Happy New Year

Just to wish all of our kitten, puppy and blog followers a very happy, healthy and exciting 2011!

Happy Halloween

The summer has been and gone and babies are safely in their new homes. We only have American Curl kittens running riot at home, they run rings round our British and the Selkirks try to keep up but fail!

We aren't planning any more litters until 2011 now as we will be very busy in the next few weeks with our wedding!!! After 14 years Stef and I are finally getting round to it on 3rd December :-)

No show news to update as we have had a long break but we will, as always, be attending the Spoticat Christmas Show on 10th, 11th & 12th December at Sports Connexion, Ryton - on - Dunsmore, CV8 3FL. Final decisions have to be made on who is joining us but there should be curls in one way or another. Needless to say it will be a bit different to a traditional honeymoon!

Although we don't have any babies available we will be retiring some of our show and breeding cats over the winter, some of them will be available to forever pet homes. If you think you would like a big Lelaurier baby please get in touch and we'll see if we can help.

TTFN
Claire

and it's July already!

Half of the year has been and gone but not a lot has changed. Mikey (Lelaurier Easeamiracle)made his adult debut back in March and came home a Champion, he went to his second show in June and is now a Grand Champion! He finished the 09/10 show year as Best of Breed Selkirk Rex kitten in Western Europe and Best International Chocolate Spotted Tabby & White Selkirk Rex adult, not bad for 2 kitten and 1 adult shows!

Our kitten owners also had the following successes:
QGCA Lelaurier Coldfeet (Lilac & White British) - 2nd BOB Alter in EW
Lelaurier Glenlossie (Blue British) - 2nd BOB kitten in EW
DGCA Lelaurier Cloudingover (Blue point & White Selkirk Rex) - 3rd BOB Alter in EW

We are looking forward to the regional Banquet at the end of August where we can celebrate with friends.

The kitten front is very quiet, we just have one variant boy who has a fabulous home ready and waiting for him. We hope that Mikey will sire his first litter later this year and also plan to have some Cinnamon & Fawn British, if the girls oblige.

No shows are planned at the moment but we will be out and about this winter.

TTFN
Claire

Happy New Year

Starting back in December with the Christmas show Mikey and Vinny managed to both pick up finals even with the large kitten count. Both boys loved the show which bodes well for Mikey in the future. I would love it if Vinny could go to a show home but this great big ball of love will be just as happy being a spoilt pet!
Aside from that we've had a relatively quiet Christmas and New Year, the cats have been tormenting the Christmas tree or chasing snowflakes and the dogs have either been snugged up or pretending to be snow ploughs!!
We still have older kittens available to new homes, ridiculously we still have 4 of Lexi and Henry's litter remaining, normally our British get snapped up quickly especially of this quality so if you want a beautiful British please get in touch!
No new matings are planned just yet.

TTFN
Claire

Not long until Christmas!

The Lelaurier cats had a fantastic show weekend over the 14th & 15th of November, all of them managed at least one final!
We took Lexi, RW QGC Lelaurier Miniequinox, Clair and Chris took her 3 year old daughter, Misti, TGCA Lelaurier Coldfeet and Natalie and family brought her 4 month old daughter, Lossie, Lelaurier Glenlossie to her first show. Then for the Selkirks Liz and Kevin brought out Storm, Lelaurier Dancingstorm, who became a Champion Alter at his first show and Carole and Michael took Cirrus, GCA Lelaurier Cloudingover. We had a lovely time at a great venue with lovely people :-)
On the kitten front we still have 3 curlies, 2 straights and the rest of Lexi's British litter available. I have also decided against keeping Echo (blue tabby & White curly girl) as I feel she needs a more one to one relationship with her human slave! She is extremely affectionate and just wants to be attached to you all day and it is only fair that she be given that oppurtunity rather than share me with the rest of our gang.
The Christmas show run by Spoticat is just around the corner so lots of planning and preparation!
We should be welcoming the pitter patter of tiny paws just after Christmas!

TTFN
Claire

Dogs and Cats!

Sadly it looks like we may have to find a new home for Breeze our lovely 4 year old Dally bitch. It started last December with her and Skye falling out and now she has taken to attacking Summer, she is fine with the two boys but can no longer spend any time with either of the other girls. Her and Summer are due to spayed in early January and we will see how things go after that but Summer is understandbly very nervous of her now and it has unsettled all of them. It's not fair for Breeze to be kept on her own and lose out on some of the attention here so if it comes to it we will be looking for the perfect home for her.

As for the cats, well they are just stark raving bonkers but that's nothing unusual for Lelaurier babies! A few more of the kittens have left for new homes now and we have the pleasure of Milan and Elly's company until December when they fly out with their new mummies Jesse and Kirsten to Germany. A big thank you to Kirsten for helping Jesse out with coming over I can't wait to meet you both :-)

We still have a few babies needing homes from our 2009 litters, details can be seen on our website.

TTFN
Claire

Kittens and shows

Mikey, Lelaurier Easeamiracle, had a fabulous first show picking up 6 finals and finishing 7th Best kitten overall, I am still slightly shocked! He is one to watch for the future as there is still so much more to come but with that result he may join us at a few more kitten shows. His beautiful curly sister will be winging her way to Germany at the start of December but we do still have the two straight coated kittens in his litter, Luna a Black & White girl who I just adore (she must not stay, she must not stay LOL) she is a cheeky and intelligent girl who can sniff out a cat toy at 50 paces and Rocky who is the straight version of his brother a gorgeous Chocolate Spotted & White boy. Rocky fits into the 'jelly' catergory he just melts when he sees people and all he wants is love! We still have 3 curly boys and another variant available as well.
Then there are the British babies, who are just downright scrumptious. Honey's remaining two are lovely, Milan in particular has exceptional type for a Cinnamon carrier (the reason I used Honey) and Bugsy just wants to purr his head off at you! Lexi's again are beauitful, even little dot Whinnie, who is now eating very well and growing fast. Tali, Mac and Vinny could all easily go on the show bench and if funds permitted that is exactly where they would be!
I picked up a copy of Your Cat magazine today as our American Curls have been featured but as an added bonus photos from a shoot a few years back of Gracie (Catbalu Strawberriesncream) and Sully (GC Colmarc Fallguy) have also been used in various articles :-)

TTFN
Claire

September

Well, I'm not sure where the month went but it's nearly done.
Kittens are growing and getting into more mischief as each day goes by. Several have left for their new homes now, from Scotland to Austria!
A couple of our available Selkirks will be on exhibition at the Bengal Cat Club of Great Britain show held at Stoneleigh Park on 3rd & 4th October, so feel free to come to find us and have a cuddle with them!
Lexi's British kittens had their second vaccines today so will be able to leave from next week. I have finally made a decision about Honey's boys (thanks Dee!) and Thriller will be staying with us, so Bugsy is now available and Milan is also still here, she is a beautiful girl and she knows it!

TTFN
Claire

Sunday afternoon

Was spent, playing with the curly kittens!

I actually remembered to get my camera out this time and you can see the result here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118729&id=684581996&l=3fec54c693

TTFN
Claire

Kittens and decisions

Tootsie had to have her litter by C-Section last Thursday (13th Aug) and sadly we only had one survivor, a curly colourpoint girl. I've waited 6 years for one of my own so she is being wrapped in cotton wool! Tootsie became extremely unwell after the surgery and her kitten, now called Tessy, is being fostered by 'aunty Stella' a big thank you to Clair for taking Tessy on and of course Stella for doing such a great job. Toots is now improving but won't be able to rear Tessy.
The older kittens are having a great time running riot around the house, Abbie's now 12 weeks are like limpets, they love to be with you and hang off your trouser legs! I made the mistake of wearing shorts this week, all I can say is - ouch!!! Ivy's, now 10 weeks are growing into little stunners and Sparkle, staying here, has the loudest purr going. Candy's, 9 weeks, are just downright gorgeous, baby Candy will be moving to Austria and Electro is off to France so just the bonkers and beautiful Evo left from this gang. Honey's British babies are developing well, the two Lilac girls are proper chocolate box kittens and Bugsy is so striking with his classic bicolour markings. Echo, Zinny's singleton, is now living with her British cousins who are a week younger (Lexi's kittens 6 weeks today) and has immense fun running rings round them, they are proper British dumplings, gorgeous to look at and not a lot going on upstairs!
I have made some big decisions this week, over the next few months we will have some lovely young adults looking for new homes as I reduce my breeding cats. As we don't breed from our girls every year anyway we won't be having fewer litters but we now have the type and the colours we want in our cats so it is time for those that have played their part to become spoilt lap cats. Some will stay with us but the majority will be looking for their perfect forever home. This is never something I take lightly but the cats are my priority and I have wept buckets over letting cats go that despite my best efforts are not 100% happy here as a neuter but every time I have been rewarded by seeing them blossom in their new homes.
I have also decided to take a break from breeding Dalmatians for the foreseeable future. I will be keeping Storm entire and may at some point in the future look for another bitch puppy again but we will see. In the meantime our two entire girls Breeze and Summer will be spayed.
There are various reasons but a big factor is giving me more time to concentrate on Lincolnshire Police's breeding programme. I have been a volunteer puppy walker for the last 18 months and it has filled a huge hole that I didn't know was there. We have also had a potential brood bitch placed with us and as anyone who knows me well will understand I always want to give 100%. This is still a fledgling breeding programme and I want to do everything I can to make it a success for the force. Breeding and producing happy, healthy animals that can excel at what they were bred for has always been my aim and even though these will not be my puppies it does not alter my goal.
Not much news on the show front as I am concentrating on showing our American Curl Aimee this year, but, delighted to announce that Misti, Lelaurier Coldfeet is now a DGCA and just needs points to get her up to Triple!! I may be showing the Selkirk and British kittens I am keeping later in the year, only time will tell!

TTFN
Claire

825 miles later...

.... Vee is in her new home and Lucy is home with us!

Doesn't everybody pop over to The Netherlands for lunch??

We left here at 3.30am Sunday morning, drove to Dover, crossed the Channel and arrived in Calais at 10am local time. 30 minutes to get off the boat and through customs and then we were away for a 3 hour drive through France, Belgium and on into The Netherlands the whole time accompanied by Vee 'singing' or sleeping.
It was absolutely wonderful to see Genevieve and Raymond again, they are true friends and I can't wait for our next get together :-) Their cats, as ever, were gorgeous and it was wonderful to see Cc and Bunny looking so happy. I think we had about 4 of their adults squeezed into the carrier at one point but I didn't manage to sneak them out! So, we had some lunch had a chat and then had to start on our return journey back to Calais.
The boat was delayed for the return trip and then at gone 10 o'clock at night the M25 was solid through the Dartford tunnel and then solid again just before the M11 junction, only in England!! We eventually arrived home in an exhausted heap just before 1am!!
Many thanks to Clair and Chris for checking our beasties during the day and an enormous thank you to Genevieve and Raymond for Lucy, she is utterly wonderful and I can't tell you how delighted I am to have a Jarod baby :-)
Lucy 'Uskaya URASTR8 du Hovali' is a Chocolate & White Selkirk Rex straight female, her sire is the stunning SGCA Jethro Jarod du Hovali and her dam our very own Lelaurier Backtosquareone. We had wanted a Jarod baby from the day we met him and since he only sired a few litters, one to Bunny, one to Ollie's mum and one to Ollie's sister we knew we'd be bringing part of a line back in to the UK but Jarod's pedigree is a one off and one we are delighted to have been entrusted with.


TTFN
Claire

Kittens!

Well we have kittens everywhere! Our girls have given us big healthy litters of absolutely gorgeous babies and I couldn't be happier. Due to this we have quite a few available to pet or show homes as I have been able to pick out and keep the very best and have also been really strict with myself.
The website is up to date with photos and availability for the Selkirk kittens and the British will be updated soon, although they are still quite young.
Feel free to contact us about our babies and we'll see if we can help.

TTFN
Claire

Sleep tight

It is with immense sadness that I let you know our beloved Ice (Lelaurier Htwoo) died in the early hours of Sunday morning. Ice had for some unknown reason, other than being a Dally, decided to eat some of the wadding from his bed. On Saturday afternoon he underwent a four and a half hour operation to remove the wadding and repair the subsquent intussusception. He came through the surgery fine and was up on his feet by 10pm but unfortunately never made it to the next morning. He would have been 6 in August.
Ice sired our most recent litter of puppies and was the calmest Dally we had ever known. As a puppy we had no intention of keeping him but he just wormed his way in, with the whole attitude of 'if my sister stays I stay' and so he did.
Both us and the dogs are lost at the moment.

Claire

Catch up

It's been a busy and stressful couple of weeks here. Abbie succumbed to acute septic mastitis and despite surgery to remove the dead and infected tissue the infection has spread, she is extremely unwell and as an added insult developed a uterine infection as well, she is too poorly to be spayed so we are nursing her round the clock and keeping everything crossed she can fight it off.
Her kittens have been taken under Disney's (our American Curl) wing and she is now looking after a troop of ten!
Ivy had her babies on the 8th June, 4 gorgeous boys and a striking girl all curly except one boy. They are doing well and just starting to open their eyes.
Candy had 3 babies yesterday, all curly and details will be posted about them in a day or two. Honey is due babies today so we are just waiting for those to appear!

TTFN
Claire

Sad news

It is with a heavy heart I share the news that Abbie's little brown spotty girl died on Friday.
Breeding isn't as easy as it may seem to some people, your heart gets broken time and time again.

Claire

The drought is over!

Curly girls have been born!!! Perfectly normal you would think but last year we didn't have a single curly girl, in fact we had two litters that were all straight hair so Abbie's new babies are a glimmer of hope for this year!

Abbie gave birth to six lovely babies on Sunday 24th after keeping us waiting for ages. She has two Chocolate Spotted & White boys (one curly, one straight) a Brown Spotted & White curly boy, a Black & White straight girl (who is a piglet), a Chocolate curly girl and a tiny but fiesty Brown Spotted curly girl. Alfie is dad so all babies carry Cinnamon. This is his and Abbie's final litters.

On the British front Marnie's babies are growing fast, playing fast and keeping us all on our toes. All 3 are reserved.

Harmony and Sassy were shown last weekend, Harmony had 3 finals so just needs some more points to reach Double Grand Champion. Sassy split the boys gaining 2nd BOB in all rings but no finals, she was only just in the adult classes so very pleased with how she did.

Ivy, Candy and Honey are all due babies in June so we are looking forward to more little sproglets then :-)

TTFN

Claire

End of season

Well, today is the start of the new show season and the beginning of a whole new region in TICA, EW, Europe West consists of England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Iceland.

We hope to have finished the last season with Eddie in 3rd BOB for EN, Spooky BOB for EN, Laurel 3rd BOB EN and Clair's boy Bud 2nd BOB Int & EN. Bud has been the most succesful SH alter from the UK in TICA to date and all before his 2nd Birthday! Our American Curl, Aimee, has had a fantastic show career as a kitten and should be Int BOB and a Regional Winner. More details about our Curls can be found on their blog http://overear.blogspot.com/

Back on the home front Marnie's kittens are now 4 weeks and getting up to mischief, we have one Black boy available in this litter. We hope to have British and Selkirk babies in June and July in an assortment of colours!

TTFN

Claire

Growing up

Well Marnie's babies are now two weeks old and doing well, they are just starting to move around a bit now and have had their eyes open for the last week. I am very pleased with them so far and love the rich shade of the Chocolate girl.

Eddie had his last kitten show, he had two finals but the points were too low to count so he has finished outside of the top 20, still he should be 2nd BOB in the region and has done incredibly well. He already thinks he is an adult and has had to be separated from our young girls!! He'll be given time to grow up now and will then come back out as an adult. I think I will DNA test him for Cinnamon at some point, if he does carry we may use him for a couple of litters, if not then we won't and he will purely be a show boy and our pet.

After much dithering about Honey I have decided to have one last litter with her, she is 6 and a half now but has only had 3 litters and still looks as if she is 2. She has been training up young Rusty in the ways of the world in true Honey style!! After such a well behaved litter on my part with Marnie a little bit of rebel just had to come out and so Colourpoint to Cinnamon Bicolour just had to be done ;-) LOL Hopefully some of Honey's gorgeous coat and type will help add a bit more to our Cinnamon programme.

We still need homes for our big babies and a couple of young adults, there will be quite a few retirees this year, some will stay and others will be looking for homes that will suit their needs.

TTFN

Claire

New arrivals!

Marnie finally went pop on Thursday 2nd April at the very respectable time of 9.55am, she had four kittens but sadly the very large Blue boy needed a lot of helping getting out and had died, I spent a long time trying to get him going again but to no avail. However, she has three plump little monsters, two Black boys and a gorgeous Chocolate girl and all three are piling on the weight well. Not quite the Black girl I had asked her for but lovely all the same.

We should have a couple of new additions next week, more news once they are here!

TTFN

Claire

Nearly there

Well Eddie is nearly at the end of his kitten campaign, oh how I wish I could curl up in his pen and sleep through the day! He still loves the shows and it would seem quite likes staying over in hotels too, especially if he can keep mummy and daddy awake with his antics, helped of course by his show buddy Aimee!

He finalled in 9 of the 12 rings at Swanley and now has 31 finals so is discarding those lower points. Unfortunately the kitten counts have really dropped, probably time of year and also because everyone is trying to scrape in finals before England (not the UK) loses isolated status, so I don't think he'll be able to get BOB in the region but we can still try for a Regional Win (even though I said I wouldn't campaign this season)!

On the home front Marnie looks close to bursting point and the rest of the girls have all decided to call at the same time, we will be mating some of them up in the next few weeks. We still have some big babies to home though, back when they were babies everyone wanted cheap older kittens/cats now they are older everyone has decided that maybe they aren't quite as hard up as they thought and want little babies that are ready to go - arghh! I'm afraid my boys and girls are not a production line and we do not make to order, our babies are ready when they are ready and even then we occasionally run kittens on or they are not ready at exactly 13 weeks for other reasons.

The house is nearly finished!! Still some tiling and decorating to do but hopefully everything will be back to normal in a few weeks :-)

TTFN

Claire