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.

As you can tell by the photos below, Tia Lusso is doing extremely well, and it's very apparent that she doesn't have much longer to go now. She hasn't had a great deal of interest in cooked/wet foods, but she is eating the James Wellbeloved biscuits with great relish and can't seem to get enough of them. I don't mind because the JW is a complete, balanced meal and if she prefers that to wet foods then it's more than fine. Lucy is in excellent condition and has totally sailed through this pregnancy which we are so relieved about, especially considering the current difficulties with Amarula and her new children. This is a litter that I'm quite excited about and all I can think of is patterns, patterns, and more patterns :) Although with Lucy being Siamese, and Ashanti being an Oriental who carries the Siamese gene, it is possible we will get more Siamese Tabby Point babies than Oriental Tabbies but so long as they are healthy I'm not going to care to be honest. During this coming week we will move Lusso into the bedroom with us of an evening, on her own, with the kitten box. I'm actually going to steal the older babies' "posh kitten box" as they no longer use it now. The other "posh kitten box" is currently being used by Amarula and her children. This may well be our last pregnancy diary entry as Lusso's due date is this Sunday, on July 8, so please do check back after this date to see whether or not we have commenced a new kitten diary.

June 24, 2007 (Approximately 7 weeks pregnant)

Well at just 7 weeks pregnant, Lucy has started eating for England bless her. Of an evening, we have some of the cats upstairs and naturally they are in and out of bedroom, one of them is Lusso, and it doesn' t matter whether we are eating a smoothie dessert, or a packet of crisps, whatever it is, Lucy wants it. Although nothing will ever replace her favourite James Wellbeloved kitten/adult biscuits and she continues to have her head stuck in the biscuit bowls on a very regular basis. She is incredibly large and continues to expand, but still this doesn't stop her being active and running and climbing yet still she doesn't look awkward or clumsy which some girls do when they are this size. Lucy remains permanently beautiful and graceful in that way that only Tabbies can. The closer she gets to her due date, the more clingy and loving she is becoming, particularly during the evening. She wants to sit as close to us as possible, on our laps, which does not impress Cacao because of a night, Cacao always gets the top spot on my lap and she will not give it up for anyone, not even a pregnant lady. Lucy is still spending her days in the main part of the home with the rest of our feline family and when it's nap time, nothing pleases her more than to climb into bed with her husband, Ashanti, so that they can both curl up together and sleep.

June 17, 2007 (Approximately 6 weeks pregnant)

We have now reached the 6 week stage and all is well. Tia Lusso's pregnancy is progressing exactly as it should. I was a tad concerned with the amount of food she has been eating that she would expand too quickly but she is doing just fine. She isn't piling on the weight, instead, it is a gradual increase. Having said that, she is large but this is not affecting her in any way at all and she still manages to look incredibly graceful, despite her size, as she runs up and down the stairs and goes in and out of the cat run. She has become quite attention seeking during the past week, not only with us, but also with our kitten families when they visit. She is constantly standing on her back legs and putting her front paws on our visitors in order to get their attention and she won't stop until they have told her how beautiful she is.

June 10, 2007 (Approximately 5 weeks pregnant)

Five weeks into the pregnancy and Tia Lusso is absolutely blooming. She looks really well and is thoroughly enjoying the nice weather we have been having and she is spending quite a bit of time out on one of the shelves in the cat run, snoozing away and relaxing in the sun. What I can't quite believe is the amount of food she is eating at the moment. It's still quite early on in the pregnancy but she constantly has her head stuck in the biscuit bowls. Now as this was a "one night stand", I would be very surprised if she had more than a couple of babies, yet she is eating as if she has a little army in there. She does have that smug and contented look about her that all pregnant mothers have and I do think she is looking just perfect at the moment. There is still no interest whatsoever in "Monkey" and he does just lie on the floor, totally ignored, apart from when Nocello adopts him for herself. She is spending quite a bit of time snuggling up with her "husband" and when I look at them together in the bed, I do think they are such a beautiful couple and such contented parents-to-be. Her husband adores her, and she adores him, but then, there isn't a cat in our home who isn't in love with Ashanti :)

June 3, 2007 (Approximately 4 weeks pregnant)

Tia Lusso is expanding at a nice rate, not too quickly, but enough each week for me to know that the baby/s inside her are growing. Her appetite has also increased quite a bit, particularly with the James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits. It's not unusual at all to hear someone chomping away and when I turn and look it is Lucy. She is also now on one extra pouch meal per day, remembering that she is still eating the cooked/commercial meals that all of our adults are fed on. One thing which does surprise me is that Lucy is not playing with her "monkey" which is extremely unusual. "Monkey" is Lucy's best friend and not only does she play fetch with him, she also carts him all over the home but for the past week, "monkey" has sat on the stairs, or on the floor, totally rejected. I will be very interested to see whether or not, as the pregnancy progresses, she reverts back to the normal relationship she and "monkey" have. I am pleased with how well she is doing and it also appears that if all goes well, when she does have her babies and is in the kitten room, she may well have some company as I am almost positive that a certain other lady is pregnant.

May 27, 2007 (Approximately 3 weeks pregnant)

During the afternoon of May 26, I was on the phone to my mate Teen, and I noticed Lucy not far away from me, with rather protruding nipples that looked pinker than they should have. I asked Teen to "hang on a minute" so I could turn Lucy upside down and have a closer look. Sure enough, she was looking decidedly pregnant. A couple of days prior to this however, I had mentioned to Graham that Lucy was looking just slightly more rounded than she should. It wouldn't have been noticeable to anyone else really other than myself as I spend the most time with her, and I was definitely seeing some very subtle changes in her. By May 27, she looked a bit pinker, and I am almost certain that she is definitely pregnant. I sent an email to Marcelle as she is still very patiently waiting for a "mini Ashanti" and with a Tabby x Tabby mating, chances are, she'll have a pretty good shot at getting what she wants :)

May 4 - May 5, 2007 (The Honeymoon)

Why on earth I am even referring to this section of the pregnancy diary as a "Honeymoon" I do not know. This was no honeymoon, this was a one night stand in typical Ashanti fashion! Tia Lusso had been screaming her head off in full call, so Ashanti was kept in Graham's room during the day, then of an evening, he would go in the upstairs part of the home with a few of our other cats. We really should have known better. If Ashanti is determined to get to a girl, then nothing short of a bolted, metal door would keep him away I'm beginning to think. We went up to bed as per normal on the evening of the 4th, did the standard "head count", made sure everyone was where they should be. We put the chain on the wire barrier door that separates the upstairs from the downstairs and we then settled down for the evening. You can obviously imagine the look of horror on my face when I arose the next morning to find some of the downstairs cats upstairs where they shouldn't be, and Ashanti nowhere in sight. I came down the stairs, looked into my room straight into the eyes of an extremely smug Tia Lusso, curled up in bed with her "groom", who had an equally contented and smug look on his face. I sighed and thought, "Here we go again". What else could I do? This boy is going to be the death of me, I swear! On the plus side, if they did indeed mate during the night, and if Lucy is pregnant, then we can look forward to, hopefully, an entire litter of Seal Tabby Point Siamese and Brown Oriental Tabbies, which will be nice. We will know in about 3 weeks' time as to whether or not anything actually took place, so do please check back approximately May 26 for a further update.