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.

With everything that had been going on with our current babies, the Nuts and the Detectives, I just didn't get around to getting the week 8 entry done at all. Toussaint is due in a couple of day's time, approximately the 20th, and by now, we should be feeling, and seeing, an awful lot of movement, but there has been nothing at all. As you can imagine, we were concerned, particularly having just been through one emergency c-section with Amarula, and then the fact that Toussaint's first litter was also by c-section so we had a chat and decided that the best thing to do would be to phone our vets and get her booked in for an ultrasound to see whether or not there were actually any live babies in there. Our vets, as per usual, were just fantastic and they fit us in virtually straight away. We were taken, along with Toussaint, through to the back to watch the ultrasound and we were incredibly relieved to see 3 healthy heartbeats. So back home with Toussaint we came to play the waiting game for the next few days and hope and pray that Toussaint will be able to deliver her babies naturally this time. Please check back around the 20th for news of the birth.

July 6, 2007 (approximately 7 weeks pregnant)

It's been a fairly quiet week with Toussaint and she continues to spend her days in Graham's room, and then her evenings with us in our room. As of yet I have still to feel any movement inside but this isn't always unusual with some of our girls as we don't start to feel actual kicks until around the 8 week mark. We are monitoring her closely though, particularly as her first litter resulted in a c-section and while the reason for that was not something that would stop her delivering babies normally, we do want to keep an eye on her. Her pregnancy is progressing well although she doesn't appear to be gaining a great deal of weight, but again it can be so difficult to tell with Toussaint as she is such a very long, tall girl. Her appetite is good, although she is not eating as much as Tia Lusso was with her recent litter. We would be happy if Toussaint just had 2 or 3 babies to be honest with you. We have not set her kitten box up for her yet because it is a bit early and she is showing no signs of looking to nest anywhere at the moment. I think another reason that I don't want too many babies is that I know full well I am going to struggle to colour/pattern them. Throwing Tortie in with Tabby makes for rather interesting combinations to say the least! We are looking at tortie spotted's, (probably not tortie classics although this is possible as the dam's sire carries the "Fleic" tabbies) and when you consider being such a Tabby novice and the fun I had ascertaining exactly what Pecan was, then I'm sure you can appreciate trying to tell a tortie tabby from an actual tabby, especially when red is thrown in there, well, needless to say I will certainly be expecting Teen to visit to help me out with deciding just what Toussaint's children might be. It will be fun and games to say the least :)

June 29, 2007 (approximately 6 weeks pregnant)

Toussaint wasn't really keen to stand up and show off her large she is getting. Instead, she just wanted to have a sleep where she was nice and comfy and I think the fact that she is carrying our Ashanti babies means that she has the right to choose whether or not she should show off for the camera. She is doing very well although she can be a little hormonal at the moment with the rest of our feline family so we have to be careful who she is with during the day and evening. Toussaint is still very clingy when Graham and I and she wants nothing more than to be with us, which is very sweet, but not if you're trying to have a meal in peace or trying to get in and out of kitten rooms where she is not allowed to go. She is so loving though that you can't help but smile at her and give her lots of cuddles. There's not really much change to Toussaint's appetite and although it is slightly increased, it is only very slightly, and unlike Tia Lusso, Toussaint is not eating us out of house and home.................................yet!

June 22, 2007 (approximately 5 weeks pregnant)

Toussaint does not look particularly large, however looks can be deceiving :) Toussaint is such a big girl compared to a lot of other Oriental queens, and she is incredibly long, so her weight is much more evenly distributed and spread out throughout the length of her body. She is much heavier now and and is carrying her weight well. During the day, she wants to be in Graham's room, where there are fewer cats, (only Frangelico, Nocello, and Cacao) as she seems to prefer their company to that of our other feline family. What surprises me is that she no longer has any interest at all in her son, Tuaca. Up until about a week ago, Toussaint and her son could be found curled up together every single day, grooming each other, he would suckle from her, and they would sleep for hours but not any more. Now that she is pregnant, she is leaving her son to his own devices and is concentrating instead on the babies she is carrying. This is fair enough because after all, Tuaca is 8 months of age and perhaps it is time to let go of the apron strings :) I would actually like to see Toussaint a bit more active as it is still so very early on in her pregnancy but she seems to be spending a lot of time sleeping instead. I may start playing some games with her with feather/wand type toys just to keep her activity levels up because the more active she is up until the labour, the easier the labour itself should be. The one bad spot in Toussaint's pregnancy is that the little minx has suddenly taken to wee'ing in the most inappropriate of places so we are not particularly impressed.

June 15, 2007 (approximately 4 weeks pregnant)

Toussaint is expanding at a rather rapid rate bless her and her appetite is very good indeed although it's still early days into her pregnancy. She is actually larger than Amarula who is currently 7 weeks into her pregnancy. She is a happy girl at the moment and has gone back to grooming mummy's hair which I have always found such an endearing, if somewhat painful, experience. She can no longer go upstairs during the day because our current babies now have access to the upstairs as well as their own kitten room so for the time being upstairs is off limits during the day to our own adult cats. During the day, she is dividing her time between being in my room, going out into the cat run to laze around in the sun, and spending time in Graham's room. It can be hard to know what to write about at this stage of the pregnancy because very little changes between weeks 3 and 4. One change though is that the morning sickness has ceased thank goodness.

June 8, 2007 (approximately 3 weeks pregnant)

About 2 1/2 weeks into the pregnancy, I felt that Toussaint "looked" different. It was nothing I could put my finger on, but I knew that she was most definitely pregnant. However, I looked on Day 21 into the pregnancy to discover that there was no nipple change at all. I then looked at Day 22, and still nothing, and there was where I started to think she wasn't after all. I then double checked my mating dates to find I had entered them wrong into the breeding program that I use, so once I amended the dates, and re-counted from the middle day of mating, it meant that Day 21 wasn't until June 8 and not June 4 as I originally thought! By June 8, Toussaint had most definitely pinked up of an evening, but was pale again by the following day, however on June 10, she remained pink which means that we will be having more babies in July. I say "more" because Tia Lusso is due approximately July 8, whereas Toussaint will be due around July 20. She also proved her pregnancy state by having morning sickness in spectacular fashion..................all over the upstairs carpet! We are hoping that this time around, Toussaint will be happy to share mothering duties with Lucy. We know Lucy will share without any problems but if you read the kitten diary for Toussaint's first litter, you will know that she would not tolerate any other mothers or kittens in the same room as her. That was her first litter though and she did have a C-section, so hopefully things will be different this time around. Toussaint has been in a bit of a funny mood for this past week as she has no idea where she wants to be really. She is extremely clingy with us, but at the moment she is not keen on some of the other cats in the home as chances are, this is hormonal because we have seen this sort of behaviour before early on in pregnancies. At only 3 weeks into the pregnancy I've not changed her food intake at all and she is being fed exactly the same as our other adult cats. The only slight difference is that there is now kitten biscuits as well as adult biscuits in the downstairs bowls because Toussaint spends her days downstairs as well as upstairs. The upstairs bowls have kitten biscuits only in them.

May 16, 2007 - May 20, 2007 (The Honeymoon)

Never, ever, have I seen anything quite like this in all my life! Let me start at the beginning though...................On May 15, Graham said to me that Toussaint looked pregnant. I looked at her and I honestly didn't think she actually looked that much bigger than she normally does. However, I did tip her upside down to have a look at her nipples which were perfectly normal. Later that afternoon, Toussaint was going a little "nutty" throughout the house, and I did say to Graham that she definitely isn't pregnant but don't be surprised if she's about to come into call. At which point we both sighed as Cointreau started calling again that same day. What I wasn't expecting was that Toussaint would come into call a mere 5 hours of me saying she would. So naturally, when we went upstairs that evening, because no one was actually calling, we left Ashanti down there with the company of the rest of the cats. At some ridiculous hour of the morning, the screams started. They went on and on and on. Sure enough, the little minx did come into call and oh boy was Ashanti trying to make the most of it. Obviously, the next morning, we knew there was no point separating them because from the sounds we heard, there was a honeymoon well and truly under way. As it happens, Toussaint would have been mating Ashanti this year anyway, just not quite as soon as this :) Then on May 16, I was able to witness exactly what was going on and why the screaming was so awful. Ashanti is an extremely long boy, however, he is still a baby himself, just 4 days short of being 10 months of age so he still has a heck of a lot of growing to do. Toussaint on the other hand is a very long, fully grown adult female. Can you see where I'm going with this? Ashanti couldn't flipping well reach! So he has her by the back of the neck, he gets in position, only to find that his "lipstick" was not quite where it should be, instead it was only 3/4 of the way down her back. So rather than lose position on the back of the neck and use his brains and move grab her a bit further down, he was quite literally trying to stretch his body as long as possible, but it still wasn't quite long enough, and after about 3 minutes of doing this, he would jump off, sit a few feet away from her, look at her, and wonder what the heck was wrong. He actually had the audacity to glare at her as if it were her fault, rather than his own technique. Toussaint, as you can imagine was absolutely fuming and was screaming at him in frustration for not getting it right. Now if you think that this rather graphic description doesn't paint a particularly pretty picture, just let me say that you are lucky you were here to hear the sounds that accompanied the actions <sigh>. This went on and on for hours all afternoon and they were still getting nowhere. By this time, as you can imagine, I was actually saying to Ashanti "For goodness sake, just get it over with and shut up." The more they screamed in frustration, and the more he got on and off, the more annoyed I was actually getting. While this was going on, all the windows and doors in the home had to be shut because goodness only knows what anything would have thought if they'd heard the pair of them. So naturally the other cats were frustrated as they weren't allowed out into the cat run so they all had to sit inside and put up with the screeching as well. Let me tell you, never, ever, have I seen Toussaint so volatile towards another cat, but can you blame her? So of course I was then sitting here thinking to myself "Please, please, please, don't tear him to shreds Toussaint, he is going on the show bench and the slightest injury would mean I couldn't take him ". This The only amusing thing in all of this is that while it was going on, Ice, who is our neuter ex stud cat, took one look at the proceedings, found himself a toy mice and started playing with it like a kitten, trying desperately to ignore what was going on. Tuaca had to be put upstairs because he figured if it were good enough for Ashanti, he may as well have a go too and lo and behold the little bugger tried to step in when Ashanti stepped off! Is it any wonder I have grey hairs and stress levels are rising dramatically :) I guess, we will know by the 2nd week of June whether or not this was successful (and I do have my doubts!!!!!!) and this is an interesting mating due to the possible colours and patterns we can end up with. In fact, my mind boggles as to the end results, tortie tabby orientals, red tabbies, actually, I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. It's now 6pm, still on May 16, I fed our adult cats, and put Toussaint and Ashanti both upstairs so they could howl and bonk all they like, out of my way so that I could iron in peace, out of our ear shot (well we'd still hear them but not as loud I guess), and do you know what those horrible cats did? They mated once and went to sleep!!!! Now they couldn't have done this while they were downstairs could they? Oh no............that would be too much to ask!!!! One of these days, I swear..................................

So on this note, the "honeymoon" entry will end here before you all think I have turned into a raving lunatic, I'm going to have a glass of wine to settle my nerves so let's wait and see what our next update brings us in 3 weeks' time.