Schimmel Siamese & Oriental Cats are Oriental cat breeders based in Oxford, UK. We sometimes have Oriental and Siamese kittens for sale. We also have 2 Oriental Stud Cats and online kitten diaries.

Kitten Diaries

Cacao

June 2004

Birth

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Cacao's 2nd Kitten Diary - June 2004 to October 2004

Day 83 - September 9, 2004
I learnt today that Hermione and Ron are actually just big scaredy cats. After this last week or so of being fearless, family kittens, scared of nothing, not even the dogs, they really showed their true colours today when they were confronted by tiny little Snugglepot. The whole house was opened up for a short while today, on and off as the Potters were really missing their access into the cat run. When they first came into the back room, the Gumnuts were asleep, however, Harry decided that he would join them, climbed in the carrier with them, woke them up, and he settled down for 5 minutes and then climbed out. About 20 minutes after that, Hermione stuck her head into the carrier, Snugglepot stood up, arched his back and took a swipe at her while he growled and Hermione ran a mile as if the devil himself had attacked her. Then Ron thought he would see what the fuss was about and again, Snugglepot had a go at him, scared him and he ran onto my chair (obviously under the misapprehension that I would protect him!). Needless to day, the Potters soon learn to leave the Gumnuts alone. They did however really appreciate being allowed back into the cat run and certainly made the most of it. I'm desperately hoping that within the next couple of days, I can actually find the time to take some photos of the Potters just to prove that they do still exist :)

Day 82 - September 8, 2004
Our Potters have totally forgiven me now for taking their mum away from them and I think that could be because they are simply having too much fun in the house and have actually forgotten they did have a mother. It's great that they have surrogate mum's in Drambuie, Sambuca and Tia Maria because even at this age, the babies are still learning and they rely on the older cats to teach them the cat etiquettes of right and wrong. Cacao taught them this for the first 11 weeks of their lives and now it's time to learn a few more social manners from their "other mum's". The Potters are now on 2 wet meals a day, a breakfast and an evening meal. The rest of the time they eat dry food during the day and throughout the evening. Their wet food still consists of the kitten mixture, mixed in with Denes tinned food and they all seem to love it and have very good appetites.

Day 81 - September 7, 2004
Well I'm pleased to say that the Potters survived their first evening as "family kittens" very well. When we came downstairs this morning, everything was as it should be which was quite a relief. And..........will wonders never cease????? During the day today, I was stunned to see that some of the Potters were in the upstairs hallway, sleeping with Tia Maria. Not only sleeping with her but curled into her and she wasn't trying to eat them! When Mo went upstairs earlier during the day, she came back down to report that the Potters were actually climbing all over Tia and chewing her ears and Tia didn't mind at all. Go figure! The babies are used to life now with no mum and I'm really pleased because they were so demanding of her that I wasn't sure how they would cope without her presence yet they seem to be doing just fine. Graham came downstairs late last night to record something on TV and when he came back upstairs, he informed me that Sambuca has now taken over the role of "mum". He watched Sami rounding up all the Potters and sending them to their cat carrier (or Hermione's carrier) to make them go to sleep. Harry went under the television unit so Sami went under there, nosed him out and herded him back into the carrier. Obviously Sami is taking her new "aunty" role quite seriously and it's lovely to see, particularly as we'll be mating Sambuca next year.

Day 80 - September 6, 2004
As I said in the Gumnuts' diary entry, there was almost no entry at all because I have had so much to do today and not really sure which job to tackle first. The Potters are extremely angry with me and rather upset at being kicked out of their home. I'm afraid that I had to evict the Potters today so that the Gumnuts could move in (I'm beginning to sound like a landlady!) and the Potters are fuming about it. They don't understand why they suddenly can't access what they consider to be "their" room. As they have been fitting in so well with the rest of the cat family over the last few days, the time had come for them to become permanent family members for the next two weeks, after which, they will be sharing their lives with their new owners. Cacao has now been moved into the kitten room, on her own, where she will live for the next 3-4 days, long enough for her milk to dry up and for her to gain some of her condition back and then she can join the rest of the household. Fortunately, the Potters don't have particularly long attention spans so after Harry and Hermione had spent 10 minutes trying to break down the barrier into the back room (and yes they both succeeded at least twice!) they then gave up and went back to playing their games with Sambuca and Drambuie.

Day 79 - September 5, 2004
Fortunately, the day started off much better than yesterday with no problems of any sort although I did make the Potters breakfast too hot which upset them greatly naturally. The babies were thrilled to see me this morning and I'm sure that it because they are used to having their mum with them all night long and they were on their own which must have been difficult for them. I know it was a bit difficult for us because Cacao slept with us all night long, at least she slept, we didn't! The Potters have been all over the place in separate rooms today. Ron & McGonagall have been upstairs, Harry was here with me, Madam Hooch was on the dining table and Hermione was in the lounge room. It is lovely to see them being so independent and they seem very content with the way things are. The other good thing at the moment is that they are by now, more than used to the dogs which is great. Whenever the dogs walk around the house now, or get up out of their beds, the babies don't bother to arch their backs any more, or move out of the way, they simply sit there and watch them. It does feel like this particular litter has been slightly harder to socialise but I am putting that down to the fact that they were so much older when they came downstairs, however, they are now perfectly fine and I'm so pleased that we got there in the end.............with 2 weeks to spare :) Before I forget to tell you, the Potter's registration papers came back yesterday so they all have their registered names now thank goodness (remember I had problems with the R's registration) so that's one less thing to have to worry about.

Day 78 - September 4, 2004
What a dreadful day today and nothing to do with the Potters either. They didn't actually receive a great deal of my attention today and it's just as well that they are now like all the other cat family members in the house and if I can't play with them, they are happy to do their own thing with the other cats and each other. We woke up this morning and came downstairs to be greeted by one of the worktops, videos and other bits and pieces covered in cat spray. I won't say who it was as that would embarrass her, but needless to say this meant absolute hours of pulling everything apart and scrubbing everything, including loads of videos. When we finally finished that, we realised that one of our fish had died so we removed the cover from the aquarium to get it out, and Drambuie, in all her wisdom, took a flying leap from the table straight INTO the aquarium!! Got soaking wet, was rather scared and sent water everywhere. So then we had Buie to dry off as well as the everything else she had soaked in the process. By the time we finished that, it was late afternoon and the day had virtually gone! One change the Potters have had is that they are now "orphans" as Cacao was removed from the presence yesterday afternoon and will be away from them for a minimum of 3 days as it's time to give her a break, let her milk dry up and try and get a bit of weight back on her. Even though she has improved, I'm still not happy at all with they way she looks at the moment.

Day 77 - September 3, 2004 (11 weeks old today!)
This last week of the Potter's lives has gone rather quickly and I was amazed this morning I was started the entry to realise that they are 11 weeks old already. They will be leaving me all too soon unfortunately. I located the octopus late yesterday afternoon after Mo told me she had seen one of the Potters carrying it behind the sofa. Sure enough, when I looked there it was and it still has 8 legs thank goodness! The babies have a new sleeping place now, as you can see by one of the photos below. When I came down this morning, all the Potters were asleep on the back of the lounge which was really cute. The problem is of course that they are also sleeping on the curtain so at 10:30am, I still was unable to open up the curtain in the lounge room because it would have disturbed them. Once the Potters woke up, they went crazy as usual. Harry and McGonagall are fascinated by the noises coming from the kitten room and whenever they see me go up there, they go straight to the door and try and get in to see who is making those squeals. Madam Hooch refused to come inside again last night and it took me 5 minutes to entice her back in. The babies all seem to be growing up rather too quickly for my liking and for the last few days they have totally settled in with the rest of our cats and now consider themselves as part of the family whereas before they were simply a litter of their own so to speak.