Cattery Diary
Here we chronicle some events in our cattery. Happy news, sad news - it's all here and part of life as a cat breeder. We started this as a blog before anyone knew what a blog was. Eventually, we began posting these news items to our Facebook page only and since Feb 2008 this diary/blog has been neglected. Until now - Sep 2023. See 2023-09-16 New Website
When you visit this page you will a randomly selected diary entry. Use the list on the left for a date-ordered list to find your favorite or at the end here for a few more random selections.
| Feb 19, 2001
It is with great sadness that I tell you that on Sunday, January 13, we sent our darling seal point girl, Golden Seal Willow, to the rainbow bridge. She had lymphoma. We didn't catch on to her symptoms in time as they were vague and she was good at disguise until her breathing became critical. She was aspirated once on Friday and spent an easier Saturday but was heaving her sides again on Sunday. When she went in for breathing help that time she didn't make it and died as they tried to help her. We will sorely miss her charming ways of always licking your skin when you picked her up, of greeting you at the door, of making sure that she had the best lap in the house and her ritual with me in the bathroom in which she nudged the comb until I got it out and gave her a grooming. She was a trooper at shows and earned "Grand" designation in both championship and premiership, always with her stunning white coat and dark seal point color. She has passed on her stunning looks to her chocolate daughter, GC Golden Seal Bonita. All Birmans are engaging on some level but occasionally one comes along to work their way into your heart and Willow was such a cat. I adored looking at her beautiful face and she would look up at me and bat her eye lashes at me and I would melt. I can't believe that this will never happen again. The rest of Golden Seal is in chaos with the loss of their leader as well. Nobody wants to be in charge. One spay, who has previously been quite pushy, has gone completely into hiding and the other spay looks at me with pleading eyes to tell her who is in charge. Mr. Peepers, who is acknowledged as the senior cat in the family but not the leader, is wringing his paws about who will take over this vacuum in leadership. And Willow was a great leader. She was one who kept order but never caused trouble to happen. Willow was born at our house to Dunnydeer's Rapture of Tai Ming and GP Heartbir's Upeti of Golden Seal on Oct. 24, 1999 and died on January 13, 2008. She had a total of 7 kittens in 3 litters in her breeding career but is only succeeded by her daughter Bonita remaining in our breeding program. I hope we can carry on in her name with the quality and personality that she laid down as her standard. |
