Destruction!

 

Destruction!

                                Pansy and Clown (blue and chocolate)

Warning! If you are averse to animals, do not read on.

Polly spoke about her Labrador breeding friends and the destruction the puppies wrought, and it reminded me of our brief foray into breeding Burmese cats.

It had never been our intention to breed cats. We had had an accidental breeding of Jack Russells, which was fun for the children, and also why we ended up with four of them – JRs, I mean, though we did have four children, too.

My sister and brother-in-law had a beautiful brown Burmese, called Tip, because he had a white tip to his tail. A few years after I left home – the baby of the family - they gave my parents a little queen who had come to the end of her breeding programme (!) Liza gave them a great deal of pleasure and much appreciated the freedom and love they gave her.

When we decided to acquire a cat, we remembered how affectionate and curious Burmese cats were, and found a local breeder, who had a pretty little brown queen, a few months old. They encouraged us to breed from her, and we thought it would be interesting for the children. That encouragement is not generally given these days, but this was many years ago.

The kittens were enchanting. From Alicat we had brown, chocolate, blue and lilac offspring. Each child and its friends had different favourites, so, naturally, we ended up with quite a few cats.

Pansy Blue as a kitten

People often claim to ‘know’ that cats and dogs are instinctive enemies and cannot live together, and take pleasure in promulgating the myth. We have found them to be allies and friends. The cats groom the dogs’ heads and faces and the dogs step between arguing cats to defuse the situation, as they would with warring dogs.

              Cariadd, (Dalmatian) with six Burmese, one brown, one blue, three chocolates and a lilac. They would climb on her for comfort if they started arguing.

We were extraordinarily lucky with the Jack Russells, known chasers – and killers – of fur. When we brought Alicat home, I sat down, and Daisy JR jumped up on my lap! We never had a problem with them, but I would not risk it again. It just didn’t occur to us to worry.

Puppies are fun, adventurous, and messy, but they don’t climb. Kittens clamber up everything in sight, including people. The view from the top of someone’s head, or the curtains, is exciting and different. If there are no people or furniture available to ascend, the wallpaper will do.

Inevitably, the time came, at three months of age, to bid the kittens farewell to their new homes. Interviewing prospective owners was never a job we relished, but we wanted to ensure our little creatures went to loving homes. Equally, I felt we had to be honest about what they were taking on. Burmese kittens do not lie around looking beautiful, although they can. They are adventurous and curious and can get themselves into unusual hiding places.

We once lost a litter temporarily. We had put them in our en suite shower room, where we were sure they would be safe and could not escape. When I went in to check on them and feed them, I couldn’t see them anywhere. Our shower room is not vast and the window was securely closed. Panic set in momentarily but something caused me to look more closely at the bidet and sure enough, the kittens were tucked safely under the pedestal. They soon emerged for their food, and we found a different room for them to grow up in.

As well as giving prospective owners directions to our house, a task at which I am still very poor, I would test their resolve by telling them what to expect. If they were experienced cat people, they would quickly understand. One man put it succinctly – ‘So, we look for the house with the wallpaper hanging off in shreds.’ I agreed that was the case and he came to collect his kitten anyway.

While kittens may not eat the carpet or the plaster on the walls, or chew the door frame, your shoes, or anything else that takes their fancy, as puppies will, they have sharp claws, like needles. They will tear at your soft furnishings, turn the stair carpet into a series of scratching posts, scale the heights of the kitchen cupboards, and pierce your heart with their unbelievably silky fur and huge, lustrous eyes. A warm purring cat on your lap or next to you as you lie on your bed is worth more than a king’s ransom.

If dog/s join the cat/s, you are more blessed than you could imagine.

We haven’t bred puppies, or kittens for many years. It is exhausting, being responsible for so many tiny beings. Guinea pigs, mice and gerbils are much easier, but once our children grew out of the farming phase, we ceased breeding altogether. Oh, that is, until our youngest child was born. She came during the cat breeding phase. We must have got muddled, somewhere! 

Herbert with Bethan

A sunny day in early June

 

A sunny day in early June

Aquilegias

These two are ‘Mrs Scott-Elliot’ hybrids.

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus)

These are ‘Indian carpet’. The petals are edible and also make a relaxing herbal tea.

Campanula

Campanula flowers can be added as decoration but have little flavour.  The leaves are also edible with a very mild taste and can be added to salads.

Pansy

Pansy is another edible flower that can be used in salads or as a garnish to cakes or jellies.

Chives

Both flowers and leaves are edible. The flowers can also be deep-fried or pickled.

The commonest varieties are common (onion) chives and garlic (Chinese) chives, which have white flowers.

Perennial geranium

Flowers and leaves are edible and can be eaten raw in salads, used in teas or as decoration for cakes and desserts.

ABC Wednesday Y is for Yellow

Yellow is such a cheerful colour in the garden particularly after the often dreary winter days when daffodils bloom in Spring . . .

 . . . followed by Kerria japonica which often flowers again in summer

Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon ) is a wildflower native to central and southern England and common in Europe. It is a plant of ancient woodlands and old hedgerows, its yellow flowers in May and June bringing brightness to damper, darker areas. It grows well on chalk or heavy clay but can be invasive in the garden. Young leaves and shoots and flower tips can be eaten when cooked. In herbal medicine it has been used to treat sores and ulcers and to stop bleeding. It is rich in nectar and attractive to bees.

Yellow nasturtiums and marigolds also attract bees

Yellow pansy

Yellow courgette flower followed by green or yellow courgettes

Yellow honeysuckle

Yellow roses

Yellow honey bee (Apis mellifera)

We saw very few of these in 2011. I hope there will be more in 2012.

Yellow sunflower. 

Until last summer I thought all sunflowers were yellow but there are some very pretty red ones.

Click here for more Wise Ys

Today's Flowers #159 Teapot flowers

 I have small teapot that is chipped and cannot be used to make tea any more. Rather than throw it out I decided to use it for flowers.

Pansies, pinks and perennial geraniums make a pleasing display, to my eyes, anyway J

Bird's-eye view!

Click here to see and enjoy flowers from all over the world. 

Today's Flowers #153 July garden flowers

dianthus

dianthus

dianthus

pyracantha with hoverfly

pansy

calendula

nasturtium

Do you think the little hoverfly knows how beautiful it looks against the nasturtium?

The colour certainly suits him!

To see more lovely flowers click here.

Midweek Blues

Rebecca from 'The Dusty Cellar' organises and hosts this meme. To join in or to see other offerings please click on the logo.

Pansy Blue, one of our blue Burmese kittens. Genetically, blue is a dilution of black. Her mother was brown, her siblings chocolate or brown. No lilacs in this particular litter.

In different lights Pansy looked more silver than blue.

A blue background complemented her colour.

Here she is curled up with a chocolate friend. To us she was, quite correctly, 'blue' - but to the uninitiated she was grey!

Pet Pride, Shadow Shot Sunday #104 - Pansy Blue

The breeders of our brown Burmese cat encouraged us to breed from her - I am more resistant to such suggestions these days! She was a pretty little queen and gave us many years of pleasurable companionship and five litters of kittens - three planned by us and two of her own desiring! In her second litter there was a blue kitten which we kept and called Pansy Blue.

Pansy had the most amazingly luminous eyes which changed expression remarkably. When she gazed at humans her eyes were soft and loving with no hint of evil but sometimes when she looked at one of her feline house mates her expression would  harden and she looked every inch the fighter though she never squabbled with the others - perhaps the look was enough!

She was blind for the last two years of her life and we so missed her loving looks though she continued to chat to us as she had done all her life.

As you can see from the photographs a 'blue' cat is really grey. Against a blue background the coat looks 'bluer'.The 'blue' is a dilution of black. Our children became so used to the descriptive colours of the cats that other animals were so categorised. One day Susannah described a squirrel as being 'blue' and that's when we had to explain that colours vary acccording to breed and species and custom. A white horse is a 'grey', red hunting jackets are 'pink', a brown-spotted Dalmatian is 'liver' while a brown Labrador is 'chocolate' ,and so on ad infinitum.
Thank you to the hosts of these memes. To see more please click on Pet Pride or Shadow Shot Sunday - and maybe you might be tempted to join in, too!

Face of the Week #10 Pansy

I like the velvety petals and shy faces of pansies. This pansy flowered in our garden last summer.

Thank you to Sistertex from 'Spacial Peepol' for organising and hosting this meme. If you'd like to see more - or even join in! - please click here.

The Dog Days of My Life: #12 - Frodo

We were quite content with our two dogs, Dominie and Buddy, and were not intending to add to our pack. I had given up my full-time job and was enjoying the freedom to walk with the dogs at any time of my choosing rather than having to fit it in around work. They were well-behaved, friendly and extremely good company.

We went to lunch one Sunday with a friend of Barry's from long ago. One of the other guests was looking for a home for an adult Munsterlander. We talked about it during our ninety minute drive home and then decided that if we really wanted another dog we would prefer a Dalmatian, another running companion for Barry. After many phone calls we came across a five-month-old dog from a very well-known kennels. His breeder, Karen Goff-Leggett, had three young males and had to find a home for one of them. She had decided that Frodo would be the one but she wanted him to go to a home with other dogs, preferably Dalmatians, where he would have company and be well-exercised. We duly travelled to Lincolnshire and returned home with the piratical-looking Frodo. He was born around the time of the release of one of the 'Lord of the Rings' films and had been named accordingly. His registered kennel name is Washakie Lord of the Rings. (One of the others was called Dudley as he was born at the time of Dudley Moore's demise.)

Karen had already entered him for the Windsor Dog Show when he would be just six months old. I needed a crash course in handling for the show ring. Our first visit to Ringcraft class caused Frodo to bark at every dog that came near him – not an auspicious start. We survived the first show – in fact Frodo qualified for Cruft's which is not as great an achievement as it sounds; a puppy qualifies if it comes in the first three of a class in which it's entered in a Championship show. I entered him for several more shows but the summer of 2002 was very hot and I thought it would be unwise to subject him to extreme temperatures so didn't take him along. At our next show, a Dalmatian show, we galloped round the ring with Frodo attempting to take lumps out of the other competitors as we passed. When it was his turn to have the judge 'go over him' he growled at her – just a very soft, back-of-the-throat growl – and for me that was the deciding factor. Maybe he would have grown out of his mistrust but I felt he was not happy in the ring and so his short show career finished. In fact, he is a very reserved dog until he knows someone and then he's a friend for life. He is the same with other dogs unless they visit our house.

As it transpired the decision was a good one for he developed epilepsy just before his third birthday. It is not very severe – his seizures are short and his pre- and post-ictal behaviour are neither pronounced nor long. He has had one eleven-month seizure-free period but now the fits occur every three to five weeks.

Because of his wary attitude to strange people and dogs we worried greatly about introducing young animals. We need not have been apprehensive for he has consistently shown himself to be the gentlest of dogs with puppies and kittens (and babies) He had never met cats before he came home with us but was fascinated by the two elderly blue Burmese cats we then had, nosing and licking them. When Singleton passed on he and blind Pansy searched for her for a whole day, looking in all her usual haunts – they were both very puzzled by her absence. A year later Pansy died and once more he came to question me with his beautiful, intelligent eyes. The two Ocicats we have now are very relaxed with him, batting him with soft paws, licking him and curling up to sleep with him.

We laughingly call him the 'Velcro dog' for he sticks to me like cleavers. When out walking he rarely travels more than ten seconds without turning to see where I am. Indoors he is my constant shadow when awake. The anti-epilepsy drugs he takes cause him to sleep very heavily, like a puppy or an old dog, so that I can leave a room without him waking and following me. However, should the phone ring he's awake and howling instantly. Indeed our neighbours tell us that they always know when we're out because they hear the howling. I hasten to add this does not happen frequently – we rarely leave home without our dogs!

So, although we originally had no intention of acquiring another dog our handsome Frodo has brought much laughter into our lives as well as quite a few challenges. He is extraordinarily affectionate and very protective of his pack. I could walk anywhere with him and feel completely secure. Of all our dogs he is the most responsive returning immediately when called or whistled - the others come when they've finished their interesting sniffs, or in Jenna's case, the pursuit of deer!

To learn more about Frodo you might like to read the 'Frodo the Faller' posts - 'The Adventures of Frodo the Faller' and 'The Further Adventures of Frodo the Faller'.