Ch. Habanero of Kumasasa × Kalahari-Sun's Ivanka
| 29. May 2011 | The two male kittens Samburu and Okavango moved together to Cologne and are living now with two male Somali cats Morphy (14 years) and Spunky (15 years) |
| 21. May 2011 | The two female kittens Saïwa and Zambezi moved to Franconia: Saïwa lives now with Gabi Barthold and the Somalis von den Lamitzauen and Zambezi lives not with Guddi Büttner and the Somalis vom Zankelstein. |
| 11. Apr. 2011 |  Now the whole ground floor is occupied by the kittens, first explorations into the upper floor are done.The kittens are playing the whole morning, after noon there is a calm period and at evening they are playing again. When playing the kittens are running around like lightning, taking pictures of the them is really complicated - if one doesn't want to take photos just of sleeping kittens the results are mainly blurry or there are half cats, cut-off ears or only the tails to see… |
| 09. Apr. 2011 | The kittens are now eight weeks old, today was the first vaccination, chipping and taking blood samples for various genetic tests. The kittens endured the procedure quite well. During transportation and at the veterinarian Ivy calmed her kittens with purring and curring. |
| 28. Mar. 2011 |  The climbing up and down of the kittens is working like a char, now the first jumps from the scratching tun to the scratching tree are done. |
| 25. Mar. 2011 |  The little cats now have conquered the complete living room. Sometimes Ivy doesn't like to see the kittens moving too far away and carries them back to the couch - whereas we cannot see any logic behind her behaviour…The adult cats are engaged in the education of the kittens, for example a situation where Zambezi was running quite snappy towards Conan who stroke his I'm-the-boss-herepose - Zambezi didn't make the adequate submissive reaction and Conan nudged her with his head, so that Zambezi fell over… |
| 22. Mar. 2011 |  The kittens are trying now to climb up the scratching trees.As always the rule Going up is easy, coming down even harderis valid. |
| 17. Mar. 2011 | Since today also the two little female cats Saïwa and Zambezi are eating finger food. For mama Ivy that is a fair relief, when the meanwhile 600 g kittens nourish not only on breast milk. |
| 16. Mar. 2011 | Today also Okavango eats kitten food off the fingers. The two little females don't like that yet. Yuck! |
| 14. Mar. 2011 |  Samburu eats kitten food off the finger tips.The kittens have chosen the new playing- and sleeping-box in the corner of the couch as their new home. It is really amazing to see the kittens running around who left the birthing box just four days ago for the first time. |
| 13. Mar. 2011 |  Today the kittens are four weeks old. It is time, to get the kittens used to solid food. To ease that, we moved the kittens including the birthing box into the living room at ground floor level. Ivy has accepted the moving and is guarding her kittens, who are extensively exploring the new neighbourhood. We are glad to have the kittens again in our immediate proximity and may watch them all the day long. |
| 11. Mar. 2011 | After first outing of the two boys yesterday, today the two girls followed their example and came out of the birthing box too. Ivy's initial uncertainness was gone, she is observing her children and secures them exemplary by purring and curring. |
| 10. Mar. 2011 |  This morning we were awaken by meowing of Ivy: One of the little male cats was running outside the birthing box, what apparently confused Ivy and she meows a bit fussed. She observed the
goings-on and paid attention to her son, but didn't intervene.This evening the two male cats Samburu and Okavango came out of the birthing box and were running around with big steps. The two female cats Saïwa and Zambezi didn't have the heart to come outside… |
| 07. Mar. 2011 |  In the age of three weeks all the kittens weigh around 400 g. They live still in the birthing box in the bedroom, doing their first steps inside the box, but no one has the heart to go outside… |
| 27. Feb. 2011 | The kittens are two weeks old and have doubled their birth weight. |
| 23. Feb. 2011 |  This morning Ivy has carried her kittens from the living room into a birthing box in a dark edge of the bedroom, all of the kittens have opened the eyes. |
| 22. Feb. 2011 | Also the other three kittens have opened the eyes a bit, Zambezi completely. |
| 21. Feb. 2011 | The little Zambezi begins to open the eyes, the other kittens not yet. |
| 17. Feb. 2011 | All four kittens are well. Mama Ivy is caring exemplary of her children. |
| 14. Feb. 2011 | Ivy sentries her kittens and the birthing box - all of the cats except daddy Habanero are chased away out of a radius of 2 m around the birthing box. In contrast Habanero is allowed to stick his head inside the birthing box to inspect his children. |
| 13. Feb. 2011 | 
One day before the calculated date the birthing came quite suddenly. Usually the cats are announcing the upcoming birthing several hours before by their behaviour, whereas the lead time of the primiparous Ivy was less than an hour:At 15:15 she became nervous, a quarter of an hour later she went into one of the available birthing boxes, at 16:00 the contractions started. Shortly after 18:00 the first kitten was born, in an interval of each 40 minutes the other kitten were born. |
| Feb. 2011 | Towards the end of her pregnancy Ivy apparently becomes entirely a so called Queen- the rank of the the gestating cat in the cat community steps-up significantly. Even the huge and massive Conan is resolutely called to order by Ivy if he makes nonsense (e.g. attacking Habanero) - it is really bizarre to see how 7.0 kg Conan are backing off the much smaller Ivy. |
| 07. Feb. 2011 |  In the 58th day of her pregnancy Ivy has gained 1 kg of weight. |
| 11. Dec. 2010 | Our Somali cat Kalahari-Sun's Ivanka is in heat and was covered from our Somali stud Habanero of Kumasasa. Aware of the accidentof Litter XI and Litter XII we have closed the outside enclosure completely. |
