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.

Day 62 - July 10, 2004

Like the Potter's diary, there really is no entry for today due to lack of time. I'm pleased to say that dear Gino was a lot brighter today and had started putting weight back on and was even playing with her sisters and brother so it was a massive relief. Many thanks to my good friend Cathy for dropping by to see me and for being kind enough to give me some Hills AD for Gino which is certainly helping to make a difference. The other R's are all doing really well and they have started waking up a lot earlier in the morning, i.e. 5am to run up and down the stairs and play chase. I don't get up at this time to feed them breakfast as they are used to having their first meal between 7am & 8am, however, they have plenty of dry food 24 hours a day that they all help themselves to constantly.

Day 61 - July 9, 2004

It has been a very worrying and upsetting 24 hours. Last night, I felt that Gino wasn't her usual self and she seemed rather lethargic in comparison to the rest of the R's. I then brought her into the bedroom with us for the night so I could monitor her throughout the night and make sure she was eating and getting fluids. It was a very rough night obviously as I've had no sleep because I was feeding her every hour and a half. She was looking slightly brighter this morning but even so, I phoned our vet and made an appointment to have her looked at. Andy was wonderful as per usual, he checked everything out, took her temperature, looked in her mouth, eyes, ears etc., listened to the heart, watched her walk around the table to look at her co-ordination etc. There was nothing at all wrong and nothing out of the ordinary at all. Her heart and lungs were fine, temperature was normal, bowel movement was normal so obviously I was very relieved. He did give her a shot though and he suggested that it's quite possible she may have eaten something she shouldn't have (he did mention "a spider") or something similar which has put her off her food. He did say it's not unusual for a baby to be having an off day so to speak and suggested we put her back in with the litter as she would be missing them terribly but we were to keep an eye on her and watch her food intake etc. It's been very worrying as it always is when our babies aren't feeling 100% and I'm really feeling tired at the moment. So far, she seems to be doing okay, still not as active as I'd like, but is eating, drinking, squealing (or singing if you like) and at this exact moment is curled up with her sisters and brother and is sound asleep. Of course, telling Gino's new owner about what had gone on in the last 24 hours was not easy as I knew like me, she would worry herself sick over it. However, she had to be told as it's very important that new owners are aware of any possible problems, no matter how small, regarding their future babies. I hate it when it gets to this stage, right before vaccinations as the babies always seem so vulnerable, however, Andy didn't seem to think there was anything seriously wrong with her and hopefully she will be back to normal in a day or two. Fortunately, the babies are already booked in for their vaccinations early Monday morning so she can be seen again then as well. I was really relieved after the vet visit and regardless of whether or not it may have been a wasted journey, I feel it was well worth it just to be on the safe side. All the other R's are doing fabulously well, eating like piggies and driving me mad with their boisterous behaviour. They weren't in my good books last night because as Graham and I were trying to encourage Gino to eat, the bedroom door was left open and the R's went in there and went to the toilet on all the pillows, the duvet etc. and I was really quite cross. The whole bedding had to be changed, we had no pillows to sleep on and thank goodness we had a spare duvet. So in between looking after Gino, and spending time with both litters, I've been doing mountains and mountains of washing all day long. The house looks like a bomb has struck at the moment but to be honest with you, the house is the last thing on my mind at the moment as sick babies, and litters will always take priority.

Photos taken late yesterday afternoon

Day 60 - July 8, 2004

I think the R's were much happier to find out that I was home with them again all day today. They were brought downstairs in the morning as per usual and Tia was put up in our bedroom. I have a feeling they were rather pleased to see that their meals were all at the usual time as well after the change yesterday. None of the R's have been out in the cat run today, even though the door was left open. Obviously the weather wasn't exactly enticing them to go outside and play. Danny has been even more alert than normal today. When the R's have been sleeping on the other office chair, he would wake up every now and then just to have a look around and check everything out. It's really lovely to watch the R's after meal times because if they decide to go to sleep after their lunch time meal as they usually do, they will all climb up into the chair and will spend a few minutes grooming themselves and each other before settling down to sleep. I decided this morning though, not to bring them downstairs until 10am (normally they're down with me at 9am) as they were very active and playful so I was letting them get some of it out of their systems before having them all converge on me.

Day 59 - July 7, 2004

There are no photos today sorry and barely even an entry as we have been out of the house for the majority of the day. I fed the R's before we left early this morning and they had bowls of water and 2 bowls full of dry food. As soon as I returned (about 3pm) they were fed again and they will get their dinner as per normal and I may feed them an extra meal tonight. I was surprised when I returned to see that they had hardly made any mess at all and am going to presume that they must have spent most of their day sleeping. I can almost positively say now that all babies are either Blue or Seal tabbies (with the exception of Rolly, our solid Blue Point girl. In one way, I'm rather pleased about this as Seal is my preferred colour in the Siamese and I can hopefully look forward to lots of lovely Seal Tabby babies from my darling Tia for years to come. Of course, it does limit us to the colours we breed when we use Ice, as we are only ever going to have blue and seal in our Siamese, however, even though we have Ice, we will still, at times, be going out to stud with our girls anyway and with the right stud boys, we can also bring the Chocolate and Lilac into the line.

Day 58 - July 6, 2004

I know that Marcelle will be happy with me today as I actually remembered to take photos of each individual baby. Mind you, they weren't posing very well! The problem is that you have to take photos while they are asleep if you want individual ones because when they are awake they move about too much and too quickly to be able to get a decent shot. Little Gino's new owners were here to visit her today so she had some lovely cuddles with them. The R's are coping really well without their mum during the day time now and Tia seems to be much better as well now that she has time apart from them. It's really made a difference to her. Of course, every evening she's really happy to be back with them and they are very pleased to see their mum again. The upstairs hallway where they sleep was an incredible mess this morning. There were toys, vet beds, food and litter scattered from the bathroom, right along the hallway to the stairs and it took quite a while to clean it all up. All babies still have very good appetites and are currently on 5 "wet" meals a day and they have dry food left out constantly. They all eat the dry food quite a lot now so when they are 9 weeks old, I will be cutting the wet meals down to 4 a day. One thing I must say before I forget is that I'm really beginning to have my doubts about these colours now. The R's colours have changed dramatically in this last week and it will not surprise me at all to find out that we have one Blue Point (Rolly) and our 5 tabbies are all either blue or seal tabby. I truly am beginning to think we have no chocolate and no lilac in there in which case it almost proves that Ice is not a chocolate carrier. The fact that the Potters are Blue Points as well indicates that Ice is pure for blue, particularly as we already know Cacao is a chocolate carrier. So it's going to be very interesting when it comes time to register them which I'm trying to hold off doing as long as humanly possible!

Day 57 - July 5, 2004

Danny is a whopper of a boy. When I weighed the R's last night, I was stunned to see that at exactly 8 weeks of age, he weighs a massive 930g!!!!! It was lovely to see Danny's new human mum, Marcelle, who came to visit him today. The R's have spent the majority of the day with no mother as I've had Tia in our bedroom for most of the day to give her a break from the R's. They still continue to feed off her and it's starting to get on her nerves a bit as she's been swearing at her babies off and on for 2 days now. I think it will do her the world of good to have some peace and quiet, on her own, and to just let her be a normal cat for a while. I bought the babies some new toys today, some little balls with bells and the standard little furry mice. Be interesting to see how long these ones last. They've been having lots of fun with their new toys and trying to take the mice from each other and growling whenever any of their sisters or brother try to steal their beloved mouse. I knew I should have bought more at the time as 3 mice and 6 babies who don't like to share is not a good combination!

Day 56 - July 4, 2004 (8 weeks old today!)

It's been a very exciting day for the R's as they have had some visitors of the human kind. We had 2 sets of kitten owners visit us today so they had lots of extra attention. I'm pleased to say that they behaved themselves and were little angels. For 2 days now, the whole of the downstairs has been opened up so that our babies can explore the entire downstairs and meet other cats. So they've now had encounters with Drambuie and Sumbuca and there were plenty of displeased looks on both sides which surprised me as Sami and Buie are still only babies themselves as they're 7 months old so I did think they would take to the R's better than our older cats. I'll now be making a point of opening up the downstairs for a period every day now as it's very important that the R's get used to all normal household activity and other cats. We can't introduce them to Kahlua or Amaretto unfortunately as Kahlua is a grumpy old man who isn't fond of babies and Amaretto is pregnant herself and as a result is extremely hormonal and moody. The R's have already met Cacao on a number of occasions upstairs and they are perfectly happy with her which only leaves Ice, our stud boy who I will be bringing in at some point next week to introduce him to the babies. Ice loves all cats and he doted on our last 2 litters so I am sure it will be the same this time around. The photos below will tell you exactly what little monsters the R's can be at times!