Friday 16 March 2012

A Burmese Kitten Interlude...



Blue Belle, my lovely, gentle blue Burmese cat, had a litter of Burmese kittens in January. Now, prompted by a comment on my last post by Celine, I thought I would just update you on their progress...

Blue Belle herself as a young kitten...


 

Burmese cats which have been part of my life for so very long are truly, truly wonderful and have huge characters. They come in many different colours though I only breed Brown, Blue, Chocolate and Lilac.

 A previous litter showing on the left a young, pale brown and on the right a warm chocolate kitten whose colours can be similar at this very young age.


I first encountered the Burmese breed when I was a young child and was visiting friends of my parents who had two very elegant chocolate Burmese who sauntered through their 300 year old Oxfordshire cottage filled with delicate antiques as if they owned it and the humans who happened to be there were present only to cater for their every whim and need...which was of course very true...

As a child, I was warned to be on my very best behaviour and not to touch all these precious antiques yet these beautiful cats strolled around, weaving in and out of fragile figurines on the mantelpiece, never causing any damage and with their owners talking to them as if they were important members of the family whose wishes were paramount... 

 One of my Lilac Burmese that I bred.

 
As I grew up we had many animals including cats but none could match the Burmese that I had met previously. Many years later I returned to live in the UK and wanted to have a kitten or two. As it turned out, my parent’s vet who was also a family friend, was a long time fan of Burmese and had two of his own. He put me in touch with a breeder and I acquired my first two Burmese. Tosca was a chocolate and Mimi was a blue. They were incredible characters and again encouraged by my parent’s vet I started on the saga of breeding from them, showing, stewarding and eventually qualifying as a Full Judge. That, of course took many, many years...

 Another one of my Lilacs

 
A Chocolate Burmese kitten...


 

Tessy, Mimi’s first daughter, has just turned 20 and I see her regularly where she lives, much loved, on the Gower peninsular in South Wales.

Anyway, back to my current litter. Blue Belle had five kittens-two lilac and three blue. As an experienced mum who had had two previous litters, she popped them out with me sitting beside her as midwife at 2am in the morning, without any difficulty and within a few hours of being born, all were having their first drink...



 
The kittens, three female and two males have grown really well.
Seen here at Day Three, a Lilac and Blue close entwined...



 
Wilma, their brown half sister from Blue Belle’s previous litter comes to investigate her half siblings...



 
She, thankfully, quickly adores them and now acts as chief babysitter when mum wants a rest...

And at four weeks they are starting to bustle around the kitten box...



 
Now at seven weeks they are charging around the house downstairs as if they own it...which perhaps they do...
Taking photos at this age is extremely difficult as they don’t keep still long enough and all the photos I take seemed to be somewhat blurred...
All I can take is some when they are asleep...



 
Whilst we may find life stressful at times, a kitten or two can just simply sleep it all away...


 
I do hope some people liked my ‘Burmese Kitten Interlude’. I know there was no mention of gardening or food today so my apologies to anyone who finds this post boring or disappointing...


20 comments:

  1. No apologies please. I am delighted you posted your kitten photos. They are sooooo adorable, those thoughtful eyes makes one wonder, what are thinking?

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    1. Many thanks Norma-so glad you liked the photos!! They are cute but now they are going the dreaded naughty nine week phase where their favourite word is ‘no’. They get very excited to hear that word and consequently do everything naughty they can- just to enjoy the adrenaline rush of being told off-that’s Burmese for you!!

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  2. Now how could we find such adorable photos boring? They are so so cute. I have to confess to not really being a cat lover, principally because they kill birds. But despite this, I've managed to form the odd attachment or two. And burmese are particularly elegant.

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    1. Thanks Choclette. I haven’t had many comments from this post so I guess most people have not been that taken with it...Still, my cats are a very important part of my life so I felt they needed to be featured at least just the once...On the positive front my cats have never killed a bird-probably because they are indoors cats and only go outside on a harness!

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  3. Hi Green Dragonette,
    I am a little annoyed to read that one of your comments did not get to me. I don't know why. Fellow blogger Mark said he was having trouble commenting on my blog lately too :( I can only say sorry, but its nothing to do with me.

    Love the kitties, but I am hoping to adopt a doggie in the near future. First got to get me some income, to support us - then the doggie. I agree with Choclette too, another reason I am not so much into cats (though I had a couple as a child) is now that they attack the birds that I feed, so I do try to discourage them in the garden, not that I have seen many around here yet, though. Still happy to go 'ahhh' at your photos. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thanks so much Shaheen for your comment-great to see you stopped by-really kind of you.

      I would love to have a dog but being away overnight at times means it is impractical at the moment. All the very best on the job front and hope you get some positive news very soon...

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  4. I loved the Burmese Kitten Interlude. Such beautiful kittens, I particularly love that last photograph where one kitten looks as though he has a full little tummy and is sleeping it off. I didn't realise that Burmese cats came in so many colours - if you had asked me, off the top of my head I would have said 'brown'! What a beautiful post, I can't believe I missed seeing it.

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    1. Thank you Elaine for your kind comment. Saying ‘brown’ would not be far off the mark as that was the original Burmese colour!!

      Thank you so much again for stopping by as I haven’t had many visitors this week... I have noticed that the side bar with my favourite blogs is not being updated all the time and I have missed some posts on other people’s site when I go to check...so wonder possibly if they don’t know I have a new post too?? Hey ho...they may, of course, just not like cats!!

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  5. I don't think you need to apologise for showing people some photos of these gorgeous creatures. Blogs can be what you want them to be, and It hink you will find that there is a strong community of people out there who enjoy "nice things" in lots of different forms. I like gardening, but I also like food and drink, photography, travel -- and cats! I have never had pedigree cats, but I have had a succession of Moggies. When our last one died it was such a harrowing experience that we decided not to have another cat - but who knows, maybe one day we'll relent?

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    1. Many thanks again Mark for your encouragement. I have to admit I am feeling a little low at the lack of visitors and comments on this particular post as my cats are so important to me...though I must chuckle as who would have thought that when I started that I would have even one person come by!!!

      Onwards and upwards as they say...

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  6. Ooooooo they look so cute, must visit soon

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    1. Indeed you must...they need a substitute entertainer!!

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  7. Oh, those are just precious. I don't think there' any other more typical picture of decadence and snoozy laziness than a cat rolling around in joy on a mat.

    So cute! I love their chocolatey colour too.

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    1. Hi Charles-you are so right! They keep us entertained for hours!!

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  8. Magic is in the air.... okay I may get carried away, but I'm one of them... a cat lover. And your photos are simply my treat !
    thanks a lot :)

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    1. Hi Celine,

      Thanks for dropping by and so glad you enjoyed the photos! Many thanks for the prompt to post them too!!

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  9. How can anyone not love the pictures of your beautiful cats I bet you are very proud of your achievement.

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    1. Thanks Elaine-yes you are absolutely right I’m very proud of them-does it show!!

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  10. Awh sooooo cute! Adorable all of them. I laughed at the story of the antiques that he children could not touch, though the cats had free reign! Classic.

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    1. Hi Madeleine-Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a kind comment. Great to catch up with you.

      It’s funny how life has come full circle as I am very protective of my ornaments if I have visitors now myself with young children yet I’m more laid back with my Burmese dancing around the ornaments all day-hadn’t really realised that before!!

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