The Bir-Sibs

Phoenix babies are doing really well they are just over a week old now and they are weighing in with weights of double of what they were born with, in the case of the red lad he has doubled his birth weight and added about 30g besides, he is going to be a rather strapping lad when he is bigger. His siblings are all looking equally as good, the two colour points are starting to get some colour although the red point is still very white but his ears are showing faint tinges of apricot. All of them will have there eyes open by the middle of the week and I think it won't be long before the fun starts. Poor Phoenix she will have her paws full in the coming weeks trying to keep charge of the tribe. Will add some more photo's soon.

A New Picture Of Esaya Bwytching Elmarlay

I have a new picture of her ladyship from Audrey and she is growing well and in just over a week she is coming home to Elmarlay. I cant believe she has a coat, it will be nice to have a cat that has a coat, as all of mine seem to have lost theirs to the extreme this year.

Enjoy the picture I am sure there will be many more to come in the coming weeks.

1st Pictures

Well here they are Phoenix & Scouts bundles of naughtiness. 1st Picture is of the Tortie girl, the 2nd picture is of the rather pretty Tortie & White girl, 3rd is the rather handsome Red Male and last but no means least the 4th picture is of the Colour Point duo.

Phoenix went pop

Well today I had a surprise when I got up Phoenix had kept me guessing this last week as to how far gone she was in her pregnancy. Well in the early hours she went into labour and had 5 bouncing bundles, all good weights and colours what a rainbow. She has a beautiful mosaic tortie and White girl, a solid tortie girl and a rather big red boy who's colour is so vibrant it is breath taking, then she has two colour points who are snow white, there is a boy and a girl, so the boy is likely to be red point and the girl seal tortie.

Mom is very proud of her brood of Birsibs dad couldn't care less as usual.

Elmarlay Galaxy Cowboy showing off

Cowboy posing for the camera and playing king of the castle, Ran has bought him a new cat tree and I think by the many pictures of him I have received he is quite taken with it. He is growing into a big lad who is going through that teenage stage his ears are looking quite top heavy at the moment but they will come back into proportion in time.

Thank you Ran for the lovely pictures I do enjoy looking at them and seeing how he is turning out. Also Thank you for giving him such a lovely home, he is one very lucky boy.

Brooke's write up from The Gwynedd Cat Club

TABBY/TORTIE TABBY BIRMAN KITTEN
1ST & BOB, BAXTER’S ELMARLAY BABBLING BROOKE, 13c20, LILAC TORTIE TABBY FEMALE, 03.02.09
What a beautiful looking female, she has a real chocolate box expression. Very promising young lady, looking well balanced and very composed. Lovely head type, cheeks filling out well, nicely placed medium sized ears, medium length nose with slight dip in the profile, good chin. Irresistible expression from gorgeous deep sapphire blue eyes, of perfect almost round shape. Well grown and well proportioned female, already showing excellent body size and weight, medium length thick set limbs and short paws, lovely tail to balance. Her markings are still developing, and I would be keen to see more tabby markings coming through, as at the moment she has lilac and pale cream colours on the points, but the tabby element is less visible, albeit there is the faintest line for an M marking on the forehead and some barring on the front legs. Gloves and gauntlets appear to be even, though the points colouring does need to develop more to distinguish the white areas fully. Wonderful nature, so happy to be handled, I could have taken her home with me!

JUDGE - Eliane Culf.

Thank you Elaine for this write up we are mighty impressed with her also.

Esaya Bwytching Elmarlay

Well we have a new addition joining us in a few weeks time another Esaya girl, Wytch is a solid black and white girl who is the younger half sister to Zahara. I have been getting regular updates on Wytch and after many times of saying she is lovely Audrey told me that she was only going two places one was staying firmly put where she was or she was coming to Elmarlay. As Zahara hates traveling the options of taking her stud is limited as she gives up on life once in the car and my plan was to take her out in order to get another breed girl for Scout to be mated to, so after careful thinking I thought well whats another one, so Wytch is coming to Elmarlay.

To be honest most of my cats have been by chance and not planned, when I do plan things usually go pear shaped so I am throwing the plans out the window. Elmarlay was started by chance with Ella (RIP) some nearly nine years ago as she chose me, after several conversations later Aurora joined me to start my red series breeding, followed then by Brodie & Kyra again both by chance and Lexx well that was the start of visiting Audrey I turned him down initially and then could have kicked myself thankfully Lexx's new home fell through and the next weekend I went and fetched him, then the Siberians started coming, Zahara came as I had seen Czar her older brother when I met Lexx so next litter Zahara came then Audrey put me in touch with Lorraine and Scout came, never in my minds eye did I want a cat with white as I was trying to get away from flipping white feet after the Birmans, I had also hoped to get away from Colour poiunts but that is looking unlikely as Zahara & Wytchs mom has produced Colour points.

Oh well told you it was no good to plan, Scout has the temperament I was looking for and his pattern really sets him off so although I never wanted with white I will be breeding them, Wtytch has the smallest amount of white possible on her but as it is there she has to be registered as with white. You will have to wait and see where it is. As both her and Scout carry Colour Point seal points are more than likely appear but that is a few years away yet so we won't worry about that one, as I have said plans no point they always go out the window.

Phoenix

Well Phoenix is approaching the final stages of her pregnancy and she can only be described as resembling a weeble as she wobbles but doesn't seem to fall over!!! She is getting very uncomfortable and I would not like to make a judgement call on how many are in there. This should be an interesting accident litter who knows they may all be colour points like mom. Will keep you posted.

Where to go next

Well it is time to think what shows I am going to do with the cats and it has been a real headache as life has a habit of throwing a curve ball and then you have to reassess what is what all over again. With disappointing show results and also the general cost of showing and family issues I have decided that it is time to slow things down a bit. I am not going to show too much over the coming months as I need to sort the garden out before winter comes and destroys any hope of getting it to look like anything that resembles a garden.

Show Outcomes

I took three cats out today to the Chester & North Wales Show, what a big mistake that was, I spent the day running up and down the show hall as they were not near each other and the heat in the hall was really uncomfortable for owners so god knows how it was for the cats.

SCOUT - had the best day of all he took his 2nd Merit with a good write up and was placed in a large side class 4th

DREAM - was on her own in the open but got placed 1st the boy took the BOB he was much bigger and older than her, she didn't do any good in her side classes she was unplaced. Dream is a little dumpling at the moment and lacks length in her body this is a development thing and will come with age. Although Dream was not very confident she handled well but as she is a bit of a home bird, I think she may be better leaving the show scene to one of the others as she spent most of her day hiding under her blanket.

SHARNIE - Sharnie's results were a little disappointing as Sharnie resembles her mom so much and I love the look she has but she was in a strong class of female tabby kittens and I didn't expect her to gain top marks but thought she would come somewhere in the line up. Sadly she didn't she was unplaced and speaking to her Judge afterwards I was upset by her remarks and on reflection I must be looking for something different to her in the breed. Sharnie resembles her mom Lunar considerably apart from colour, I thought I had a good eye for assessing my kittens as her Dam is almost a Grand Champion? The comments that she was "small & under developed" her Colour tone to her chocolate is cold and pale and she needs to grow would look better in a month or so!!!! Well she was one of the biggest kittens in the class she weighs in at a good weight she has a long body and substantial limbs (she is bigger than her dam at the same age when I compare weights), She does however need to develop a coat and her chocolate is very pale, but in the standard of points the colour is described as Milk Chocolate and should not resemble a seal, confused well I was. Sharnie did however achieve a 2nd in a large side class and speaking to that judge the comments didn't reflect the open judges, time will tell I am in no rush to show her again till she has grown a winter coat.

The show career goes on hold for Sharnie & Dream & with only two more Merits for Scout and then his show career will draw to a close, Then what will I show, I might just have to bring Lunar out of retirement and try for the last Grand - who knows. We might just have to stay at home it would be cheaper. What ever happens I love my cats for whoever they are and Dream & Sharnie were the results of planned out cross matings and I achieved what I wanted two beautiful girls in my eyes who have the look I want and the temperament to match.

Elmarlay Legacy to Ella

Grief is such a hard thing to deal with the Birman Cat Clubs summer magazine arrived through the door this week and I had put a tribute in it to my dear Ella, this was in the hope of coming to peace with loosing her, but sadly this hasn't had the desired effect I sat in total sorrow reading the words that I had placed in there in her memory. I feel that I will never fully get over Ella she was truly a remarkable cat, not the biggest girl in the world but what she lacked in size she made up for in Catitude!!! she ruled the Elmarlay tribe with a iron paw even the dogs didn't push there luck with her.

Sleep peacefully my dear girl, your legacy lives on in the girls and boys born under the Elmarlay Name.