A Tribute to Queen Angela

We wanted to take a moment to express our sincere adoration and appreciation to a special lady, Angela. Not only is she an instant favorite of our visitors that come to see our cats, and those that are lucky enough to have one of her kittens, but she has recently shocked us and many of our companions in the world of cat breeding, both nationally and overseas with our partners in Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Russia by successfully birthing and raising 11 kittens!

Kittenhood

When Angela came to us, she joined our first Siberian cat, Lucas, and our working queen Luna. She joined the family immediately, with very little acclimation required. She bonded with us and our cats quickly, and one of her quirks was that she used her paws way more than we've ever seen a cat use their paws before; almost like a human uses their hands! When she got excited, she would touch you with her paws before she rubbed against you like a normal cat would.

She also loved food, big time! This is also where her "hands" came into play. When we threw a treat in front of her, she would cover it with both her paws and slide it toward her mouth. It was the cutest thing to watch! When it came to playtime, our other two cats couldn't keep up with how fast she was and how high she could jump. She is truly an example of how athletic Siberian cats can be, and she still is to this day. She shows her kids how it's done!

Motherhood

Angela has had three litters prior to her most recent huge litter that has gotten a lot of attention. Every litter was with our king Senge, who is a Neva Masquerade, or color point male with blue eyes. She has had color point kittens, flame point kittens (orange tips with blue eyes), and black or blue tabbies and calico females. The first litter had 4, then she had a litter with 5 male flame points, and finally, a litter with only 3 kittens. She was very devoted to all of them until it was time for them to get home. We've had some mothers who start to slowly give up their duties as their kittens are weaned and become more independent as they age, which is normal, but Angela has always continued to prefer hanging out with them even in their rambunctious "pre-teen" phase!

The Big Litter

Based on her past litters, we were shocked with how big she was getting before delivery, but we figured it could mostly be water weight. Nothing prepared us for her to be carrying 13 kittens! Two were stillborn, but that still left her with 11 total. It was also her first time having red kittens (5 males). In total, she had 4 flame point boys, 1 color point girl, 5 red boys, and 1 blue calico girl.

As you may know, female cats only have 8 nipples, so in the beginning we were busy supplemental feeding and cleaning. However, it didn't take long for Angela to recover from her birth and before long, we would weigh each of the kittens each day to find that they continued gaining weight, even when we started to slow down and stop supplemental feeding altogether. She was singlehandedly feeding, cleaning, and raising 11 kittens on her own. Teaching them to use the litterbox, play, etc.

We are just astounded with Angela, and as her kittens go home, she is enjoying life at home getting pampered and enjoying a nice, well deserved break!