What an amazing day we had!

Who would believe such pleasure from a wee ball o' fur?

~ Irish Saying ~

Scottish/British Shorthair Kittens

Yesterday Hubby and I had the most amazing afternoon!  We were asked by my baby sister if we could go and visit a cat breeder (CB) that she had been speaking to about a Ragdoll kitten.  Now for us this was a small road trip as we live south of the river and the place we were going to is east of the city - which meant we went for a lovely drive of an hour, fifteen minutes - no real hardship for a lovely afternoon out and the reward at the end of the journey was more than worth it!  As you will see...

We ended up spending three and half hours with the most amazing lady - yes, I did say 3 & 1/2 hours.... CB is the most fascinating lady and we had a brilliant time talking to her about her cats and her life and her research into the health and welfare of cats and rabbits (she used to also breed rabbits!).

CB breeds Ragdolls, British Shorthairs, Scottish Shorthairs and Scottish Folds.  My sister has wanted a Ragdoll for years and now the time has come for her to finally get one!  My sister lives four hours away from Perth so it's not easy for her to get down to Perth at the drop of hat to check out potential kittens, hence the mission she sent us on to see the kittens and check out the breeder.

The newest edition to the Family

While we were at the breeders we saw three litters of Ragdolls and spoke to my sister via "facetime" so that she and kids (and the dog!) could see all the kittens... love modern technology!  She was particularly after a blue point male... which narrowed down the choice quite well, and believe me it would have been very hard to choose one if my sister wasn't so certain of her 'dream" kitty!  There were 2 blue point males available to choose from, as well as seal point and cream point so it was just as well my sister knew what she wanted! We did show her all the other ones as well, of course... but this little boy in the picture above was the favourite!

Shall I show you the one that Hubby fell in love with and would have quite happily taken home if we didn't already have two amazing kitties?

Isn't he adorable?

He ended up falling asleep in Hubby's arms and he did seem to be very happy to stay there!

Kitty and his siblings

Then there was this little sweetheart....

Now I could have taken this one home!

While we had the other shorthair kitties out the breeder bought out this sweet little chocolate shorthair.  He curled up in my hands and went to sleep for at least an hour....

Now look closely at the photo above and you can see the the legs of a Blue Scottish Shorthair (nickname Cutie Pie) next to me. She was pregnant and due to drop her lovely bundle of kitties some time over the weekend - which she just so happened to decide to do while we were there!

Right in front of us......

In fact, Hubby ended up holding onto the moments old kitten while the breeder got Cutie Pie out of the bookcase where she had gone to have the first baby, and then took her back to her bed for the rest of the delivery!  Just amazing... and that was the second amazing thing that had happened during the afternoon. The first brilliant thing to happen was that another litter was also born about an hour after we got there (British Shorthairs) - the breeder had gone out of the room for a couple of minutes and when she came back she had these brand new kittens that needed attention as the mother wasn't quite doing her bit (first time mum) so we watched (as did my sister and her kids) while she rubbed and dried them and sorted out their umbilical cords and then she took them back to their mum for some love and care.

I haven't seen kittens or puppies born since I was a kid when our cats and dogs used to have their babies... it was such an amazing experience to be there when these brand new angels came into the world and it was such a privilege that Cutie Pie allowed us to be present when she had her first born (well first born from this litter anyway!)

So after three & half hours we left this amazing lady and her adorable feline friends on a huge high!  What an amazing afternoon - an afternoon that we will never forget!  Thank you CB and your beautiful kitties for allowing us to be a part of your life in such a wonderful way.

It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens

~ Cynthia E. Varnado ~