Tabby Tuesday...

Mama Coco is a Brown Patched Tabby, Cheddar looks stripey, but he is really genetically a Red and his stripes are 'ghost markings' and will fade some as he gets older, and Colby is a Red Mackerel Tabby. Did you know the word Tabby comes from Tabriz, a city in Iran where striped rugs were made.

Coco's doing great, and chubby Colby is gaining the proper 10-15 grams a day and now weighs 161 grams, he has doubled his birth weight--right on target.

But tiny Cheddar has been causing Teri to fret and worry. He has only gaining 1-3 grams a day and while he is eager and nurses readily, he may just not have the muscles and strength to stay attached to a nipple if Mama Coco moves or Colby burrows close.

All weekend, Teri watched him closely and he nurses well and she even woke him up to nurse and often has seen him nurse for almost 30 minutes. Finally today, he gained 10 grams in 24 hours. But he was 61 grams at birth, so should be almost 120 grams by now and he's just 81 grams!

She took 'The 3 C's' in to work with her today for check ups. She has never had to tube feed a kitten in all the years she has been breeding Cornish Rex, or even supplement them with milk replacer. Coco checked out fine, with normal milk production etc.

She hoped nothing is wrong with little Cheddar internally and our vet gave both kittens a thorough going over. Both checked out fine, no heart murmurs or problems with their mouths, nothing abnormal with their abdominal palpations. Teri relaxed a bit!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and Teri is glad she has us to love. We had fun looking at all our furriends blogs and seeing their Valentine cards and photos! And tomorrow is Teri's 59th birthday. She keeps thinking that when her grandparents were 60, she was 20. She said she would feel a lot younger if she lost 20# and had an eyelift, hahameow (well, the weight loss IS possible!). Here's a photo of Teri and Mike when they visited Cornwall England in 2000...

And 6 days after her birthday is the 4th anniversary of our daddy Mike's passing...this is kind of a hard time for Teri, but also hopeful, when she thinks of how we have helped her through those sad times, as well as the friends she has made here on the CB, and with the help of a therapist that understands what we cats mean to her. Grief does come in waves, but manages not to knock her down but 'The Day of the Heart' is a tough one for her to not be melancholy about...

Those of you who have been following us for a while know of the 'basement' that it used to be where Teri and Mike and us cats hung out a lot...then there was the flood caused by Mike's kitty turning on the faucet in the upstairs bathroom...and then somehow the basement became a catchall for everything to keep the rest of the house 'neat'.

It never ceases to amaze Teri how fast a weekend goes by! She has all these plans to get lots done, and well, she does get in some naptime with us but somehow it gets to be about 4pm Sunday afternoon and she disappears down to the basement to try and get a little clean up done so she can report in to her therapist on Tuesday that she's made a little bit of headway, at least...




Here's what it looks like now...not someplace we can play in yet! But soon! In fact, she has committed to working on getting the basement back in order before we have guests come to visit at the end of March, for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Today, her therapist said that means 3 hours each week...that's do-able!

Our guests? Why, the CB knows her as 'That Woman', Ms Stella O'Houligan's Momma Stacy, who makes those pretty CatNip Quilts and CatNip Birdies!

We are furry excited to meet her and her daughter and well, they are beside themselves with thoughts of meeting the oh-so-handsome Disco and seeing Coco's kittens, too. They are coming out for a week for the Cherry Blossom Festival and we will get together with Pierro and Miles' mom and Carol from Coffee, Cats & Yarn! We will have a real FunFest!