I have not had the chance to post photos and updates for a while, for which I apologize! I have been training a new employee at work and between that and my own job, cat shows on weekends, daily care for the kitties, and doing some furniture rearranging in my house (long story!), I'm pretty tired when I get home at night. This weekend I finally have some free time and wanted to let everyone know how Mod Daeng and her babies are doing.
Mod Daeng's kittens have been thriving and are now seven and a half weeks old. They are going to get their first veterinary examination and shots on the 20th. I have just moved them into a bedroom all to themselves so they can stretch their legs and run around to their heart's content. They are a bit cautious in their new environment at the moment, but when I come in to check on them and sit quietly for a few minutes, their natural Burm purrsonalities quickly come out and they start exploring, playing and snuggling.
Mod Daeng is such an attentive mom -- whenever a kitten goes exploring and calls because he can't see his littermates, she goes running to check on him and reassure him. She is quite talkative in that way, she answers back when they call, it's some kind of conversation but unfortunately I don't have a translator to know exactly what they are saying! The first night in the new room she wanted them all to be either in the Booda Dome (which I put a bed in, not kitty litter, as they love to snug in their "cave"), or in the multi-level scratching post. So she would go to find any errant wanderers and try to gently drag them back with her mouth. They are now too big for her to carry, however! But she manages to "herd them" and when they are all where she wants them to be, she lies in front of them as she has since they first started to emerge from their nest, guarding them from any potential harm.
Following this blog post are some photos I took today. And perhaps you can help me solve a mystery. You can start to see the difference between what I believe are the minks vs. the sepias. But if you look closely at their eyes -- the minks also seem to have gold eyes! Not the pale gold/aqua eyes of their mom, but gold that seems to be the same gold as their father's and my other Burms. Mod Daeng tested mink and doesn't carry chocolate. She was bred to a chocolate (champagne) male. In theory, there was a 50% chance of minks and 50% chance to get sepias. Minks are supposed to have aqua eyes. So where'd the gold eyes come from?
I will have all these kittens tested for color before we decide which can be registered and used for breeding. But in the meantime if anyone has any thoughts about what appears to be a genetic anomaly, let me know! I'll try and post more photos in a week or so.
