them.  I have taken them back here so that I can vet any potential owners and ensure that I am kept up to date with their progress.

Could be a while though....they are incredibly scared and so will need a lot of time and patience to ensure that they are happy and settled when going to their new homes.  For now, they are living in our spare bedroom so that they don't need to be around the stress of our cats too.

As with all of our kittens that we have bred or adult cats that have been retired and rehomed, we always insist that new owners contact us should their circumstances change and we will have the cats back to rehome from here....they are and always will be our babies and therefore our responsibility.

Have attached some pics and will update on their progress over the next few days and weeks.

Mali (Woodside Kansas)

Sparty (Woodside Sirius)

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.