MANX by Sophia Parker

8/9/2019 MANX by Sophia Parker

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MANX by Sophia Louise Parker, age 8 I am a girl who loves animals. Before this fall, I had onebunny, one dog, and two cats. When I had gotten Lovey, the

second cat, I did not want to spay her; I wanted to breed her. But my parents said, “No, you’re not ready.” And they were

right. I had been asking for a long time, since we spayed Lovey

when I was three, if I could get two cats and be able to breedthem, not spay them. I had been asking and asking. It was

okay with my mom by this point, now that I was seven andready to be more responsible. And my grandparents had

donated some money for me to begin breeding cats. But mydad still had doubts. Then, one day, my dad came downstairs

from his office (my dad’s office is the second level up in ourhouse; he works at home), and he said, “It’s fine to get some

kittens.” And I was bursting! I was jumping up and down,literally! My mom and I started researching possible cats. Shewanted me to experience lots of different cats before I made my

choices. She took me to the Humane Society, and a few farmswith wonderful barn cats, and one pet store, and I loved all the

cats we met! Then, the next Sunday, my dad called a Manx breeder. The breeder said there were no kittens available, but sheinvited us to come over and meet her cats and kittens so we

could learn about them. I had never seen a Manx -- my othertwo cats are rescued-from-a-barn cats.



Manx are tailless cats, except for “longies”, who are born

with a tail. Most need it docked when they are kittens because,otherwise, they can get a painful arthritis in their tails. (The

docking is not supposed to hurt at all if they dock the kittensyoung enough.) Most Manx are either dimple rumpy, rumpy riser, orstumpy. Dimple rumpy means they have absolutely no tail. Dimple rumpies are the classic show Manx. But they can getpoopie butts more easily, because the cats can’t lick right above

where the tail would normally be! Rumpy risers are cats witha little bump of a tail on their butt, but they really don’t have

any tail at all. It is a few extra vertebrae that make that littlebump. A stumpy has a short little tail, but not nearly as long

as a non-Manx cat. It might be an inch to two inches long, andthey wag their little stump when they are excited. Manx are very loyal cats, they are really sweet, they arevery playful and also very cuddly, and they love kids.

TIGERINA

At the Manx breeder’s, I fell in lovewith this little brown patch tabby and

white female dimple rumpy kitten. Shewas very sweet and a bitty bit skittish. Right away, I knew what her name wouldbe. I would call her Tigerina. But I

thought she was taken and someone elsewould be getting her. There was also a gray mackerel tabbykitten that I loved, named Sheilanoya,

but it was pretty clear that the breeder



was keeping her. There were a lot of other

beautiful, sweet cats and kittens there, butthose were the two I was most smitten by.

The breeder’s name is Claire, and herhusband’s name is O.B., and they love their

cats. They are very nice people and I lovedbeing there tremendously. There was a great

abundance of the most extraordinarily friendlycats I had ever seen.

I told Claire that I wanted Tigerina, and Claire said thatTigerina was taken. BUT the lady who was taking her wanted

her for show (because she is a dimple rumpy and very pretty),but Claire felt that Tigerina was not growing quickly enough to

be shown as a kitten. So Claire said, “I will email the lady andtell her that I think Tigerina is growing too slowly to show, and

maybe the lady will wait for another cat.” Meanwhile, we played with all the cats for a long time. And then I went home full of images of beautiful cats.

I kept thinking about Tigerina. And then we got Tigerina! She lay in my lap in the car on the wayhome and purred, and she was right

away at home here. She was as lovingas a kitty could possibly be on her first

night. She loved me and I loved her. But she did not eat, poop, or play for

the first two days. On the third day, I“piddled” her with a cloth and she made

a nice poop. From then on she poopedand she ate just fine. But it took her

two or three more days to learn how to



play with me. I would work with her every day by making

little cat toys and squiggling them across the floor for her toplay with. Then, after she learned how to play, I would play

with her every night in my bedroom before bed. Then shewould sleep with me at night. From then on, Tigerina just got

more and more at home every day.

LALLUVIA AND PORTOKALI

We chose two more cats at Claire’s, eventually. One is

named Portokali. He is a red tabby and white male, and will bemy breeding male when

he grows up. The otheris named Lalluvia. She is

a silver tabby and whitefemale bred by a

wonderful woman inMaine, Susan Valdina at

Island Muse Manx, butliving at Claire’s now. Portokali means “orange”in Greek, and Lalluvia

means “flowers” in Greek. All three kittiesget along great with each other, and they love each other.

Lalluvia and Portokali were too young to bring home whenwe picked them out. They were still nursing and needed their

mothers. So we went to Claire’s and visited them many times.One of the times was on Halloween. I dressed up as a black

cat, and I took my tail off to go to Claire’s, because the cats atClaire’s are Manx and they have no tails.



Soon after Halloween, we brought

Portokali and Lalluvia home. They were abit skittish on the first night, Portokali more

than a bit. Lalluvia was cuddly, but a littletimid. Portokali and Lalluvia were close to

each other, because theyhad grown up together,

even though they haddifferent parents. They

got along with Tigerina,but they weren’t as close to

her in the beginning as they were to eachother. All our kitties got along well with our

wonderful bunny, Fluffy Bun Bun. (He is litterbox trained, so he is free around the house

like the kitties are, and they all playedtogether a lot.) And they soon got accustomed

to the whole family. We continued to visit Claire and OB and see all theirmarvelous cats and their dog, Heidi. Claire taught me a lot

about raising and breeding cats, and about the Manx breed. I love going there, because I love learning all about this,

and I have the fun of finding kittens and playing with kittens,and Claire lets me name a lot of her new kittens. We name

them and then we write down the names and then we begin toknow them by heart. Claire keeps a copy of all the names and

I keep a copy of all the names until we know them by heart. Ilove that a lot! I am always so excited when my mom says you

can go over to Claire’s and OB’s!



PUFF AND SOOT

One time when we went over to Claire’s, I was looking for

Lalluvia’s sister, Puffball. Puff used to be very friendly, buthad started hiding under the bed with Portokali’s brother, Soot

(also known as Hideger Panther). I realized that I hadn’t seenPuff for the last few visits, and I wanted to find her before we

left. I asked Claire if I could go upstairs and look under thebed and find Puff. Claire said, “Whatever you want!”

So, I immediately ran upstairs and looked under the bedfor Puff, and there she was! I grabbed her so she couldn’t run

away when she saw me. Puff was very surprised to be grabbedin the middle of her nice, lovely nap! I picked her up, slid

myself out from under the bed, and ran downstairs with Puff inmy arms, yelling, “Guys! Guys! I found Puff! And here she

is!” Then, this wonderful idea started to grow in my head like

leaves sprouting from a tree, the idea of borrowing Puff, since Ihad her in my arms and we were leaving so soon. So I told

Claire and my mamma about my idea. And my mamma said,“Our kitties aren’t all the way over their ear mites, and Claire

may not want to expose Puff to that.” Claire said, “It’s up to you.” And so we headed home with

Puffball in my arms. I was delighted. And Claire wasdelighted that I would help friendly Puff back up. She thought

that next time, I could borrow Soot, and help him be morefriendly, too.

When we arrived home, my dad came downstairs. I yelled,“Mac! Mac!! Look who we brought home! And don’t worry,

we’re only going to borrow her, not keep her!” Mac said, “Oh, cool.”

And I said, “Thank you so much for letting us!”



Puff was a little scared, butseemed glad to be here, eating great,

going into the catbox and doing whatshe was supposed to there, and

sleeping on my bed. At first, shewould sometimes hide under my

dresser. But, then, over the days,she just got tamer and tamer.

We kept Puff for exactly a week. And then we brought her back to

Claire’s and asked if we could keepher and Soot for another week. That

way, Soot might not be as scared, because he would have hisfriend, Puff, right from the beginning. Claire said, yes, and we

brought them both home. Soot was very scared in the beginning. But he got tamer

and tamer as time went on. The kittiesgot LOTS of playing and affection at our

house, and I loved having them here. Puff and Soot were very good with

the other cats here, too: Tigerina,Lalluvia and Portokali. And with Fluffy

Bun Bun. Lluvie and Puff, who aresisters, curled up with each other and

and enjoyed each other in lots of ways. And Porto and Soot, who are brothers,

played with each other a lot. That washow Portie and Soot interacted best: lots of playing. One night, there were lots of gnats, or some kind of tiny

insect, at the door. There were about 2, 001,152 of them out



there, and many of them came in when my mom, or me, or my

dad would go in and out the door. The cats all loved them.First, Tigerina, Portokali, Lalluvia and Puff were playing with

them. Soot was taking a nap in his little cat cottage, and I wentand got him and brought him to where the gnats were, so he

could play with them, too. Portokali helped him catch a lot of them. They always stayed close to each other that evening,

catching gnats. When it came time to give Puff and Soot back, I was very

disappointed. I wanted to keep them with me. But we gavethem back.

After we gave them back, all I could talk about was Puff andSoot, Puff and Soot, Puff and Soot. I really wanted to have

them here with us. Finally, we borrowed them again...

TIGERINA IN HEAT

One morning, when I woke up, I heard a loud purrooping,almost yowling! It was coming from the end of the hall. I

threw back my covers, leapt out of bed, and went to see whatearthquake was happening! I crept down to the end of the

hall, so as not to wake my parents, to see what was the matterwith my cats. That sound did tell me that something was

happening in the feline world. “Oh, my gosh! Porto is humping Tigerina,” I thought. I

picked him up and got him off of her. That part wasn’t sosurprising; he had been doing that quite often. But then I

watched them very closely. In the same instant, after Portowas off her and just standing there, Tigerina presented to him. She had never done that before! But I had never seen a cat in



heat before, so I didn’t know

about feline hormones yet. Ithought she might just be

trying to trick him: in case hewas humping her to make her

go into heat and then he wouldstop once she was in heat, and

she was just pretending to bein heat so that he would stop

humping her... Then, my parents woke up, and I opened up the screen

porch so the cats could go out there. When Tigerina was outon the porch, she started rolling around on her back. That

was strange -- I had never seen her do that either. Then, shecame into the kitchen and was rubbing on the refrigerator, my

mom’s pocketbook, and some grocery bags, trilling all thewhile. My mom said, “What is up with Tigerina?! Is she in heat orsomething?” I said, “I don’t think so. She’s too young. She’s only eightmonths old!”

My mom said, “You know, they cango into heat that early. Remember

Lovey? She went into heat at sevenmonths old.”

And I said, “There is that. And shewas presenting once upstairs at the end

of the hall. But I thought she was justtrying to trick Portie so he would stop

humping her.” My mom said, “I don’t think that’s

how hormones work.”



I said, “Hmmm.”

I continued to watch Tigerina as the day went on. Itbecame pretty apparent that she was, indeed, in heat. We had

to keep her and Portokali separate from each other -- boy, wedid! Because she was too young to be bred, and Portokali had

exactly that in mind: breeding her! But he would just have towait until next time...

GETTING PUFFBALL

After we returned Puff and Soot for the second time, I wassimply miserable. Me and my

family went out to dinner a fewtimes during that stretch. And

all I could talk about every timewe were out at dinner was, “Oh, if

only I could get Puff and Soot! Oh, please, Mamma! Oh, please,

Daddy!” I knew I probablycouldn’t get Soot because he was a

breeding male, and he wouldprobably be spraying soon. Portokali was probably going to bespraying soon, too, and was going to be enough of a handful

himself. So I took my attention (mostly) off getting Soot, andput it full blown on Puffball.

Eventually, my parents consented, and much to my delight,we brought Puffy home once and for all! I was in bliss.



A SAD FAREWELL TO FLUFFY BUN BUN; A HAPPY HELLO TO

MARIGOLD RAINBOW

In this period of time, I fell in love with a young blue andgold macaw parrot, named Marigold Rainbow. I met Marigold

at a pet store when myfriend, Brianna, wanted to

show me cockatiels there.Marigold had been owned

by a little boy withmuscular dystrophy when

she was a little baby bird,but he couldn’t lift her as

she got bigger and heavier. So his family put her in a

pet store. This was theother thing I talked about every time we went out for dinner,

or at our house for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and all the restof the time.

Finally, after many lengthy conversations with both of myparents, and the rest of my money from my Grammy Nia and

Grandpa Sid, we brought Marigold Rainbow home, and I lovedher from the start.

Shortly after we decided to bring Marigold Rainbow home,we had a very sad event. Our dog, Shiva, bit our Bunny, Fluffy

Bun Bun, and killed him instantly. My mom and I, and mydad, were heartbroken. The cats also missed him. I know this

sounds strange, but so did Shiva. I know this sounds strangetoo, but I think she regretted killing him. I don’t think she

meant to hurt him. I think she lost thinking for a moment anddidn’t register that it was her friend Fluffy Bun Bun, but just



registered “Bunny -- eat it!” We

all felt sad for a long time aboutthat.

So Marigold Rainbow came intoa world that was sad, as well as

celebrating her. I think thatmust have been hard for her. But by and by, Marigold Rainbowalso became great friends with

me, my mom and dad, all thecats, and Shiva.

BREEDING PUFFBALL

Puff went into heat in June. We did not want to breed herbecause she was still a bit too young to be bred. Also, we had

a family reunion in Massachusetts for five days in the middle of August, and Puffy’s kittens would be due only a little bit before

then. So this was not a good time for her to get pregnant. At night, I would have Puff and the other females sleep in

my room, and I would close my door to keep Porto out so hewould not be able to breed Puff, which he did want to do! In

the mornings, I would let the females out and they would get tobe with Portie, with close supervision from me.

One morning, I was lying in bed and I heard “scritchyscratchy scritchy scratchy scritchy scratchy scritch” at the

door. It was Porto. I decided I would let him in and watchhim closely with Puff so he would not breed her. Puff was



lying next to me on the bed, about half a foot away. Porto

came in and sat down next to her. I was excited because my Grandpa Sid had given me a book

about jungle animals and I wanted to look for macaws in it. SoI opened up the book and began to look. I could not find a

macaw, but I found a toucan, and I eagerly began readingabout it. It said: “Toucans are noisy birds that live in groups. They build nests in the treetops. Toucans use their giantbeaks to pick berries and slice up soft, juicy fruit...” Suddenly,

I heard, “Rrrrahrrr, rrrrrraowr, rrrrrrhaaaa!!!” I thought, “what tornado just hit??!!!

And Porto was jumping off Puff! It was Puff who made thatsound! “How quick Porto is!,” I thought.

I marked the date down on my breeding calendar, so Iwould know when the kittens would arrive in case, by any

chance, Puff was now pregnant. At 21 days, I knew the truth: she was pregnant! If they are

bred, they usually have pink nipples at 21 days, and if theyaren’t bred they don’t. Puff had big, pink nipples at 21 days. At 45 days, I knew it even more. She was as big as a barn, andfatter than a barn and a half. And she had an appetite bigger

than a jaguar’s. At 51 days, we brought Puff in to the Vergennes Animal

Hospital for an x-ray to see how many kittens she had insideher. I had decided to do an x-ray on Puff because it was the

first pregnant cat I had ever had. Mark, one of our vets, saidthat since both me and Puff were first timers, it would be a

good thing to do. My mom was concerned about the radiationexposure, but Mark said that one x-ray would be safe and I was

excited to do it, so we did. Mark said the x-ray indicated that Puff had four kittens.

They count the spines and the skulls in order to find out how



many kittens there are. I only saw three skulls, but I figured

the vet must know more about it than I did. But it did sort of look like there were four spines. And I couldn’t wait to meet

the kittens!

KITTENS

One Saturday in August, I wanted nothing more than to go

over to Claire and OB’s house, since Claire and OB are two of my very best friends, and especially kitty friends. Puffball was

sixty-three days pregnant. They are supposed to give birth at63 to 65 days. So we figured we would bring Puff, so there

were no accident-type things, like her going into labor that daywhile we were gone.

But we had observed her making a weird noise. She wasjust lying down, and then I heard a weird noise like

Aarrrhhaaarr. And then she got up from her sound nap to gostorming into the basement under some bags of quilts. And,

by golly, no one had ever done that, especially her. Then, when she came up from the basement after hiding

under the bags of quilts, she had a wet liquid on her. It lookedalmost as if her water had broken. Just one more reason to

take her to Claire’s with me. So off we went, an excited car fullof me, my parents driving of course.

When I got there, it was all a storm of excitement andhappiness. I told Claire what had been up with Puff. She said,

“Oh, it could be, it could not be, but keep her here just incase.” Then, next thing we know, Puff was a big storm of growlsand cries and weirdness altogether. What was up with my

sweet little Puffy? She never growls at me. And she was



clearly not growling at anything in particular, just growling

randomly. And then, all of a sudden, she jumped into thebasket we had brought her to Claire’s in, and lay there as if she

was about to give birth any moment. A few hours later, she started to push. Claire said, “I guess

you’re right, Sophia. It must have been her water breaking.” We sat there and watched her push. Then, when she had

made a few pretty good pushes, we called my mom. Unfortunately, my dad was busy that night and couldn’t come

see Puff have kittens. But my mom said she would leave asquickly as she could. The moment a birth sac was visible, my

mom showed up at the door.

PUFF GIVES BIRTH

Claire said it’s just a water sac, but I still observed veryclosely. Then, I began to see color inside what we thought was

a water sac. Weirder yet, something inside the water sacmoved. I said, “Claire, I know I don’t know anything, and I’ve

never even been around a cat in labor before, but I don’t thinkthis is a water sac.” And I said, “Claire, please look at it.” And she said, “Oh my goodness, you’re right, I think that’s

a kitten!” And she got out her kittening equipment. Just then, a pair of feet began to be visible in the sac. Unfortunately, they were not front feet, they were back feet. Uh oh! This was going to be a breech birth!

Then, poor Puff had a very hard time getting the kitten out. Claire had to put some k-y jelly on Puff (k-y jelly is a lubricant

for cats giving birth, like petroleum jelly). Then, Puff strained,



Claire pulled, and out came the kitten. Unfortunately, not

alive. Claire worked on it for half an hour, trying to revive it,until the next kitten was imminent. The next kitten was also a

hard birth, but Puff got that one out all herself. That kittenwas alive. But then, squirt! Out came another, before anyof us knew what was

happening! This was about9:00 at night.

Then, we waited up until3:00 in the morning, waiting

for her to push out the fourthkitten that we had seen on the

x-ray. But it didn’t come. Somy mom had to take Puff to

the vets, while I got threehours of sleep on Claire’s and OB’s couch.

I woke up at 7:30 to sun pouring in the windows and NOMOMMY! “Where’s my mom?!” I asked Claire, desperately. “She has gone to take Puff to the vets, because there’s no

fourth kitten,” Claire replied. “Will she be home soon?’, I asked.

“Yes, she will,” replied Claire. “In about an hour.” Until my mom returned, I had to tend the kittens. I called

them Junior and Junior Two Squiggle Pants (And June and Junefor short) because they were very active kittens.

Claire said that the second born (first born alive) kittenlooked like a three week old kitten when she was born!

“Wow! That’s a big kitten!” I said, just as my mom walkedin the door!



“Hi, Mom!” I said. “Did the vet help you get the fourth

kitten out? Where is the fourth kitten? What are we going todo about the fourth kitten?”

My mom said, “There is no fourth kitten!” Our other vet, Nate, examined the x-ray that Mark had

taken way back when, and said there were only three kittens. He took an extra x-ray to confirm, and Puff’s womb was empty. Then, at about 9:30that morning, me,

my mom, Puff andthe two live kittens

went home. Wealso brought the one

who had died, sothat we could bury

him in our garden.

PUFFY RAISES KITTENS

I called the two living

kittens Big and Little, asone was big and one was

little. They were twocalico kittens. They spent

most of their time nursingon their exhausted mother

-- Puffball was exhaustedfrom giving birth.



When Big and Little were five

days old, me and my mom had afamily reunion in Massachusetts

that I really, really wanted to go to. We had gone the two past

years, and I adored being therewith all of our family. My aunts

and uncles and cousins andgrandma and grandpa were all

there with me and my mom. Icould not resist going! So I asked Claire if I couldleave Puff and Big and Little at her

house, and also Lalluvia, Puff’ssister, who was too pregnant to

take on a trip like that. Claire agreed to take care of them for me. And I rented a

van from Enterprise Rental company with my savings. Mymom and I brought Marigold Rainbow, my blue and gold

macaw parrot (we needed the van to fit her big cage!); Tigerina, who was not occupied in a breeding cycle; Portokali,

my breeding male, who had not yet started spraying; Lovey, mybarn cat; and Shiva, our dog! And we all had a wonderful

time! The day after we got home, Little had a big swelling under

her left arm. Claire thought she was going to have to be put tosleep. I was very sad. Claire and me and my mom brought

Little to the vets. Mark, one of our vets, examined her -- andall three of us waited, white-faced and anxiously, for the result. Then, finally, Mark came back and said it shouldn’t be toomuch of a problem! And I just then realized that I had been



holding my breath that whole time. Little was fine! It was only

a minor infection that he drained and treated. Little went back to Claire’s for a while to nurse on one of

her breeding females, named Pixie, so Claire could keep an eyeon her. Soon, we received anemail from a wonderful

woman named CynthiaWebster. She wanted to buy

both Big and Little! We senther lots of photographs of

them, and notes about howthey were doing, and she

loved them from afar (shelives in Boston). She decided

she would name Big “Bree”and Little “Lily.” Then Big and Little became Bree and Lily.

I am sorry to tell you that this sweet beginning had a sadending. They both got sick and died. Both me and my mom,

and Cynthia, were very sad. So was Claire, my cat breederfriend, who did her very best, along with the vets and us, to

help Bree and Lily live. But they just didn’t get over beingsick. They died peacefully, and we buried them together in our

garden with lots of flowers.

LALLUVIA’S FIRST BIRTH

In the middle of Bree’s and

Lily’s life, Puff’s pregnant sister,



Lalluvia, gave birth. This experience was sad, too.

Claire and OB came over on a Saturday night, after theywent out to dinner. Me and my mom and the two of them

stayed up until midnight with Lalluvia, because it seemed likeshe might go into labor. Lluvie was cuddling with Puff and

Puff’s two kittens (Claire had brought Little over to visit.), andseemed full of Mommy hormones.

But Lluvie never went into labor, so Claire and OB wenthome, and my mom and I finally went to sleep. I slept in the

room with Lalluvia, so if she was giving birth I would hear herand wake up and get my mom. (We assumed she would be

loud enough to wake me if giving birth.) I woke up at 3:00,and Lalluvia was sleeping by my head very calmly, and there

was no sign of kittens yet. But when we woke up early in the morning, there were

three dead kittens. Lalluvia had given birth to them andhadn’t known to open the sacs, or maybe they had come so

quickly that she had beenoverwhelmed by the pain of it. Even before I went up to get mymom, I quickly tore open the sacs

and broke the umbilical cords. Butit was too late. The kittens were

cold and dead. I ran up to get mymom and tell her the sad news.

We got the idea to ask Claire if we could take Little (later known as

Lily) back home and let Lalluvianurse her. That way, Lluvie would

have a kitten to love since hers haddied and she had the whole hormone build-up for becoming a

mother.



Claire agreed, and she

brought Little over thatmorning. Lalluvia loved

her, and was very happy tohave a kitten to raise.

TIGERINA HAS KITTENS Portokali bred Tigerina at the end of August. About sixty-

eight days later, Tigerina went into labor, on October 28, 2006. We had been waiting for her to go into labor for a week! We didn’t want another experience like we had had withLalluvia’s kittens. So we were keeping careful track of her at

all times. This meant that we had to keep her in our sightsduring the day, and check her every two or three hours in the

night. I would usually wake up and check her two times, andmy mom would check on her four times, and this way we

supervised her through the night. (My mom was real tiredafter a week of this! I was as happy and chipper as ever. Although I was probably a little tired, too, even though I wasbarely aware of it.) Finally, Sunday evening at 6:16, Tigerina started to push --hooray! We called Claire at about 6:30 to let her know. She

came over at 8:21. I saw the fetal membrane sac of the first kitten at 9:12 PM. Tigerina could not get this kitten out on her own. Claire andmy mom needed to help her. This was a breech birth,

meaning that the kitten was coming backwards, rump first. And it wasn’t progressing. For half an hour, the kitten was

stuck with its butt out. We decided to call the vet for help on



this one. We all figured this kitten would probably be dead,

but we were starting to get worried about Tigerina and the restof the kittens inside her surviving this. The vet said the kitten

would be dead, and to have my mom and Claire pull him out of there, because Tigerina and the rest of the litter were in grave

danger. So my mom and Claire pulled! And out came the kitten,

looking quite dead. But we didn’t give up. Claire rubbed him and rubbed him,

and did all she could to resuscitate him. Then, suddenly, my mom saw him open his mouth! But at

first we weren’t sure that it wasn’t just Claire moving him. Sowe gave the kitten to Tigerina and she nuzzled him, and we saw

him open his mouth again! Now we were sure he was alive! Against all odds! The kitten was a male with brown tiger stripes and white. Inamed him Peekaboo, because when we first saw his membrane

sac, it peeked out of Tigerina and then fell away from view,back inside her.

But don’t forget, Tigerina still had more contractions tohave and more kittens to give birth to. She couldn’t spend

too much undisturbed time with Peekaboo before the arrival of the next kitten.

My dad was there for the birth of Peekaboo. This was thefirst birth he had seen. And when Tigerina started her next

contractions, he got to hold Peekaboo, before either me or mymom got to hold him. I think he is secretly very proud of this,

but he didn’t tell me so! This time, Tigerina had an easier birth with a beautiful

orange and white kitten. But it was another breech birth andstill pretty hard. Claire had to pull slightly with this one.



Then, moments later, Tigerina gave birth to another orange

and white kitten who was twin to the first orange and whiteone. I called the first kitten Gin and the second Ger. Both of their individual names created one whole name: Ginger! They

were indeed twins, and shared a placenta. These two kittens seemed to think they had to play as soon

as they were dried off! They immediately started crawlingdeterminedly around the basket we placed them in. How

totally unusual for newborn kittens! Usually, they don’t reallystart to play until they are 10 - 14 days old, when their eyes

open. Next, came something that looked at first like a deformed

butt! (But soon turned out to be a beautiful kitten.) This onewas headfirst, but Tigerina just couldn’t get it out on her own. She eventually got the head out, but Claire and my mom had topull the kitten the rest of the way out; it just wouldn’t come

with only Tigerina’s contractions and pushing. When we got itout, we saw that it was a beautiful brown tabby kitten. Claire

said it was a girl, and I named her Rocky. Then, at 5:00 AM, on October 29, 2006, the last kitten came

out quite easily. It was an all-red boy. I called him Sunny. With five new beautiful kittens, and lots of hugs and kisses

and sympathies to Tigerina, and grateful goodbyes to Claire,Claire went home and my mom and I went to sleep for a few

hours.TIGERINA AND HER FIVE KITTENS

Later that morning, we woke up to a peaceful box of five

kittens nursing on their mother, Tigerina. Tigerina seemed to



be an excellent mother,

even though she wasvery worn out from such

a hard birth. It turned out that I

would have to piddleand poop the kittens for

seven weeks until thekittens were able to do it

on their own. Tigerinajust would not lick their

butts! (Young kittensare not able to pee and

poop on their own, andneed the mother to lick them -- or a kind human to help get the

job done.) And my mom helped Tigerina by supplementingthe kittens with a formula we learned to make from Claire.

They mostly just nursed for the next five days. Then, onemorning, when they were five days old, Gin seemed very

lethargic. We were immediately worried and we called Claire. She had us bring Gin right over. She gave us some antibiotic

for her, and fussed over Gin very lovingly herself. Then, shesent us home to watch over her. But Gin died later that

morning. Claire says that happens sometimes with a difficultbirth, and she thought we might lose more of them because

Tigerina’s birth was so hard. The males and the rumpies arethe most vulnerable,

and Peekaboo was arumpy male with the

hardest birth -- so it wasa miracle that he was

still alive.



I gave Gin’s twin, Ger, the

whole name. So now she wasGinger.

Tigerina was sad to loseone of her beloved kittens, but

might also have been relievedto have one less mouth to

feed. Fortunately, all the restof them made it.

TIGERINA’S FOUR LOVELY KITTENS GROW UP

Tigerina turned out to be a wonderful mother. Her onlyproblem was that she did not lick her kittens’ butts! For the

first seven weeks of kittens’ lives, they need to be“piddled” (licked) by their mother in order to poop and pee. Tigerina thought (and I agree!) that that was a gross job andrefused to do it. So I had to do it for her! Luckily, I didn’t

have to lick their butts -- a warm cloth worked well enough. Ihelped them pee three times a day, morning, afternoon and

evening; I helped them poop two times a day, morning andevening. That’s what Claire said would work best, and it did.

Kittens are born with their eyes closed. Their eyes shouldopen naturally at about two weeks of age. Ginger, Sunny and

Rocky all followed that pattern. Peekaboo, however, did not. They were nearly three weeks, and Peekaboo’s eyes still hadn’t

opened, even a crack! So Claire finally said, “help him.”



And she told me how: I got a warm, damp washcloth, and set it

on Peekaboo’s eyes, one at a time, and very gently rubbed themopen. The first thing Peekaboo saw was me! And he gave a

soft “mew.” I said, “Hi Peekie! Now you can

finally stop bumping into things and play withyour brother and sisters.”

After that, every time I came into theroom to feed Tigerina, give her more water,

give the kittens a toy ball to play with , or walkby their box on my way somewhere else,

Peekaboo would stand up wih an eager look onhis face and go, “Mew! Mew! Mew!” I was the first thing he saw, so it gave him aspecial connection with me. He was irresistible

in his enthusiasm! So I would always smile, pick him up, andgive him a little cuddle.

THE KITTENS GET BIGGER

Peekaboo was very relieved to be able to see now. Whentheir eyes open, the kittens start to play. At first they give a

sibling a gentle nibble, or bat at their mom’s ear, and play withthe little balls we give them, etc.

Sunny, when he was about two weeks old, he climbed out of the box that we used for their nest. So we moved them to a

pen. But, somehow, Sunny got out of that too! To this day,we’ve never figured how he got out of that pen. Clever boy!



When the kittens are five

weeks old, we movethem into a room where

they can safely explorea bigger world than the

box and pen. At thisage, they are very good

players, and play theydo! They run around

playing joyfully witheach other, with toys,

with their mom, and with anything else in reach.They’re so funny!

Portokali, their dad, loved the kittens too. And the kittens

loved him. Portie would groom them and enjoy being in theroom with them. And Tigerina accepted him wonderfully.

Usually, according to most breeders, the moms don’t like thedads in with the kittens. Sometimes, the moms attack the dads.

Everybody says thatthe dads aren’t very

interested in thekittens either. But,

here, the dads alwayslove the kittens.

Portokali loved to bewith them, and

Tigerina was glad toshare.



HELLO GRACIE!

Claire’s favorite

queen, Pixie, got asarcoma from a rabies

vaccine. She was dyingfrom the cancer, but

Pixie’s joy was raisingkittens, so Claire bred her

one last time. Pixie had four kittens in that last litter, one male and three

females. Claire wanted to give me one of the females from thisspecial last litter of Pixie’s. This was so generous of her! She

invited me to come meet the kittens, and my dad took me overto see them when they were about three weeks old.

All four kittens were all cuddling in a big, comfy armchairwhen we arrived. They were all so dear, and gorgeous. One

kitten walked right into my hand when I reached down to petthem. She was a little silver tabby with small patches of red on

her, and her eyes were still blue, because she was a kitten.Right then, I knew that she was the kitten for me. That worked

out great for Claire, too, because Claire kept the little browntabby kitten who looked so much like their mother, Pixie.

Claire named her 2-Pix. And I decided to call my kitten Gracie,because it seemed like the Grace of God that she was mine.

PUFFBALL’S SECOND LITTER

On a snowy morning in January, Puffy went into labor.She was 64 days pregnant, and HUGE! By the time we woke

up, at 6:30 in the morning, Puff’s water had broken, and we



knew the

kittens wereon their way!

Mygrandma was

staying withus, recuperating from a surgery, and I was excited that she

would get to see the new kittens, too. We called Claire at about 7:30, so we wouldn’t wake her up.

The first kitten was already coming -- I could see her fat littlebend-y tail sticking out! My mom delivered the kitten, while I

comforted Puff. This was the very first kitten we had deliveredwithout any help from Claire, and it all went great. She was a

pretty calico girl (99% of calico’s are females). And Puffy lovedher kitten -- she licked her off and nursed her very lovingly.

Claire arrived a little later, and soon after, Puffy startedpushing again. This kitten was hard to deliver, and my mom

and Claire had to pull some to help Puffy get the kitten out.He was a big white rumpy with spots of brown tiger, and Claire

thought he would be a great show Manx, like Rocky. The next kitten came out with two pushes from Puff but,

sadly, it was deformed. It just wasn’t fully developed, and itwasn’t alive. So we set it aside to bury carefully later.

After a few minutes rest and cuddling her first two kittens,Puffy started pushing again. Three big pushes brought out a

very chubby brown tabby and white male, our first rumpyriser. He was healthy and alive right from the start, squirming

in his little birth sac even before we broke it and cut hisumbilical cord, and gave him to his mom to lick off and nurse.

My Grammy Nia came downstairs to watch the last kittenbeing born. That was the first time she had ever seen a kitten

being born, and was amazed at how little they were.



After they were all

dried off and sleeping withtheir tired mamma, we

gave them names. I namedthe little calico girl:

“Angeline”; the white withtabby spots boy: “Spots”;

and the brown tabby and white boy: “Pappoutsia” (it means“shoes” in greek, and he

has four white paws). I’m sad to tell you that

Spots died a week later,which too often happens

when a kitten has a difficultbirth. Sometimes, they can

come through it, likeTigerina’s Peekaboo. But

sometimes, they developproblems and die within

the first week or two. Wewere very sad to lose Spots,

but so grateful that Angelineand Pappoutsia continued to thrive.

GINGER AND SUNNY GO TO CYNTHIA’S

Cynthia, the wonderful woman who was going to adopt

Bree and Lily, wanted to adopt Sunny and Ginger. My momand I had been in regular contact with Cynthia since Bree and

Lily were small (when they were still “Big” and “Little”!), and



we had been sending her photographs of Tigerina’s litter since

they were born. At first, Cynthia wanted Sunny and Rocky. But I explained

to her that another woman was very interested in Rocky, toboth breed her and show her. The lady who wanted Rocky was

a small breeder like us, where Rocky would be a beloved petfirst, but would also get to be bred and shown some, and I liked

the idea of getting to see the kittens Rocky would make.Cynthia and I had a good conversation about all this, and she

graciously agreed to take Sunny and Ginger to be her twokitties, and we were both very excited about that.

When the kittens were sixteen weeks old, Cynthia came toour house to pick them up and

bring them back to Boston withher. She had sent me the

present of T.S. Eliot’s “OldPossum’s Book of Practical

Cats”, and I had wanted to readsome of the wonderful poems

to her, as a way of thankingher. But we got so busy playing

with cats that I forgot to read toher!

Before she came, we hadorganized toys, food, catnip, their favorite blanket, and other

“welcome to your new home” gifts to send off with Ginger andSunny. And we had Cynthia bring in her cat carrier as soon as

she arrived, so the kitties could all get used to it. Tigerinacurled right up in it and went to sleep. I was glad, because

then it would have her scent in it for Ginger and Sunny, andthat would help them feel safe.



Ginger was timid around Cynthia at first, while Sunny

immediately climbed all over her. Cynthia was truly smittenwith both of them. She loved meeting all my kitties, and I

loved meeting her. She also had the treat of meeting Puff andPortokali’s new kittens. She thought they were adorable!

After lots of good-bye hugs and kisses to Ginger and Sunny,and lots of “thank you”s and “oh, please take such good care

of thems” and “we’re going to miss them so much!”s, Cynthiawent home with Ginger and Sunny.

We missed them quite a bit at first, but we knew they werein a really wonderful

home where they wouldbe loved and cherished.

And Cynthia writes uslively letters about

them, and sendsbeautiful photographs

-- so we can hear andsee how great they’re

doing in their livesthere.

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Documents

MANX by Sophia Parker