Alexandrite Kitten News Autumn 2016

Summer seems to be fading now and went far too fast! We did over summer have the arrival of some sweet kittens from mums Cataleya and her twin Catalena, both Silver Spotted Tabbies. Dad is the handsome Little Grumps, a Black Smoke. The kittens won't be ready to go to new homes until end of October and beginning of November, hence our Autumn kittens. This is after they've had both vaccinations, micro-chipped and vet checks. There is a mixture of Silver and Brown Tabbies, Black and Black Smoke.

We are still deciding how best to tackle the large list of families who have contacted us about kittens. Potentially we have a couple of approaches but think we will post photos to the blog of available kittens for families to register an interest in a kitten. This can be done via email to kittens@alexandrite-Siberian-kittens.co.uk or call 01270569358, evening time not after 9pm. If you do call in the day please leave a message and we will call back.

We will then give priority to the families who have enquired with us already and this will be done based on the date we were first contacted. We will also try to contact everyone to let them know we will be updating the blog with news and photos.

This approach seemed to work quite well earlier in the year. We hope to have photos on the blog by the end of the week of both litters.

This is a photo of one of the younger kittens

And one of the dad handsome Little Grumps, who is named after his Uncle Grumpy and not because of his personality as he is one of the sweetest gentlest boys you could meet.

Alexandrite Siberian Kitten News and Enchanted Colouring Book Available

We've had a busy start to the year with kittens and then designing our first colouring book, which we talked about in our last post.

First up kitten news, we will have kittens due middle to end of April and the parents are Catalena (Black Silver Spotted) and Little Grumps (Black Smoke). Both are very sweet and these are Little Grumps first kittens so we can't wait to meet them. This means kittens will be ready to go to new homes beginning of August. I know that seems forever away but this year is going so fast.

Next, we have just opened our first Etsy Shop, Nog Pepper Me and the first items available are to do with colouring in but we do plan to have more crafts available including cross stitch and some lovely Siberian items too. These will include pictures, coasters, cards, mugs, cushions and lots more. Andy has taken so many beautiful photos over the years we can't wait to finally use them. 

Note from Jo: Thanks to my family and friends for all the support and encouragement while I've been creating my first colouring book. It's been hard and most days lots of will power and pain meds but I got there in the end. 

Exciting News - First Colouring Book Enchanted Colouring

Just a little announcement, 2015 was a difficult year for me health wise and personally with the loss of two of my close relatives. To help me cope with this and the changes to my life due to ill-health I started using colouring in as a stress relief and art therapy. I enjoyed this so much I started to draw again and from that I've created my first colouring book named by Andy, called "Enchanted Colouring". 

It features nearly 40 illustrations including, dragons, fairies, pixies, owls and of course beautiful Siberian Cats and Kittens. The colouring book will be available through a new Etsy Shop, called Nog, Pepper and Me. I've put a lot into this on very tough days when I've not felt very well but its been a life line and I've loved seeing the images come alive and now I'm getting to colour in my drawings and I'm really enjoying it. It's fun picking colours and schemes.

The book has gone to the printers and both Andy and I can't wait for the proof to arrive, hopefully in the next week or two. If you love Siberians, enchanted lands and colouring in, I think you will like this. I do plan to have some giveaways when the colouring book arrives.

Here are some images from the book, hope you like them

Front Cover

Handsome Boublik and his armoured owl,
image from photo by Maria Bunina.

Dragon and compass

Getting the illustrations ready for the book!

Hot air balloons and fairies

Pretty Nishka and her angel wings

Fairy doors

Grumpy and his dragon

Handsome Mishka and his pet dragon

Please see my new blog Nog, Pepper and Me for more details and you can find updates on  my Instagram account @NogPepperMe

Alexandrite Siberian Kittens

UPDATE 14 February 2016: Thank you for all the emails and get well wishes for Jo. All kittens have now been reserved. We plan to have more kittens in the summer, thanks Jo and Andy
Finally we have some photos of our available Siberian kittens. We've just done group shots for families to register an interest in a particular kitten or kittens. This can be done via email kittens@alexandrite-siberian-kittens.co.uk and 01270569358 for calls. It's best to call in an evening, preferably no later than 9pm. If you do call in the day please leave a message and we will come back to you.
We know we only have a few Siberian kittens available and kittens will only be reserved on receipt of a deposit.
The kittens have had first vaccination and vet check. They will go for another around 12 weeks and microchipped. Therefore kittens should be ready for new homes first two weekends in March.
We do not know if the kittens are suitable for allergy sufferers as everyone can react differently and it depends on the severity of the allergy or asthma.
Please note we will not be able to offer kitten visits this weekend due to a procedure I'm having done on Friday and last time I wasn't very well after it. Andy will be looking after me during this time but he should be ok for any calls.
Anuta's Kittens
First up we have Anuta's babies. Anuta had 4 babies and they are are a super bunch, all very sweet. There are 3 boys and 1 girl. We have a Brown Tabby boy and girl, and two Silver Tabby boys we have nicknamed the Twins. We've picked pet names at the moment for all kittens.
From left to right: Zeke, Brown Spotted Tabby male, with small white tail tip. Probably was initially a bit quieter than his brothers and wasn't keen on the vets but he's coming out of his shell now. A bit of a mummy's boy. Anuta does dote on them.
Pollux, aka Po, paler Black Silver Spotted Tabby male. It's very hard to tell him apart from his brother and they are both very playful.
Pixie, Brown Spotted Tabby female. Well the name says it all, a very sweet girl who gets up to all sorts of mischief and encourages her brothers too we are sure of it. Loves a cuddle.
Castor, aka Cas, darker Black Silver Spotted Tabby male. Just like his brother and both should be good sized boys when older.

Added this one in to show how much time and patience Andy has when taking photos, dealing with kittens just wanting to chase anything that moves. I don't know how he does it but he takes fabulous photos every time.

Lorelei Kittens
Next we have Lorelei's kittens. Lorelei had 3 girls. A Brown and White Tabby, a Blue and White and a Black Silver Classic and White. They are again a super bunch and very playful.
From left to right: Lightning, Black Silver Classic Tabby and White. A very sweet girl who plays all the time.
Storm, Blue and White. Probably the quietest of the three but soon catches up with her sisters.
Zoom, Brown Spotted Tabby and White. In the beginning the most adventurous out of the kitten box and the fastest! Loves to play and be cuddled like her sisters but tells you when she wants to play. Loves helping to sweep up!

Left to right: Lightning, Zoom and Storm.

Left, Lightning and Storm.

Email: kittens@alexandrite-siberian-kittens.co.uk for more details or to register an interest in a kitten.
Call: 01270569358, if we are unavailable please leave a message. Thanks Jo & Andy

Alexandrite Siberian Kittens 2016

UPDATE: Unfortunately Jo has been poorly since Christmas and after feeling a bit better is now not very well again. We do have kittens and will update the blog soon with photos and availability. And try and get back to everyone. I've in a busy time of year with my work so time is very limited as Jo wrote in her blog post last week. Thanks Andy

 

FROM JO: A belated New Year to all Siberians and their families. Thank you to everyone who sent us wonderful kitten news and updates it was lovely receiving them and we really do appreciate them. We are sorry we haven't replied to emails lately, I lost my Uncle at the end of the year and he is greatly missed by all who knew him. He was large part of my life as a child and he had a wonderful way of telling stories. After the loss of my grandad in the summer it has hit us all hard to have another funeral to go to at the end of 2015. This made December a difficult time for my health and it's a busy time for Andy with his job. I was then poorly over Christmas and the New Year so I couldn't catch up then.

We've also had to get new home phones as the others were working intermittently.

Kitten News: The good news is we do have kittens and we will be posting updates soon. The kittens will be ready to go in March, dates to be confirmed. We do not know if kittens are suitable for families with allergies and at this time we cannot offer allergy visits. Any kitten visits won't be arranged until the kittens have had their first vaccine at least.

Waiting List: We are being asked do we have a waiting list? At the moment no. We have in the past but we don't now this is because of many reasons. One is we do not think it fair to make families wait months for a kitten. We do not know what we will have, any colours are only estimated based on parents and colours carried. To take a list of names who all want silver tabby boys usually results in a litter of blues or black smoke girls and a number of disappointed families. We would rather wait until the kittens have arrived safely and mum and babies are ok before we update with any news.

There are scare tactics by other breeders that we have something wrong because we don't have a waiting list. That isn't true. It's less stress for us to just enjoy the kittens arriving and seeing what colours we have without needing this colour or boy/girl list of requirements. We are after all dealing with Mother Nature and we get what we get.

Hopefully we will have more news soon but please remember this isn't our full time job, and taking care of the kittens and mums is our first priority so sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. Anyone who knows us will also know I struggle daily with my health so I can't always respond immediately.