Cone Heads

It's always fun to have the kittens come home after surgery with their little e-collars on. The "e" stands for Elizabethan which I think is funny since it kind of looks like the collars Queen Elizabeth wore and, yes, that is apparently how they got their name. We like to call them cones, it's just easier and it's more fun to call them cone heads than e-collar heads ;-). It takes the kittens a little time to get used to eating, drinking, using the litter, etc with the cones on. Even walking around the room can be difficult at first. Some of them lift their feet way up in the air when they walk, almost saying "I can't see the ground so how do I know where to put my feet?" Some of them run into furniture, the wall, and each other. It's fun to watch them :-). It doesn't take them long before they adjust, though, and start running and jumping around the room. Anyway, we decided it would be fun to share a picture. So, here they are relaxing in front of the window in their surgery recovery room. They really are cute!

Now on Facebook

After some repeated request from a few of our customers, we have finally joined facebook. "Like us" if you want to receive status updates and our blog through facebook. As we learn more about facebook we hope to expand our page with photo albums and much more.

Introducing Rags2Riches Nova of LittleApple

Nova is a beautiful blue mitted girl with a small blaze. She actually looks a lot like our new king, Devon. So much so, that we can only tell them apart when they are together by close scrutiny. Nova loves to play with the younger kittens, it is one of her favorite past times. She also loves to sleep near us - on the bed or on my head :-). The bathtub is one of her favorite places to play, she likes to slide around in it. She also likes the little cheese chaser toy a lot! She gets along very well with everyone she meets and likes to be in the same room with me. She especially likes to help me with what I'm doing. She has a wonderfully soft and full fur coat, it's also one of the longest coats we have. She is like a soft puff ball. We love it! We can't wait to see her first kittens later this year.

Introducing Little Apple Almata

Almata is one of our new breeding queens. She is out of our own lines, a Dakota and Pink Pearl daughter. She is a seal torbie bicolor. She is our youngest new queen, but I'm starting with her because she has a pattern that we do not yet have a picture of on our website. The seal torbie bicolor pattern is very similar to a seal lynx bicolor, but with the addition of some red patches coming through. Almata is still young enough that her red coloring has not come in fully, but you can start to see it on the left side of her face. Almata is a very beautiful girl and she gets along with everyone she meets. She loves to cuddle and lays right on my stomach at night purring away. Her favorite things are cuddling and playing with the mylar wand. She also enjoys kittens - of any size. She is a natural mother, taking over that job for any kitten she sees. We look forward to seeing her first kittens in the fall 2011.

Recovery fun

Bailey's kittens just had their spay/neuter surgeries earlier this week. I have to admit that this time can be very funny. They all wear e-collars (or cones) on their heads to keep them from licking the incisions. It's so fun to watch them walk. They bob their heads up and down trying to see the floor and occasionally run into things (the dresser, the other dresser, each other). It's also funny to see them try to eat out of the food bowls or drink from the water bowls. I usually have pity on them and remove their collars so they can eat more easily, but it's fun to watch for just a little while ;-). And then, of course, they want to cuddle with me and they just can't get close enough with the cone on, so off it goes again...I'm so nice. But then I have to put the cone back on to make sure they heal properly. They also jump and run around like they didn't have surgery at all. They are of course in one room, so they can't run around too much. And I try to take everything out of the room that they can jump on to prevent the jumping...but if they want to just jump up in the air, I can't really stop that ;-). Anyway, recovery is always fun...and challenging, but I prefer to focus on the fun! Did I mention that they are all purring so loudly when I'm in their room that I can't hear anything else? It is really loud!

Emma's kittens are so much fun right now. They have been sleeping with us and on us, watching tv with us and on us...they are becoming very involved in our lives. A couple of them found the cursor on the computer recently. It's a little hard to type with a kitten (or two) standing in front of the monitor, but they were having fun...and any excuse not to work ;-).

Gala and Pink Pearl's kittens are at my mom's, so I don't get to see them as much. But, every time I'm over there they run right up to me and start playing right at my feet (sometimes with my feet). They are sweet and funny and I love to visit them.

Dora's kittens are starting to walk out of the nest now. They are even "helping" me clean litter boxes and sweep already. It's fun to start to see their personalities emerging. And the exciting news is we have our first blue kittens!