Expected litter out of Schimmel Stripe It Lucky X Schimmel Charming Chives

Amarula has now given birth. Please Click Here to view her kitten diary.

This pregnancy has flown quickly and I have to say that I am relieved that I can now feel some movement in there. It's not a lot of movement in the respect that I'm not feeling lots and lots of babies. If anything, I think Amarula will only be carrying one or two kittens. She is not particularly big at all, and to be honest with you, I will just be happy once it's all over and even if she delivers just one healthy baby, then that will be fine. I personally don't feel she has coped with this pregnancy anywhere near as well as our other 2 ladies who are also currently pregnant. Amarula is still spending her time downstairs with the rest of the family, however of an evening, she has been spending her nights in the 2nd kitten room where her box is set up for her and she has been nesting in it so in a days' time, she will be moved into our bedroom with her box and she will spend the evenings in with us. Her due date is this Friday on June 29 but it will be anyone's guess as to whether or not she goes into labour on that date. But whether she does or doesn't, we are going to be "housebound" for the next week :) There will be no more entries now for Amarula's pregnancy diary so please check back after the 29th to see whether or not her baby/s have been born.

This is a new one for me and yep, I am baffled. As you can tell by the last entry, I was convinced that Amarula was definitely not pregnant and so you may be wondering why we suddenly have a new diary entry. Well, about a week ago, I looked at Amarula, and she had definitely expanded around the waistline, in the exact same way that a pregnant queen does. But not only that, her nipples are extremely enlarged and protruding, although not bright pink. I was looking at a pregnant queen. I continued to watch her for the next week and I have no doubts at all that she is carrying little Ashanti babies. Up until this point, I couldn't quite figure out why her appetite had increased and why she hadn't come back into call. Not once did it actually occur to me that she was pregnant because once I had decided she definitely wasn't, when she should have been 4 weeks, I just let it go and didn't give it another thought so I am shocked to say the least. I definitely was not expecting this and if I thought for one moment that Amarula had actually taken, I would never have mated a certain other girl to Ashanti. We now have Amarula due approximately June 29, we have another lady due approximately July 8, and then a 3rd lady due approximately July 19. As it stands now, we are being kept incredibly busy by the Capitals, the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, and by Liquorice, who are our current 3 litters that we have in the home. I must be totally insane! As for Amarula, well, I am finding it very interesting that she didn't actually pink up as such and even now, she is not particularly large. There is one pattern that I have found emerging with Ashanti and his matings and that is the girls he has had honeymoons with are not pinking up at the 3 week stage. I had this happen when he mated Cointreau, his first ever honeymoon, as she was not actually pink until about week 4 into the pregnancy, so there is a definite pattern here. At 7 weeks into the pregnancy, I would be expecting Amarula to look bigger, because the other 2 ladies that he mated are bigger than Amarula is and they are not due until later than she is. Again, when he mated Cointreau, she didn't expand a great deal and as it turned out, she gave us just the one baby, so I'm wondering just what the situation is here and how many babies Amarula will be carrying. Due to this being such a surprise pregnancy, Amarula is being monitored very closely for any changes, any problems, and she is now being given Hills a/d on a daily basis as well as her normal meals. She will also be spending her evenings upstairs with our other 2 pregnant girls now.

Despite having had such a great honeymoon, it appears that Amarula isn't actually pregnant. She did not pink up at 3 weeks, nor was she pink at 4 weeks. She isn't even showing the slightest swelling. Yes I am disappointed because this was a litter that I had been looking forward to as it would have been Ashanti's 2nd litter. It is the first time one of our queens hasn't "taken" when mated and I'm not really sure why to be honest with you. I know Ashanti is still a young boy, but even so, he comes from a rather "fertile" line for lack of a better word. At the end of the day though, there will always be another honeymoon and for reasons unbeknownst to me, this one was not meant to be.

April 25 - 27, 2007 (The Honeymoon)

No, this was not an unplanned honeymoon, this is one we've been wanting to happen :) It's been 12 months since Amarula had her 1st litter, and with the weather changing, she had started coming into call very regularly again, so when she started again on the 24, Graham and I spoke about it and decided it was the right time to see whether or not Ashanti was still keen on the whole honeymoon scenario. On April 25, Ashanti showed us just how keen he actually was, as you can see by the photos below. He still has a bit of work to do on his technique though :) This will be the 2nd litter Ashanti will have sired, if this honeymoon is successful, and it's one I'm looking forward to. This honeymoon has the capacity to produce Oriental Blacks, as well as Oriental Brown (black) Classic Tabbies and this is another of our "trial and error matings" of close lines, to try and improve the quality of the patterns in any possible Tabby babies that may arrive. As you can imagine, this is another exciting honeymoon for me and I know that Ashanti and Amarula certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves :) I will not know until approximately May 16 whether or not this honeymoon was successful, so please do check back after that day for another update when I can confirm if we will be expecting more Ashanti babies or not.