On New Year's Day I woke with a spring in my feet despite the cold and grim weather..... it was the day to go and collect Prune - finally!
When I first fell in love with the breed and would go dolally over photos and videos of them, it was dark coloured solids that I liked the best and became my ideal.....
I'd mated Noodle with a dark solid male hoping that within her litter I would be lucky enough to get a solid dark female...l.... but with only the one kitten born which though female and dark was not solid...being a tortie my hopeful dream of a solid dark was halted....
I was then luckily offered a female who was not only solid and dark but also had the same sold dark father and, so rather than wait for the off chance Noodle could produce me one next time, and also knowing that that next time would not be for quite a while (following her cesarean and the rearing of her first ever single kitten litter) I decided to accept her.
It meant that Noodle's first offspring would need to be sold to partially fund the purchase of the new kitten...Any wishful thoughts I might have had of keeping her were well and truly off the table..... and having payed all of the fee and waiting for Prune to reach the right age, finally the day to fetch her had arrived!
The drive to Gloucester was made more pleasant for the company of a friend and not dampened by the horrendous rainfall....
Coming home... Noodle and Pot sniffed a new cat...Pot was excited but Noodle, whilst growing tired of her kitten also was instinctively protective and so began to swear and hiss.... at Prune and even at Pot. The next few hours were odd despite my Feliway plug in!
I woke during the night several times hearing a loud hiss, but all three cats were within half a metre of one another and the next day dawned to less aggressive hissing..... not all is rosy.... there is mistrust, some frustration, as well as downright anger.... but we will get there....