2005: Abricotine, Aloha, Alaska, Aulympus, Amos, Arcia and Aubépine

Bouboule has had her third litter sired by Utahwa Som de Kismayou, a sorrel son (pedigree) of Roller.
Bouboule and Utahwa started 2005 without loosing time, since they mated on January 1st !

Before: "Please, come!..."    After: a well-earned rest

Bouboule gave birth to 4 kittens on the evening of March 8, 2005. Let me introduce them by order of birth:

• Abricotine, sorrel female
• Aloha, sorrel silver female
• Aurore d'Alaska, sorrel silver female (thought chocolate silver for a time)
• Aulympus, lilac silver male.

Bouboule and her kittens at the age of 4 days (from left to right, Aulympus, Aloha, Alaska, Abricotine)
then the kittens at the age of 7 weeks (from left to right, Aloha, Aulympus, Alaska, Abricotine)
and the dance lesson to raise paw together ! (from left to right, Aloha, Alaska, Abricotine, Aulympus)

Alaska and Aloha had decided to choose the same nipple, no way to convince them to change !
As a consequence, very soon only 3 nipples remained active, for 4 kittens. I first thought I would have to give a complement to these two kittens, but soon all 4 thrived purely on mom's milk.

 

Abricotine, cute and number one at the purring contest, has gone to live with Caroline Neusy, in Belgium.

Abricotine in the arms of Pompon (her aunt, who wished the kittens were hers), and in the arms of my son Vincent.

 

Abricotine explores and climbs everywhere...

Abricotine had one litter. She is now neutered and lives with another family (under the nickname "Chataigne")
together with two other cats (pictures Bénédicte)

Aloha, the quietest and least dominant of the 4 kittens, went to live in Normandy, where she shares the house with a maine coon, a sacred Birman and a persan x domestic shorthair cross. No need to say who is the smallest in the lot ! But Aloha is not impressed by that and was well adopted.

Aloha, trustful

Aulympus, the only male of the litter, a very promising and sweet little boy, went to live in Luxembourg where he joined his future fiancée (much older than he is !), Rudisha de la Reynie, alias Mishka. Let's hope that his kitty games will not use up the patience of Mishka before he is old enough to mate her !

Aulympus focuses his attention on something, or purring of pleasure when cleaned by mom Bouboule

Alaska, finally, stayed with us. She has very expressive eyes of a deep amber colour, and she is both extremely active and very sweet. Her colour, which I would tend to call silver chorrel (LOL), is a bit dark for a sorrel silver but too light for a chocolate silver, even if heterozygotous b-bl. The chocolate/cinnamon DNA test was under development at U.C. Davis when she was a kitten, but she is now tested and is effectively sorrel silver (see my article on the chocolate and lilac colours in abys and somalis). You may see her evolution on her own page.

 

 

Having loved to kitty-sit Bouboule's kittens, Pompon now wanted to have her own babies. So she invited Velasquez de la Vallée aux Loups, a ruddy somali (pedigree) during a few days beginning of August for a holiday just for the two of them. And, on October 7, she gave birth to 3 kittens, a sorrel silver male and two black silver females.

Left: Dad - Right: Mom with their three new-born kittens

 

Amos, Arcia and Aubépine, hardly half a day old

 

Amos and his sisters, 3 weeks old, are exploring every fold of the bed and quilt.

 

Aubépine, the most daring of the two black silver sisters, 3 weeks old.

 

Here Arcia, Amos and Aubépine are one month old. They are enjoying a moment of quietness after their crazy climbing and play..

 

Everything is a toy or a hiding place for a 1,5 month old kitten: the coffee grinder, the wicker basket, ...

 

Mom Pompon supervises carefully her 3 cuties while they explore the wicker basket.
Amos gets tired of it, but the two sisters love this old picnic basket !

 

At 2 months old, the big cat tree holds not secrets any more for Amos, Arcia and Aubépine.
They climb up and down the stairs (and everywhere else...) in an eyeblink.

Arcia faces her public after interpreting the "Sonata for four paws"...,
while Aubépine stops right in the middle of the stairs when being called.

And the time came that the 3 little ones were 3 months old...

Shortly afterwards, Amos went to take the cuddling male role in a trio with 2 of his aunts,
Vénus and Alias de la Vallée aux Loups.

(pictures P. and I. Heritier)

You can see more of him on the blog, full of humor, that Isabelle and Philippe have created for their cats.

 

Arcia, the most independent of the 3 kittens, left a few days later to be cuddled as a single cat. Here is her first picture in her new home. (picture P. Roumegoux)

 

Aubépine stayed with us a bit longer, and became a very close playmate to Alaska.

She has now found her new home as well, where she met Cléo, a black lady cat of 15 years old.
There she is, dreaming of travelling around the world... (picture J.L. Veinnant)

 

Here are pictures of the three of them, on their first birthday :

Left : Amos (picture P. and I. Héritier) ; Middle : Arcia (picture P. Roumegoux) ; Right : Aubépine (picture J.L. Veinnant)