 CH
CHINUA PURRY CATSANOVA
D.O.B. 21 May, 2003
The Prince of Chinua has arrived!
I was praying for good news, as I stood waiting
not too patiently, while Dr Williams examined Mietta. We had
waited so long for her to have her first litter of kittens and Dr
Williams had waited right along with us offering us his outstanding
advice and wonderful support. I dreaded hearing his verdict, as he
looked at me and sadly shook his head and said, “I’m so sorry Ann, but
unfortunately I don’t feel any kittens and at 45 days don’t want to
x-ray Mietta to see if she was carrying any kittens either.”
I was fearful my beautiful girl would never have kittens. She
would be such a good Mum if she only had a chance! As you get to
know me you’ll agree that I can be very stubborn when I have a gut
feeling about something. And I knew Mietta was pregnant. She
just had to be! So, I thanked Dr Williams and I took my ‘sweet
one’ out to the car telling her that we’d have a nice ride home and I’d
give her some of her much loved turkey baby food as a treat for being so
good once we got home. She chirruped her agreement to the plan and
off we went. Mietta is one of those incredible girls who love to
ride in the car, so she was looking forward
to her newest adventure even if
that only took her back home.
As the days went by and we drew
closer to day 65 when the kittens were due, Mietta’s appetite grew, she
slept more, was even more loving and she was looking everywhere for the
perfect place to have her kittens. Boxes were investigated, laundry
baskets with warm clean clothes, the back of the closet, behind the
couch in the basement, even our bed! Everything was fair game for
our Queen of the house for the best place for these kittens to be born!
In every conversation with Dr Williams he coached me not to get my hopes
up as he felt for certain she was in the midst of a false pregnancy.
I held fast to my belief that she was well and truly pregnant. Maybe if
I believed enough that would make it happen! I knew I was being
taught yet another life lesson of patience and perseverance. Be
patient and good things will come. Is that ever a hard lesson!
A very pregnant Mietta...at least we
thought so!
The all-important day 65 came and
went. And no kittens! OH NO, was I wrong? Could this
truly be a false pregnancy like Dr Williams said? Mietta had milk
to feed her babies, but no kittens!!! Still Dr Williams told me
she’s not expecting, her milk will dry up, just give her time. I
spent the next 4 nights sleeping on the bathroom floor where we had
confined Mietta for her and her kittens’ safe keeping. I rubbed her
tummy and rubbed her tummy and rubbed her tummy some more! Any
time I had the audacity to fall asleep she would lick my face and purr
like mad so I would rub her tummy some more! Each day still no kittens!
I prayed more and more in those 4 days…for Mietta to be okay and for any
kittens she was carrying to be okay. My patience was thinning and
I couldn’t help but worry. Her kittens were long overdue!
On day 69 I had to stay late to
finish a project at work when Richard called me about 5:40 pm.
When I answered the phone all I heard on the other end was, “Baaby,
baby, baaabby!!!” “Come home the kittens are on the way…we have
one here already!“ I think I hung up before he was finished
talking! Hallelujah!!! I was right!!! Man was that a long
45-minute drive home though! I made it home safely though and
without getting a speeding ticket to find the most precious little blue
mackerel tabby with white boy. Proud Mama Mietta and her little boy were
in the kitten basket and the little blue boy was having a much-deserved
dinner. Mietta didn’t seem to be in any distress for being a first
time mom and didn’t appear to be in the midst of ongoing contractions,
but I checked her over closely and didn’t feel any more kittens.
I watched her the rest of the night just in case though!
Purry at just hours old!
Prior to the kitten being born, I
had made an appointment for her to see Dr Williams on day 70 to have
Mietta x-rayed to verify if she had kittens or not, which was the next
morning after the 1 kitten was born. I decided to play it safe and
keep the appointment and take Mietta and baby blue to see Dr Williams
just in case there were more kittens and there was a problem. I
didn’t want to risk loosing sweet Mietta. Much to our relief the
x-ray didn’t show any other kittens! Dr Williams then told me that
in the 35 years he’d been a vet that only 1 other cat had had only 1
kitten. He agreed with me that 1 kitten was better than none!
He was glad that he had been wrong about the false pregnancy since he so
very much wanted her to have kittens too. I told him that Rad and
Mietta worked VERY hard to make this one kitten as close to perfection
as possible! As he checked the little boy over he agreed with
me…the kitten was perfect. The first Chinua Prince is born!
Mietta was a very proud
first time Mum!
Rad and Mietta take a moment for a
kiss over baby Purry!
Since he was a singlet I asked
advice from other breeders who had also had 1 kitten litters. Each
person gave very helpful advice on best practices with small litters.
With a singleton you have to help them grow stronger since they don’t
have siblings to wrestle with to gain strength, which is vital in their
entire development. So, I would move the kitten around to make him
crawl back to Mietta, pull him off his favorite nipple to make him crawl
to find it, like a sibling would do if he had one and even did kitten
calisthenics with him to help him grow strong! The other cats,
Richard and I became the blue boy’s siblings since he was an ‘only’.
There is nothing sweeter than a Mum
and babe snuggling!
We played and cuddled to our
heart’s content. Since Mietta is such a wonderful girl she would
let me take the kitten bed into the living room while we watched TV and
transfer both of them to the couch. She would allow her sweet baby to
sleep on my lap, lay beside me on the couch, or even sleep on my
shoulder…as long as she could see her precious baby she was fine. Mietta
took these opportunities while her baby was well looked after to stretch
her legs, eat or do whatever she felt like doing!
Purry got his name
right here...purring like crazy before his eyes even opened!
The kitten and I bonded during this
special time we spent together. Miracle of all miracles he even
purred for me before his eyes opened. I could often hear him purr
while he nursed, but when he purred for me as we snuggled close his
first name was chosen! He had to be Purry! As Purry opened
his eyes and started walking he became even more loving if that was
possible. Thus his last name was created. Catsanova fit him
as perfectly as Purry did! Purry Catsanova…perfect, just like him!
He was and still is a love!
Purry all worn out...no wonder he had
to test run all these toys!
One day at lunch while I was
showing a friend pictures of baby Purry, he very innocently asked me
with a smile if Purry’s feet ever touched the floor! My boy
spoiled? NO!!! Certainly not! Loved totally and
completely? YES! And if I carried him with me everywhere I
went that was only because he was lonely, right? Yes, I had it
bad, very bad indeed! And yes, Purry would be staying with us
forever.
Very early on Vincent, our sweet
red Wegie became Purry’s ever-diligent nanny and best buddy. If
Purry wandered too far from his home turf, Vincent would talk to him to
direct him back to ‘safe’ territory! Many times Vincent’s sweet
voice would become stern as if he was warning or scolding Purry about
something he was doing. Vincent was much more of a worrier than
Mietta! We loved hearing Vincent and Purry communicate with each other.
They still talk to each other differently then they talk to the other
cats. I think they came up with their own cat language, just for
each other! Kind of like a boy’s club code! If Mietta got
out of the kitten basket, Vincent would climb in to keep Purry company
and to keep him warm.
Purry and best buddy Vincent meet for
the first time!
One lesson I witnessed was when
Vincent taught Purry how to drink water. I heard Purry sputter as
he stuck his little pink nose in the water bowl. In a dash Vincent
was beside him at the bowl to check and make sure he was okay. Vincent
very carefully dipped his paw in the water to break the tension of the
water then put his paw in front of Purry. Purry licked the water
off Vincent’s paw. Vincent did this 1 more time then he dipped his
paw to ripple the water and then drew Purry back to the water with his
wet paw and guided Purry to take a drink without dunking his nose.
Many times after that lesson I would see little Purry put his paw in the
water to make a ripple so he would know how much water was in the bowl
and then he would take a drink.
Vincent teaching Purry the fine art of
drinking!
One of Purry’s favorite toys became
a toy quite by accident and now has become a favorite of all of the
kittens who bless our home! I’m a terrible basketball player, so
when I tried to toss a cardboard Dole singles fruit pack carton into the
trash it fell on the floor instead. Purry, curious little boy that
he was went over to investigate this new and exciting looking toy!
Not that the boy didn’t have baskets full of toys either! Purry
would run and dive into his new ‘tunnel’ like toy and play for hours!
Sometimes he would put his legs through the holes and look like a
‘boxed’ cat! My bad aim turned out to be such a fun toy, not only
for kittens, but also for us to watch and laugh for hours on end!
Purry acting like a
fruit in the Dole box!
Purry is trying to decide if this
would be a good Halloween costume!
As Purry grew, he and Vincent were
never far apart. Wherever one was, there was the other. This
still holds true today. Partners in crime, Abbot & Costello, Roy
Rogers & Trigger, you get the picture? Inseparable! Purry
now is much bigger than Vincent weighing in at 14 pounds. He will soon
rival his dad Rad in size whose weighs a solid 16 pounds, but looks like
he weighs 30! Even though he is bigger than Vincent, Purry is very
gentle with him. Vincent will want to romp and play and even
tackles Purry, but most of the time Purry lets Vincent win at their cat
games. It’s so sweet to see them rough housing one minute and
curled up together sound asleep the next. They may not be brothers
by blood, but they certainly are brothers in heart.
Bestest buddies...Vincent and Purry
Come back and sit a spell to find
out what happens with our Purry Catsanova!
The ‘rest of the story’ is that in
spring of 2005 we made the hard decision to have Purry neutered.
Since we didn’t have any plans to bring in another female who we could
use Purry with it wasn’t fair to him to keep him whole and unhappy.
Whole males in the cat world can be very hormonal (much like a human
teenage boy!) and can be very unhappy if they don’t have a female to
keep them company. Purry is now a happy kitten-like boy who plays
for hours on end with the kittens, Vincent and Maureen. Mietta is
still the Queen of the household and sometimes joins in the games too!
Purry is still growing and is longer in body than his Dad. Will be
interesting to see just how big this guy gets! Remember, Wegies
take 3-5 years to develop and at this writing Purry just turned 2! We’re
thinking massive…
Gorgeous Purry at 2 years old!
The ripple effect continues...
Mietta
• Maureen
• Lucy
• Vincent•
Rad
• Purry
• Zander |