Long time, no blog!

Wow, I’ve had a busy few weeks! Holidays were a busy time for me, and then January just shot by in a blur! 


 The kitties have been busy growing like crazy. The two litters this fall have been a lot of fun, and I am having one heckuva time trying to figure out who to let go of! 


 I did let Gus—now Bo—go to a new family, which was hard :) He is a beautiful boy, and I think he had a lot of potential for show and maybe breeding. But sometimes the right people just come along, and—for me—my main concern is happy kitties and happy families. Bo’s people were an absolute perfect fit. Tracey (his new mom) and I had lots of good conversations and I knew they’d make a great home for one of my babies. When she and James came to visit, not knowing who they would take, I showed them all my kittens. They loved my little blue dude, and after much thinking on my part I knew that was the right thing for him and for them. For me? Well… I really liked him for my program, but at the same time knowing he is very happy, content, and getting as much love as he can handle makes me very happy, too. And I am glad to have this new family in my circle of friends :) So yes, good all around! 


 I also placed my funny little “whoopsie” Selkirk Rex girl, Squeek—now Briley. She met a very nice lady at the show in December, and I was very happy when she called me in January! What a great match—just one of those things, I knew it was meant to be. She is now happily spoiled, along with her new sister :) They’ve made friends, and her new mom Susan has been sending me pictures and updates—I am so glad for her. She was a very special kitty—and even though she didn’t belong here, I loved her very much. I feel like she is where she belongs now, and that is such a good feeling. 


 I always worry about my kitties—I think most breeders do. That and letting go of them are the two hardest parts for me with breeding. It is good to have 2 really fantastic placements, homes I don’t have to worry about—and new found friends and kitty family :) 


 I’ve had a lot of interest in my other kitties and upcoming litters lately—and I have gotten some really good vibes from some of these people, too, so hopefully I will have some more good placement stories to share soon. Assuming I can make up my mind on who I can part with! :) These two nice litters have been a sort of mixed blessing, I can’t believe I am complaining about the luck I had with them! But! Rational me knows I can’t keep them all, and that keeping to much of identical breeding is a bad idea—for my cattery. Emotional me is soooo excited to having this many beautiful kitties—I got two litters of the kittens I was always searching for… and it is very hard for me to share! =^..^=

Little Update

Hey, I can see I have a couple people checking in to my blog regularly--Hi!  And I apologize for not keeping up a little better :)


Had a fantastic show here in Phoenix Dec 10-11th!  I took too many kitties (6), and didn't get to spend as much time enjoying the show--but it was GREAT!

First, my Persian boy Rockstar (above) is now a Grand Champion!  It was perfect-- judge Betty White gave him his first final at his first show (and said so many nice things about him, even in his short coat), and was also the judge to award him the points to finish his grand!  He also made several finals over the weekend, so he finished with many points to spare.


Second, Mewz Pretty, Pretty Paisley --one of Rockstar's Exotic daughters -- did especially well, and made 2 kitten finals!  She was only a couple days over 4 months, but handled herself like a pro!  She beat several campaigner kittens to make the finals--Phoenix was a huge kitten show, and the Exotic class was enormous!  So that was very exciting for me :) Judges had very many nice and encouraging things to say about my litter (I entered all 4, LOL)--the kittens were a hit!   Pat and Promise were both crowd pleasers with their playful antics, and Penny was her usual super cute self.  Each of them had some good wins, but Paisley was the overall favorite. I am anxious to continue bring them out and see if that holds--Paisley is indeed a gorgeous baby, but I think the others are also pretty special--and am curious to see how they challenge her.  Fun!


I had the good fortune of meeting and chatting with several very nice people at this show, as well as getting to spend a little time with my mentors--who I do not get to see enough of.  It was a great experience all around.

Pictures of Patti

I am STILL trying to get some pictures of my younger exotic shorthair kittens from Luna.  We were planning on taking some this weekend, but the weather is very gray, and predicted to stay so.  Sooo... that will make it more challenging. Next weekend is a big show, tho, so I REALLY need to get some nice pictures to take with me--both to show off Rockstar's ability, and also because there may well be buyers there.  I think at least a couple of those babies may be for sale.


I DID manage to get some cute pictures of Pat the other day.  I am working on getting her ready for the show coming up.

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What a cutie!  Her personality is really starting to come out--she was kind of quiet before, but she's getting sillier and more outgoing.  If I get half of what she's giving me at home at the show, I think she will do well!  A playful exotic shorthair kitten is hard to beat!  She is shaping up pretty nicely.  =^..^=

Litter Advice

·        Litter Advice!  Exotic shorthair kitties are pretty straight forward to take care of.  Persians and Exotic longhairs take a bit more thinking--their very hairy feet and sometimes long, long coats cat require a little accommodation.  Also, there are lots of products on the market these days, and it gets expensive trying everything.  Having a house full of cats, I do some experimenting with, especially with products I am hearing a lot of great things about.  

v  I use and strongly recommend both Dr. Elsey’s Precious cat litters, and Tidy Cat’s BREEZE system. 

v  Dr. E’s litters are fine tuned to specific kitty needs, and they do a great job of controlling odor and being dust free.  They have some especially for kitten training, retraining problem kitties, long haired kitties, older kitties, etc.  I really like just the original scoopable in the big blue bags.  It is very economical—compare to generics at Wal-mart—but soooo much higher quality!  No dust, better odor control, harder clumps.  I also like the formula for longhairs—it is a crystal type with large sediment, and works well for long haired Exotics and Persians because it doesn’t get caught in the hair—which is occasionally a problem for fuzzy feet and super long coats.  Their website at http://www.preciouscat.com/ often has great coupons to use at the store, making their reasonable litter prices fantastic.  

v  Breeze boxes are completely different—they have a large pellet litter that sits on a raised grate in the box, which is suspended over a pan that is lined with a pad.  I like that the urine flows thru and doesn’t get in kitty’s hair.  It does a very good job of controlling urine odor.  There is zero litter tracking around the house.  Pads get changed about once a week, litter gets swapped once a month or two.  Sometimes I get a bag of litter pellets that smell funny.  That is the biggest problem I have with this system.  For me, it’s a big problem because I have a dozen boxes in the house. The smell reminds me of a dead animal.  Because I am doing 12 boxes, I buy a lot at once, which means I get mostly the same lot… at $7 a bag, that’s a lot of litter to have to pitch with no use!  It’s only happened a couple times in the 3 years I have been using them, but it’s enough to make me think again.  For a normal household, this is a great system—people won’t know you have cats until they come out to visit.  And the cost is comparable to traditional boxes.

v  Boxes—for traditional litters I really like the new stainless steel pans.  They don’t scratch, and you can get them 100% clean.  They last forever, and they don’t look half bad (for a litter box!).  Any material box will do, though, if it is maintained properly.  My biggest suggestions are get as big a box as you can accommodate, have a couple of boxes in different rooms in the house (and at least one per level of your home), and make sure you have a minimum of 1 box per 2 cats.  And, of course, keep it CLEAN.  Some of the auto-cleaning boxes are nice.  Scooping a couple times a day isn’t hard, though, and pet stores now carry used litter receptacles that make it easy to scoop a few times and then take it outside to the trash when you’re ready (for a single cat home, that could be a week), all without opening the container and subjecting yourself to the smell. 

v  Keeping the box clean will keep your nose happy, and kitty going in the box.  I do wash out litter boxes every now and then—usually when I see that litter is made up of bits of left over clump, I dump the box and while it is empty I wash it out.  Make sure it is completely dry before re-filling or litter will stick to the bottom and sides.  Likewise, when you refill, put in 3 inches or so of litter.  If it is deep, the clumps will properly form and NOT stick to the sides/bottom, and break.  Try and steer away from scented litters, ESPECIALLY citrus smells!  Cats hate citrus (put citrus rinds places you want to keep kitty out of, it repels them), so putting citrus in or around their litter box is a REALLY bad idea!

Luna's Kittens

Luna, my bluecream Exotic, had a litter of three last month.  Two boys, 1 girl.  The boys are both shorthairs--one cream tabby with white, and one blue tabby who has high white.  The little girl is a cream and white longhair.


The blue tabby and white shorthair--Gus, although Stephen keeps calling him Elvis--has gorgeous markings, and beautiful eyes.  The cream tabby and white shorthair guy--Scooter--is uber compact, and very, very outgoing.  He has the shortest tail I've seen, in fact a short spine altogether--back and neck included, which is great.  Skeeter--the longhair girl--has a really lovely face--different than my other cats--and a tophead that looks very promising.  And tiny, tiny ears.  She's adorable, a diva already, but also sweet and purring and playful.  All of them have very nice, people oriented personalities, and lots of energy.  They are all super healthy and robust, which is marvelous.


This weekend we are going to try and take some pictures of them.  I will post some if we get any good ones :)

Quick Post about cleanup products I like!

I will be making a more inclusive list of things I really like, and why--and posting them to my "new owners" page, coming soon!

 Today, though, I just wanted to recommend some clean-up products after my last entry. 

For cleaning up stains in carpet and upholstery, I cannot say enough about Bissell Eww!It is an enzyme based cleaner, so it actually eats what is causing the stain, and nothing else.  This means you can use it on most surfaces without damaging them, and the WHOLE stain goes away--rather than just lightening it and/or making it smell less.  You can usually buy it at Petsmart/Petco/Target.  There are other enzymatic cleaners on the market--Nil-Odor (a professional janitorial chem maker) Digester is one I used to like a lot, until I found Eww, which I prefer hands down.  The other enzymatic cleaners will definitely help, and do more than probably just about anything else you can try--but Eww reigns champion, imho. 

Eww has a very nice, fairly subtle, clean smell it imparts while it is working.  It is pleasant to my nose, and the cats don't seem all that interested in being around it while it is working--although it doesn't seem to upset them, either. (Digester had a strong, sort of minty smell that could get overpowering if you had a big mess to clean up, and didn't do as well at disguising the pee smell while it worked, and the cats would come over to investigate what was going on.  Nature's Miracle, another enzymatic cleaner, didn't do much to mask the smell (smelled like cat pee and their fragrance while it worked), and I did not get satisfactory removal results with it.  I don't know if it is weak, or uses the wrong strains of enzymes, or what.  It is supposed to be great for pets, but the two types I tried, both of which were designed to treat cat urine, did NOT work--even with repeated applications, 3 days keeping the stain saturated, etc.  So don't waste your money there. 

To clean up new stains (pee, poop, vomit) clean up as much of the stain as you can with paper towels.  Grab any solids, then gently blot liquids (try not to force the material into the carpet pad or upholstery foam). Applying the cleaner requires a little care.  Think about the stains you are treating.  I have 2 ways I apply the cleaner.  I have a condiment bottle like you would find in diner--squeeze bottle with a narrow tip that I bought as Walmart for about $1, and I also have a pressurized, handheld mini pump sprayer I also bought at Walmart in the garden section for about $6.  If the stain is small and deep (a pee spot or two) then I use the bottle, and if I have a lot of stains to treat, or it was poop that is mainly in the upper carpet fibers, I use the sprayer.  The sprayer is pretty slick, because you pump it up and then there is no pulling the trigger.  It has an adjustable nozzle, so I can make a fine or coarse spray, or I can make a stream.  The stream or very narrow, coarse spray is what I use most--works great for pee spots. 

When you apply the cleaner, go around and saturate the outside perimeter of the stain first!  I go just outside of what I can see with my cats--dogs I used to go a ways around to saturate where I figured the stain had spread in the carpet padding.  Cats have concentrated urine, so that isn't generally much of a problem, unless you have several cats marking and remarking the same spot in short succession.  Go around the spot and make sure it is wet clear in to the padding.  This is putting up a barrier, so when you wet the stain itself it won't bleed in to clean areas, it will just push in to the cleaning liquid.  Then saturate the stain itself with the cleaner.  If it is a pee stain you are working on, make sure you get the padding good and saturated.  If it is poop, and was solid, just getting the top fibers should remove any smell/stain. 

Keep the stain wet for several hours.  When the cleaner dries, the enzymes/bacteria die and it won't work anymore.  With cat pee, especially if I feel it may be a marking issue, I try and keep it wet about 12hrs, 24 is better.  (If you have a lot of problems, 48 would be even better, but I have rarely had to do that--and I have had really, really troubled rescue kitties to deal with.)  Wet towels/facecloths/hand-towels do this very well--I just get them wet and put them over the treated stains, and make sure they stay wet.  I also use wet paper towels sometimes, especially if I have a lot of spots to treat--a bowl of warm water and a roll of papers towels is easy to get everything covered.  I make the covering a few sheets thick, wet them in the bowl, and move on.  They dry out faster, so check them every several hours and rewet as need be. You can also just keep rewetting the spots with water or more cleaner, but I always get sidetracked, so putting towels on works best for me so they don't dry out until I am ready. 

If you are treating dry stains, the technique is basically the same, but I STRONGLY recommend a UV light to help you find the exact locations of the stains.  In fact, I STRONGLY recommend a UV light anyway, because it will help you determine when your stains are really cleaned up anyway--especially important with behavior training.  It works REALLY well--make the room dark or wait for night time--then run around with your UV light and slowly scan.  Messes will fluoresce green--paler if they have been incompletely cleaned before.  Wet messes will sometimes not show up (but you can spot those with your eyes), and stains you are working on are hard to see--get the light close, and make sure it's very dark.  After you're pretty sure the treated area is clean (sniff test), let it dry and then apply the UV light to make sure it is all gone. If it glows, retreat.  The Eww does a good job of negating the smell, even cat pee. 

Good handheld UV lights can be had at most home improvement stores like Lowes and Home depot for under $15.  I really like the mini flashlight style ones with the LED lights.  It was about $12 at Home Depot.  The packaging suggested it was good to find scorpions, and certain types of leaks.  It is very bright and does a good job of illuminating trouble spots.  Black-light tubes work sometimes, but I have not had very good luck with that.  And they're bigger and more temperamental--plus the cost is about the same. 

Cleaning up after kitties--what rescue taught me

Sometimes I find myself worrying about kitties--the ones that end up in the pound, put to sleep, or thrown out of homes because of behavioral problems.  Yesterday (and today) was one of those times.

For... well... as long as I can remember, I've been involved one way or another with rescue cats.  And dogs.  Be it the kitty someone dumped on the block and I brought home, or spending time in the Humane Society or animal control, or being a foster or organizer for a breed or general animal rescue, I've done it.  A lot.  At times I have been overwhelmed--at one point several years ago I had 15-20 foster kitties living in my basement at any time, in addition to my own pets who lived with me upstairs, because the local humane society in the little town I was living in didn't have a permanent facility.  There are so many animals needing help--and the majority, in my experience, are there for behavioral issues.  For cats, this usually relates to going to the bathroom outside of the litter box.  When they do that, yeah--it's a pain.  But what a lot of people don't understand is that it is usually pretty easily correctable--especially with the tools we have today!  Some people do try--really hard--and fail.  This is usually because they do not understand cat behavior, not because the cat is bad, or thru any other fault of the owner.

The first step in correcting bad litter-box behavior is determining why kitty is doing it.  I say that--but I guess the first step is actually two parts--trying to figure out why kitty is going outside of the box, AND--just as importantly--starting proper cleanup, because every day the behavior goes on, and the smells become set, is another chunk of time it is going to take to correct the problem.  If kitty goes outside the box because of a medical issue, for example, the seed is planted in both kitty's mind and, literally, in your carpet-- because cats are very scent driven.  So even if you are on the ball and get the medical issue cleared up in days, if those spots aren't cleaned up PROPERLY and quickly, you are likely going to have an issue.  Even worse if you have multiple cats!

I am going to write separate posts for clean up techniques and identifying problems shortly, and will make links to them on a new information page I am going to add to my website for people looking for information, and especially for my new owners.

I guess what I most want people to know is that often times litter box behavior is one of the easier things to change about your cat, and that cleaning up cat messes is infinitely doable. Even big ones that have been around a while.  I know, because I have done both hundreds of times.  With the products available today it is really not very hard or time consuming to clean things up, and no one will ever know it happened but you.  The products are that good!  And behavior modification is not that hard, either, just takes a little patience and knowing how to go about it--the last part being the main problem most people face.  Dog training techniques will NOT work on cats.  (It usually makes things a lot worse.)  Cat techniques are actually usually much easier, results come sooner, and they require less effort by the owner.