Dixie kittens - Mariskogens H – litter, I thought…
But that is not what this turned out to be.
Honning is not the father of this litter.
There - now it is said aloud.
This is one of the most embarrassing situations I've ever experienced. But that’s it, nothing more to say about it. Dixie has fooled everyone. How she managed it, I have no idea. She was, we thought, indoors with Honning during her heat period. The kittens are also born on time. But she's been out and found a different guy, Honning was apparently not good enough. How she managed to get out, find another male, mate him and then get inside again - without anyone's notice is more than I can understand.
I have twisted my head to find answers. What I think is a possibility is that when we went inside with the dogs after our evening trip , she managed to slip out? And spent the night well, because she was indoors every morning! (We have a cat door that is closed out and open in.) I do not know if this is what has happened - and I realize that to ponder exactly WHAT has happened is pointless. It HAS happened!
Already during the birth, I thought it was strange that there were not a single girl among them. So I started to look at the kitten’s gender, and I thought I could see three girls. But without anything red? Strange... They are probably boys then... But I got a bad feeling for the first time. After a week, I was sure there were three girls , and a parental test was ordered. I've got the answer now - Honning is NOT the father of these kittens.
This is really hard for me. I try my best to be utterly serious as a breeder, and I have two mixed litter in a row. Well, not much to do with it now. Just swallow hard and do the best I can do. I have at least decided to be completely open and honest!
It has taken time for me to be able to say this out loud. And it was at first almost impossible to deal with the little kittens. But I have dutifully weighed them daily and fed and taken care of wonderful Dixie. Now I have reconciled myself with what has happened, and it's OK.
And I wish that none of you ever experience this. And with that said I am glad that everyone is healthy, nothing serious has happened, it's just my pride that has suffered a serious blow. And that I needed, otherwise it would not have happened I guess.
