Santa arrived early this year! December 23, 2011

She arrived the day before Christmas Eve, wrapped in splendor.  A cherished silver bell named Jupiter Moon has been welcomed into our home. It was a long journey, arriving at 2:30am at the airport. It took 10 hours of flight time from Germany to Atlanta, then another 8 hours to wait for the cargo office to open and get through customs so she could be rescued from the trenches of the Lufthansa warehouse by her new family. She  was safely in her new home by 11:30 and exhausted from the long journey. What a sweet little girl, a precious reminder of the friendship I cherish and honor with my friend, Karin Sinn. She promised this little girl would get to me before Christmas, and she delivered, as usual. We will name this new kitten, Jupiter Moon and affectionately call her Joop.

As soon as my husband got back from the airport this morning, I opened the car door and removed the carrier from the back seat with Joop inside. Then, I heard a strange rattling noise!  “What is that strange sound?” I wondered, and it didn’t stop – not when I went up two flights of stairs, and not when I got to the kitten room. It was only when I opened the carrier that I realized this sweet little girl was purring her little heart out! How sweet is that?! She can purr SO loud!

Already 6 months old, Joop will be shown at the next Atlanta show in March and maybe again in May to see how she fares. Later in the year, she will hopefully have kittens. I don’t have any good pictures of her at the moment, but I took a few immediately after she arrived and was placed in her isolation suite.  Joop will stay in isolation for a week or so until she gets used to things around here. Then she will go into isolation in the cat room so she can get to know everyone in there, too. This way she will know all of the boys and feel comfortable with them when it is time to breed.

Apparently, Drifter and Raven are the official welcoming committee around here.

Raven wants to play with Joop so bad she can’t stand it, and Drifter is keeping a close eye on this new arrival. I can tell that Raven thinks Joop is going to be her new friend since she’s become disenchanted with her pal, Drifter. Drifter doesn’t know how to play nicely any more and always grabs Raven by the neck and sits on her; Raven doesn’t appreciate this sort of treatment and avoids Drifter’s grasp as much as possible. Silly boy – no manners at all – save that sort of behavior for the bedroom.

I’ll keep you posted on Joop’s progress and post pictures when I get some good ones of her. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

It was a GRAND weekend in Dixie December 15, 2011

This past weekend (December 10 & 11, 2011) was the Dixieland Silver and Gold spotlight show in Concord, North Carolina and Harry attended in all his glory. Entering the show on Saturday, Harry needed 5 points to Grand but he was awarded just 4, since he made only one of the 6 finals. ARG!  Sunday dawned a new day and Harry took 5 out of 6 finals not only getting his one needed point, but ending with 27 points to spare!  Now Harry has the title of Grand Premier: GP Alchemist Golden Opportunity.

It was a great show, and I had a wonderful time with my friends, each holding our breath as the numbers were called for finals in each ring. Everyone was rooting for Harry to get those last 5 points. When the first ribbon on Sunday was placed on his cage and the judge pronounced him Best Long Hair Premier, we all clapped and yelled “NEW GRAND!” as we cheered Harry on to victory! It was so much fun that we did it in every ring he finaled in that day, all 5 rings, and made quite a stir in the show hall. This made all of the judges feel like they were the special judge to complete his journey to stardom. It was a little sneaky, but lot of fun!

Grand Premier Alchemist Golden Opportunity (aka: Harry)

We will be hosting a GRAND party after the holiday so expect to get an email invitation. If I don’t have your email address, send it to me and I will put you on the list. Party time and date will be posted on the blog also. The party will be via webcam so it will be a lot of fun to watch the cats share in the festivities with Harry. Canned cat food and goat milk will be served.

Thank you to all of my readers and show visitors for your undying support and friendship. This wouldn’t be fun without you!

Share the fun December 3, 2011

Ravensong, known around the house as Raven, is a sweet little Solid Black kitten who just happens to be looking for a home.  She is a show kitty, and I will show her if she stays here much longer, but I’d rather she find her forever home where she will be loved and adored.

Raven started out being a little on the nutty side, like her mother, Casey, whom one has to catch with a butterfly net sometimes. Still, Casey is a super sweet kitty and she brings me great joy for I too, and a little on the nutty side. I’ve been working a lot with Raven to get some of the nuttiness out of her for several months, and it is finally paying off. She has been a house kitty since she was tiny, and Drifter thinks she’s a big, fuzzy toy for him to chew on. As she has matured, she has calmed down a bit and appreciates the attention of people more than cats. I guess now that some of her nuttiness is gone, I should now say that she  “has a lot of personality.”

Looking at our website, Raven and I are checking the daily stats. Fibonacci is hiding behind the computer.

I find that one of the most the interesting things about little Raven is that she loves electronic devices like TVs and computers; especially laptop computers. I only use the laptop when I’m too lazy to go upstairs and use my PC or when I need to take a quick peek at something online. Whenever she hears me typing on the keyboard, she comes running from another part of the house and jumps up on the arm of my recliner to settle in for some shared computer time. She will sit there for as long as I will permit it, watching the cursor fly across the screen and occasionally attempt to walk across the keyboard to investigate things more closely. That hasn’t helped me much, so she is learning to stay off the keyboard. But it’s hard not to touch something that is so interesting.

Raven is learning how to do internet research with Google, but gets a little bored with email. There’s just not enough action with email to keep her interested for very long.  I suppose she might like to read a book online if it had pictures, but I don’t have the patience for that.

Raven would like to find a new home with a family who was interested in the things she is – electronics – so she can maintain her present activities. She is open to studying computer programing and maybe even computer repair. Online courses would suit her best with some on the job training, of course. She is very bright and I dare say, gifted in the field of computer science. Computer graphics probably wouldn’t be a good career choice for her, because she has yet to develop the necessary attention span that field requires and she has no thumbs to properly work a mouse or track ball. Still, I’m sure she would be very interested in learning about computer graphics and giving it a whirl. This little girl isn’t afraid to try new things.

Raven also likes to watch TV. When she isn’t walking behind the TV trying to figure out what makes it work, she is sitting in front of the screen watching the action. She is particularly fond of commercials and we haven’t found any of the new programs this season that please her – neither have I.

The other night, I was trying to take pictures of Raven watching TV, and it wasn’t as easy of a task I thought it would be since I needed a light colored background. The images on the screen changed faster than I could point and shoot so it took forever to get something to come out clearly and have a little black kitty show up. Commercial after commercial passed but I was determined to get my shot. She would occasionally take a break from TV watching and wander behind the screen looking for goodness knows what, and somehow managed to loosen the wires to the sound box thingy so the sound cut off and on for a few days until we figured out what was going on, but finally, I got my shot during a commercial about I have no idea what – I was too busy watching Raven to put any of my attention on what was on TV.

The next day, I was downloading the images of Raven and the only one that came out well enough to use for the blog was this one. The cool thing is that it was the perfect commercial for this little black kitty, Ravensong, to have her picture taken in front of since she one who is always happy and loves running around the house. I think you’ll agree that it could not be any more perfect.

Raven watching a little TV with me the other night.