![[About our cats]](pics/about-t.gif)
This diary is getting longer and longer, and people have complained about the "scrolling" necessary in order to get the latest additions. I have therefore decided from 2006 on to use the ascending method, i.e. the latest additions appearing on the top of this page. Still, do remember now and then to have a look at pictures in My Photo Album, which will be updated when good pictures are at hand.
2007 November 2007: The best thing in a breeder's life (at least in my!) is the birth of kittens. During the night of November 7, Kiri gave birth to 5 kittens - 2 males and 3 females. The delivery lasted only 4 hours and the weigh of the kittens ranged from 70 g to 95 g. Eight days later all of them have trebled their weight! A couple of pictures can be seen in My Photo Album, R-litter. June 2007: Admitted, I have left updating undone for quite some time. Those, who have consulted my "Kittens"-page will know that only one litter has been born in our home in 2006, an unplanned litter, namely "moggies". The female from this litter found an excellent, loving home with Gulla, where Svips (= 'Flop' in English) has - due to her queen-like attitude - been renamed Saba and came to share the home with Malthe, a huge dog of unknown ancestry. (Pictu res will shortly be uploaded to My Photo Album). The male, Ups! (= 'Oops!' in English), stayed with us, we just could not part with this sweet and joyful little creature.We have not been spared for sorrow, Egérke and most recently Kuki joined their friends on the other side of the rainbow. Both of them have had a good and long life in our home, 12 and 13 years, respectively. Egérke developed kidney failure and Kuki cancer. We do miss them badly.
And now to some good news: Rexkwizit's Raven of Bodwin as well as Bodwin's Petroc and B.B. Bodwin of the Rex Resemblance have once more been scanned for HCM at The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Denmark. The three of them have been assessed (based on phenotype) "Normal". I have therefore decided to put an end to Raven's unwanted celibacy, and again to use him in my breeding program. He will in the future also render services to selected queens (please note the word 'selected').
I usually do not boast about my cats' achievement. However, I'll make an exception this time. Raven was nominated Best in Show at the last FIFe World Cat Show in Maastricht, the Netherlands; he did not make it this time, though. Raven is now European Champion and obtained the title DSM (Distinguished Show Merit) in Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic) a month ago. Raven loves to be shown, so - if everything goes according to plans - he will be present at the next World Cat Show in Slovakia.
Our household has also been enriched by a new blue-white CRX-female from the Netherlands, Diamante of the Rex Resemblance. An elegant, charming but temperamental cat. Her coat, however, leaves much to be desired. At the moment I am not at all sure whether or not to use her in my breeding program. There is a saying: 'Nothing is as bad that it is not good for something', well, I have always wanted to be the owner of a Sphynx cat, and Mouzy - as we call her - is very close to look like one.
2006
April 2006: Monterosa Morgan, my all time favourite male, suffered a stroke and had to be put down since the condition turned worse after a couple of days. He has a special place in my heart, the gentle cat that will be difficult to replace. March: A DNA test for HCM has now been carried out for Raven at the Washington State University's Veterinaty Cardiac Genetics Laboratory with the result: "NEGATIVE for the known HCM gene".February: Wonderful news, the "Swedish" daughter of Raven (now called Vera) has been scanned for HCM and has been found negative. She as well as the other 'negatives' will nevertheless be tested again in a year's time.
January: A happy, healthy and prosperous 2006 to you, dear reader! You might perhaps be interested in how the health of Raven and Paddy is at the moment. In case, they are both doing fine. No sign of anything related to heart trouble in Raven, who is on no medication. Both Paddy and Petroc have been neutered, and Paddy's health status due to medication is impeccable. Petroc chases B.B. around the house and does not at all seem to be bothered by the enlargement of the papillary muscle. He behaves exactly as can be expected of an 8 months old cat.
Kiri's kittens, Quinn, Queeny and Qutie are growing rapidly. They are rather advanced for their age, hardly anything can stop them from seeking hights. Blue jeans are the preferred means of reaching the top. The kittens are playing a lot with B.B. and Petroc, who both spend a lot of time together with them.
At the moment (March 2000) our resident cat family consists of 5 neutered Cornish, 1 neutered Devon, 1 neutered Housecat (neuters ranging 4-17 years), 3 breeding queens (1 Cornish and 2 Devon) and 3 studs (2 Cornish and 1 Devon). In November last year Farukin Auringonkukka (Kuki for friends!) and Bodwin's Fiona produced a litter each, all together 6 kittens, the fathers of which being Bodwin's Danilo and Simba-Hobbit von Pa Ma (German, 1.DEKZV e.V. registered), respectively. Most of the kitties have found new homes.
In April 2000 our eldest Cornish Rex, Evita av Karmsund passed over to the eternal hunting fields. She would have turned 18 years in June. Evita is missed by us all, also by the cats. She was quite a character, the real queen of the cat family of our home.
A follow up since the last paragraph: We have not been producing kittens. However, the number of cats in our home was increased by one: Bodwin's Fiona - a white Devon Rex female - returned to our home after having stayed with friends for more than 2 years. It was as if she had never been out of the house, she was immediately accepted by the rest of the "crew", perhaps because she can only with difficulty be distinguished from her mother Kuki.
January 2002: Our beloved "flying Dutchman", Berkendonck Fan-Fan joined her good friend Evita on the eternal hunting grounds. She, who had great success on the show benches - but unfortunately not as a queen - and who has always made her utmost to live up to the nickname "flying Dutchman", is sadly missed by us all. April 2002: Last fall we acquired the lovely calico female Windseeker Wick Sailmaker (called Knirke) from Finland. (Thank you Eija-Maarit Kotro for letting us have her!) She will hopefully be an asset to the Bodwin Cornish Rex breeding program. Knirke has had a good start of her career on the show bench, she has been nominated to the BIS panel two times out of three shows. June 2002: Our much beloved Pipi (Bodwin's U-Nike) joined his ancestors at the age of almost 15 years. He was since the beginning of his life (starting with a caesarean under which 4 out of 6 kittens were dead) a true "U-Nique person", with a temper totally unlike a cat. He never hissed at other cats and was the first to accept newcomers to the household. Pipi also never failed to demonstrate how much he loved us, and how devoted he was to "mom". Our home is just so empty without him! March 2003: Since June last we have had the joy of a Devon and of a Cornish litter. Jodie, our silver-tortie-tabby Devon had in November a litter of 4 with Norwegian Balvenie av Ochremenko; unfortunately 2 of the kittens died prior to a ceasarean. Ladybug Willow, a silvertabby female, joined Myrtle and Tony Batchelor's family while Lord Lurifax, a black-smoke male, is still with us. A couple of days before Christmas Knirke (see above) had a litter of 3 males with Struntens Tjalle Tvärvigg, a bouquet of blue-white, cream-white and chocolat-white males. All of them have by now found loving homes. Our white DRX Fiona cheated us badly this time. Mated to the above Balvenie at the end of December, showing all signs of pregnancy, she did not deliver anything when time was due. Instéad, she started calling. Balvenie was rushed to our home again and 20 minutes after his arrival the first mating took place. They really seam to enjoy each others' company! Thank you Suzanne Trolle for letting us "borrow" him again, and thank you for bringing him to our home in such a hurry. We do hope to have better results this time. It is too sad to report the death of Tjalle, who passed away in connection with a very serious eye damage. One of his sons is with us to carry on his Australian genes. February 2004: Have totaly forgotten to update this homepage! - and now I don't even know where to begin. Well, Fiona did not get pregnant so her daughter Jodie had the pleasure of Belvenie's company instead. Their meeting resulted in 2 kittens, a si-rex and a black smoke male. Jodie had to have a caesarean again thereby proving that she is no good for breeding purposes. Hence, she was neutered at the same time. She is now enjoying life, having no obligations at all. In October 2003 we had the joy of having a wonderful black smoke male, the Canadian Rexqwizit's Raven-of-Bodwin, join our family. Thank you, Sandra, for letting us have him! Raven has adjusted fine with the rest of the cats and had great success at the first show he attended in Denmark. We expect him to contribute to the looks of future Bodwin cats. Our at that time oldest neutered Cornish, Bodwin's Xury, died of old age (15) in December. His death brought the number of neuters in our home down to 4. At the moment (Feb. 10, 2004) Windseeker Wick Sailmaker (called Knirke) is pregnant with Monterosa Morgan. She has blood type B and Morgan bloodtype A, so this time I have made a small apron to cover up the "milk bar" during the kitties' first crucial hours. At her first delivery we tried to use a stocking, but that did not work and we had to take away the kittens. This resulted in a total rejection of the kittens for a couple of days. I had to lay next to her box most of the time caressing her and holding her front paw each time I succeeded in getting her lie down and let the kittens suckle. The apron, I hope, will be a better solution. (Will report on that later.) June 2004: Forgetful as I (still) am, the updating of this page has been omitted until someone scolded me for not doing so. Well, Knirke got 3 kittens on Feb. 20, a cream Si-rex male and a cream/white (Van) and chocolat/cream/white females. (See a picture of the litter on My Photo Album.) This delivery went without problems. Knirke wore the home-made apron covering the milk bar and the kitties eagerly accepted the bottle. We were rather surprised by the low number of kittens since Knirke was HUGE during the last week of pregnancy but after weighing the kittens, ranging from 126 to 132 gr, the reason of her size became obvious. By now the Si-rex male has found a new home to share with a couple of Balinese, while the two girls make good company for Raven, who behaves just as playful as they do. In March 2004 I fetched a lovely little black-tortie/white Devon Rex girl, Power Plant's Allegra, bred by Marion Frick, from Hamburg. Marion and I have been in touch for some time, her now neutered male, Simba-Hobbit v. Pa-Ma, being the father of Fiona's kittens from 1999. When applying for a Danish FIFe pedigree (she has a German FIFe pedigree, but according to FIFe rules she has to be re-registered in Denmark) it turned out that Ally-Cat, as we call her, has an interesting ancestry. Three of her ancestors, a great-grand parent and a great-great-grand parent have by 1. DEKZV e.V. in Germany been registered, respectively, XSH and DRX only, without a notation of colour. Now this, in the Danish Federation's eyes, mortal sin implies that these ancestors will not be carried on the Danish FIFe pedigree. I therefore decided to try to find the breeders/owners of the three cats, since in my view it is a greater sin not at all to carry a cat on a pedigree as long as the breed is known than that of a missing colour information . Marion helped me a lot in my search which resulted in finding the owner/breeder of the great-great-grand mother, Mona v. Didima (XSH). I was lucky enough to get in touch with Dr. Rosemarie Wolff, who is well known and admired by all of us "old" breeders due to her highly praised book Katzen Verhalten, Pflege, Rassen from the early 1970'ies. Dr. Wolff could tell me that Mona v. Didima, a black tortie female, is still alive and that Mona is a result of a mating between a Devon Rex and a Scottish Fold (hence the XSH), a crossing of two breeds when estbalishing the new Pudelkatze (Poodle Cat) breed, a cat with curly/wavy coat and folded ears. This breed did not gain popularity at that time, and all is forgotten about it by now. I do remember having read an article about and seen lots of pictures of this breed in die Edelkatze sometime in the seventies. Dr. Wolff sent me the proof, a pedigree from the German club Verband Deutscher Katzenfreunde of the colour of Ally-Cat's ancestor and could tell me the name of the breeder of the other two without colour information. The breeder is a certain Mr. Fröhlich in Switzerland (breeder name Tartuffe's, who apparently is member of a non-FIFe federation in that country. I have now asked a Swiss judge as well as the Swiss Federation for help in tracing this gentleman or the possible non-FIFe club, till now no answer from any of them. Should out there be someone reading these lines who knows anything of the whereabouts of Mr. Fröhlich or knows the Swiss independent organisation, I'd appreciate and value any information possible. As to the Pudelkatze, well, Dr. Wolff has at the moment an fourteen weeks old cream female, so she despite her high age of 87 is still in business, so to say. Who says that problems with pedigrees cannot be awarding? July 2004: Tony Batchelor, the Rex and Sphynx Club's internet wizard, sent me a link, where the name and address of the above mentioned Mr. Fröhlich could be found (thanks, Tony!). A letter has immediately been sent off in the hope that Mr. Fröhlich would be willing to supply the missing information on Ally-Cat's pedigree. Needles to say that my request for information to the Swiss FIFe club as well as to a well-known Swiss judge has remained unanswered. Until now no news from Mr. Fröhlich either. The pedigree problem has developed further. In a letter received some days ago from the Chairman of Felis Danica (Danish national federation), I was informed that the German Federation, 1. DEKZV e.V., has made several mistakes on the pedigree issued by their office in omitting the original registration numbers of some of the cats initially registered by non-FIFe-member clubs. In the letter it was also suggested that I seek help from 1. DEKZV e.V. in case I do not wish to have several empty spaces on the pedigree to be issued in Denmark. So now I have a full German pedigree on Power Plant's Allegra and a pending application for a Danish pedigree. "Rules are rules, and rules are to be respected" is the answer I often get thrust at me. Now I am waiting for the English version of the Chaiman's letter in order to be able to approach 1. DEKZV e.V. I leave it up to the reader to judge the righteouness of the sentence "Rules are rules......." in this specific case! August 2004: Continuation of the, apparently, endless story: Mrs. Sattler and Mrs. Angermund from the 1.DEKZV has been very friendly when presented with the problem. Unfortunately, they could not be of any assistance, because - as I understood - the club did not have the old register numbers. August 18: Fortunately, some people do read these lines. So did Marie Wickman (S*Giggles in Sweden) and she has been digging in the past (thank you, Marie!), finding some pedigrees of cats with the Tartuffe lines. She also gave me a couple of addresses I could turn to for further investigation. Before doing that, I made yet another attempt in approching the Swiss FIFe federation, and this time with success. Mr. Martin Wahl gave me the the address (the same as I had written to previously) of Mr. Fröhlich and the phone number as well. Thank you, Mr. Wahl, for taking the time to translate my English mail to you into German and making some enquiries on my behalf! August 24: Continuation of the seemingly never ending story! Got finally hold of Mr. Fröhlich on the phone. He was just going to write me the information I had been looking for. He promised to try to get copies of the old pedigrees, so that Felis Danica's claim regarding ancient pedigree numbers could be satisfied. (Story to be continued.) December 07: The above "Never ending story" seems now nevertheless soon to come to an end. I have been lucky enough with the kind help of many, many people, especially Marie Wickmann, to collect the missing original register numbers of Ally-Cat's ancestors. All the material collected has now been sent to 1. DEKZV and it is my sincere hope that a new, German pedigree can be issued, this time with all the information needed for a Danish registration. In November, more precisely on the 13th and 14th, FIFe held a World Show in Vienna, Austria. I entered Raven primarily because he needed a certificate from a third country in the hunt for the Grand International Champion title, and secondly because I was curious to see the current state of the Cornish Rex breed as such. Indeed, there were many Cornish present at that show, many of them to my taste but - I am sad to say - some of them not all in a show condition. Raven got his certificate and on top of that - much to my surprise -he became World Winner, short-hair male. He was the first that day to obtain this prodigious title and I could hardly believe it. I thank all the Danish exhibitors present in Vienna for all their warm congratulations. Their excitement on top of my made the day memorable. Many breeders have since asked for Raven's services. It seems that a "WW" title in a pedigree is much in demand.February 2005: Difficult to believe it! - I can see an end to the "never ending story"! A new, completed FIFe pedigree has now been received from Germany's 1. DEKZV e.V. so Ally-Cat (Power Plant's Allegra) can now (hopefully) be re-registered by the Danish National Federation FELIS DANICA, another FIFe registering body. In that connection I might mention that there are people working on the registry problems in the sense that once a cat has been registered in the FIFe registry of any FIFe associated federation, the pedigree should be valid even when the cat moves from one country to another, without the need of re-registration. May these people have success in their endevour!
A heartfelt THANK YOU to all who with enthusiasm contributed to the search in Ally-Cat's ancestry. First of all to Marie Wickman, the most eager researcher of old pedigrees, but also to 1. DEKZV e.V., who was willing to make the corrections according to our findings.July: Raven has now sired two litters: one in the Netherlands and one in our home. Four kittens in the litter in the Netherlands (one female and three males out of which two were, unfortunately, lost) and four kittens at our home (see pictures My Photo Album which will be updated regularly. One male in the Netherlands and two males in Denmark are looking for loving families!
September: Kiri's and Raven's kittens have gone to their new homes and Raven's Dutch son, B.B.Bodwin, has joined his Danish/Canadian cat family. B.B. - as we call him - has several generations of Bodwin cats in his pedigree, lines that have been lost in my own stock. Some of the "old blood", although somewhat diluted, can now go on in future litters.
Morgan had a bad accident this summer leaving his hind legs completely paralized. How this accident happened remains unsolved. Early one morning I found him clinging to a couple of stairs in the staircase with his hind quarters dangling. He was frightened and frustrated by the condition of not being able to get away. Morgan was immediately rushed to the vet, whose first suggestion was "tumor on the spine" and the next "I'll make some tests, call me in the afternoon". Never before has time passed so slowly as that day! After several tests it turned out that he is sound and healthy, however, a small haemorrhage could be seen in the lower part of the spine. A myelography was planned to be made the day after. This confirmed the blockage in one side of the spinal canal, a blockage that put a pressure on the nerves. I was given 3 options: put him down, allow surgery, let time pass and see what happens. Needless to say that I chose option three. Got him home after a couple of days when he already was able to stand upright but not able to walk. Now came a period of keeping him at rest, massage therapy, and walking exercises. The slingering of his hind quarters slowly disappeared, he was after three weeks able to walk for 10 minutes without having to sit down and now, 3 months after the incidence, Morgan walks almost like before, only a small limp in the right hind leg and a huge bare spot on his back is left to remind us how lucky we have been in choosing option three. So, as you see, miracles do happen. Also the coat is coming nicely! A good friend of ours, a vet who died much too early, said to me once: "Nothing is as easy as to put down an animal, but do try to solve the problems first; you might not need this drastic solution at all" - and how right he was!
October: And believe me or not, Morgan mated Wick, who now is showing clear signs of pregnancy. We do hope to have kittens at the end of November. Wick is a cat with blood type B and Morgan A, so we are following an 18-hours scheme, which has proven successfull on earlier occasions. The drawback during the 18 hours is the difficulty in keeping the very lively and persistent kitties away from the milk taps as I do not want to separate them from their mom and the bandage is easily forced by the little rascals. This time, however, it will hopefully be easier since a Swedish breeder, May Loftunger-Klein (S*Kleloft's) has designed and produced a "Body" for B-Queens. This garment is specially designed for the slender bodies of Cornish Rexes but could - of course - also be an asset to any other breed.
November: Wick had three cat babies on Nov. 19. The body stocking mentioned above IS GREAT. The kitties could stay with mom all through the 18-20 hours necessary, and not once did they succeed in "breaking through" to the milk bar, although they did try hard. Later I'll place a couple of pics in My Photo Album. with Wick doing the catwalk in her body stocking.
December: When lightning hit our cattery. Raven's kittens from his first litter in Denmark are now 6 months old. One of them, a male, developed an abnormal sound of the heart and was therefore examined at The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Denmark with the most modern color flow Doppler equipment. The result was alarming, a constriction of both the right and left sides of the ventricle, especially the left papillary muscle is thickened and there is a slight return of flow through the cardiac valve between the atrium and the ventricle. This kitten is now being treated with beta-blockers and his condition has ameliorated a lot. No need to mention, he is going to be neutered.
Due to the above I had Raven, another son from the same litter, Petroc, and a young male from a litter born in the Netherlands as well as the Danish litter's mother examined at the same University. The findings of these investigations are that Raven as well as Petroc from the Danish litter have an asymmetric enlargement of the papillary muscles, which can give the above mentioned return of flow etc. It is not HCM as seen in the Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest Cat but something similar, perhaps specific for the Cornish Rex. It is therefore suspected that the disorder of enlarged papillary muscles is genetic and that Raven passes it on to his offspring. Nothing abnormal was found in the litter's mother, Bodwin's Kiri, and a strange but good thing is that one of the females from the same litter as well as the son born in the Dutch litter have completely normal hearts. There is still one female in Sweden that will have to be examined. Raven is therefore not going to be used for breeding purposes. He will have to be reexamined in a year's time when decision will be taken weather or not he will/can be used in breeding. Raven's breeder has been informed.
I ask those, who have experienced a similar defect in their cat, to share them with me, since I am a novice in what concerns this specific problem. According to the examining vet, this failure is well known in the Cornish Rex breed. Surprising enough, I have never stumbled on it earlier in my 34 years breeding Cornish Rex.
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