Mittenstar Ragdolls of Michigan

04/07/2025

I am all caught up on emails!! But with technology... I feel like there is always a little something that gets missed or lost in transit haha! 🛜😹❤️

If you've emailed me recently and haven't received a reply as of today, please reach back out using the information on our website! This is the best way to make sure you're reaching a breeder directly - I never take people's information directly over social media, I always refer to our legitimate website only.

CFA & TICA Registered Ragdolls Breeding & Showing the highest quality Ragdoll Cats and Ragdoll Kittens East Lansing, MI

03/31/2025

Big Pink coming in for a big kiss to make this a little sweeter ~! 🩷

03/29/2025

Today's Caturday update is a longer one. When our last litter of 2024 was nearing time to head home, I shared that one kitten - Sport, who his family planned to name Frost, was falling behind his brothers in weight, and that we felt it was best to keep him here a little longer to figure out what was going on. When we match our kittens with families, we wait until they're around 8 weeks old to make sure they’ve had their first vaccines, been checked over by our vet, and are healthy and thriving. They then stay with us a few more weeks, are fixed, and go home around 12 - 16 weeks old.

Frost seemed fine at first and we had no concerns when we matched him to his family, but as his brothers hit growth spurts and got ready to be fixed and head home, he just stayed the same weight, he didn't lose any, but he wasn't growing as expected either.

Instead of going through with his neuter, we did bloodwork instead… and while the results were only slightly off, they still worried me. The numbers fit the pattern of anemia that can indicate FIP.

If you’ve been here a while, you might remember that we went through FIP treatment once before with our very first keeper kitten from our very first litter here, Pink (her story, and more technical information about FIP, is pinned in our featured posts!). Because of that experience, my vet and I felt it was best to start treatment with Frost right away.

(Please know that FIP is not contagious at all, it's a relatively rare illness that all cats, even large species, are predisposed to.)

FIP treatment isn’t like antibiotics, it doesn't kill the illness. Instead, it slows it down so the cat's immune system has a chance to fight. It's often said the first few weeks of treatment are the most dangerous, as it's kind of like hitting the breaks on a speeding car, it doesn't stop things right away, so the illness continues to progress even as the medication begins working.

Thankfully because we caught it so early, Frost never got as sick as Pink - but still, he did get more sick before he began to improve in the early weeks of treatment.

This was also complex emotionally - Frost was meant to be someone else’s kitten! I wasn’t sure what would happen, having experienced ups and downs with Pink’s treatment. Publicly sharing Pink's journey helped others find hope and treatment, but this time, with more hearts involved, I waited to share more until now.

Frost’s parents, Lexi and David... You guys have been the best. 💛 I was, and am, so touched by all the love and support you gave him! That you still wanted to bring him home but also just wanted what was best for him as he stayed with us until he was stable.

Frost still has a few weeks of treatment left to go, but has been thriving and was strong enough to be neutered, and fully recovered from that like normal. So last weekend… he was finally able to go home!! 💝

Lexi and David actually had already brought home one of the brothers, Blaze, like normal, and they've all been waiting to welcome Frost home too. They were so sweet and let us bring Frost to their home, so we could help get him settled with his medication routine and also so we could see Blaze again!

I could tell they remembered each other, Frost especially was so happy to see his 'big' brother (and Blaze did really well adjusting to suddenly not being an ‘only child’ anymore 😂)! By the end of the day they were playing together, snuggling, and over this past week everything has gone as well as I had hoped for! 💕

So I feel a little better finally making this post, I am so grateful to say that the brothers are reunited, settled in with mom and dad (and are a bit obsessed with each other, lol!!), and I feel confident that Frost will finish treatment soon with a gold star!
🥹⭐️✨

With the new video-sharing formats, I can’t post photos with videos, so I’ll also share some of my favorite video updates from them a little later on!

03/20/2025

Happy 1st Day of Spring!!
🌷🌱🪺💕🐣🍀✨💝

One more throwback to one of my favorite kitten photos I’ve taken! This was two years ago now back in 2023 - this is baby Cloud from Aurora & Spirit’s very first litter together! He was such a cute little jelly bean for their springtime kitten photos, and when I went to pick him up after he was done with his formal pictures, he did this biiiiig stretch and I was able to snap this pic really quick!!

My favorite part is his little toe beans all stretched out, I can’t get enough of when kittens do this with their little pink beanies! 🥹💕🐾

03/13/2025

Throw back Thursday!!

These are the girls from the Sleeping Beauty litter (who I shared pictures of for their 1st birthday a few days ago) from when they were about 5 weeks old 🥹❤️

I miss having kittens running around… 🥰

03/09/2025

Happy 1st Birthday to my Sleeping Beauty babies!! 🩷💜💙

Their parents are Aurora and Spirit - this was a very special litter to me as I knew it would be Spirit’s last litter before getting to ‘retire’ as a pet! I got their mother and father as young kittens around the same time, and they were our second and third Ragdolls here at Mittenstar at the very beginning just over 3 years ago now. They had two litters together just over a year apart, and all of their kittens together not only are beautiful, but have some of the best, Ragdolly personalities. Every update I get from their kittens is just how happy and loved they are.

Now as these kittens celebrate their 1st birthday, I am reminded of just how lucky I am to have gotten to love and raise them, and see them off to such awesome families!!

Ragdolls take about 2 - 3 years to fully develop in their structure, coat, and looks, it’s hard to believe looking at these guys now as they’re already so big, but they’ll actually continue to fill out and grow over the next few years!

We have:

Briar - who now is fully named ‘Briar Rose’ and lives with us! So you’ll see more updates on her, and her future kittens, to come. ❤
Charming - who now is named ‘Moshi’ - but his meowmy often calls him ‘Charming Moshi’ and I just love that for him haha! He has a beautiful Bengal sister as well!
Dream - who now is named ‘Evie’ which I just love - after the Poke’mon (which is also one of my favorites lol!) She is such a mini-me of her momma, Aurora!
Beauty - who is still named Beauty!! Her meowmy loved her name and felt it fit with her. She has a big sister Maine C**n who she loves and totally fit right in with as well!
And Rose - who now is named Bella!! She is a ‘snowbird’ with her family, and did very well going back and forth this year from Michigan in the summer, to Florida in the winter! Her family says she loves going out for walks in her pet stroller, and loves when they have company over!

Thank you all for opening your home to our Mittenstar babies and for sending me these updates!
I do so much here to raise them right for the time they’re with me as babies - but a large part of their personalities develop with the love and care they receive at home too. And I can just tell in all the updates I get back how cherished they are, and it means so much to me to know these little lives I brought into the world with such careful planning are so loved and are so happy.

Thanks for reading my sappy kitty post, I just get emotional thinking about how much they’ve grown lol!! Happy Sunday everyone! 🩷💜💙

03/07/2025

I also wanted to share another update with some of the candids I've taken over the last few weeks of our Ragdolls that make up our cattery ~ with all the excitement during kitten seasons it gets hard to remember to share pictures of our adults too! ❤️

Nikon's picture I took this Friday morning while I was doing my cattery chores - the others are all from over the last few weeks! We had our Christmas trees up and inside for a bit longer than they should have been hahaha, so that's why some picture still show the trees in the background!

And you can see our cats are in every area of our home in these pictures, they live with us and within reason (we have to keep the boys and girls separate so there is no territorial fighting or accidental litters), they have free reign of the house and where they want to be, or their own bedrooms, where we can spend time with them, and where they can go when they can't be in the main house.

Every day from feeding, getting fresh water, refreshing litter, sweeping, spot mopping - and then brushing everyone, I now have a little apron that has everything I need carried with me as I go along.

As I go from area to area with whatever chore I'm doing, I have a few choices of toys/wands to stop and play for a moment, and I have two types of brushes (hard bristle and soft!) so I can go around and brush every kitty for at least a few minutes, and it's actually a highlight of my day to have this routine. It takes a lot of time, love, care, energy, dedication, focus, and motivation to run any animal husbandry program, but there is also something very wonderful and soothing about having a daily routine full of my kitties and the love we share. ❤️

Would it save a lot of time to have them in cages all in one spot? Absolutely. But we will never, ever live that way. I only have as many cats as I can reasonably care for in an ethical, free ranging way.

We do a lot to have our Ragdolls live full, happy lives here in the cattery. They are my pets and my loves ~ so I wanted to share not just in words but in pictures how well they're doing. 📸❤️

03/05/2025

Things are going well here at Mittenstar, our queens are getting fat and happy here over the winter (being a long haired and chubby breed, they love the colder weather!) and our kings are eagerly awaiting springtime so they can romance their ladies!!

Our young girl kittens we kept for our next generation from last spring and summer are between 7 - 11 months old now, and I'm very happy with the choices we made in holding back the girls we did, they are beautiful, sweet, and have great conformation! 😊

Pink is also doing fantastic (we have a featured post on our page all about her 496 day journey healing from a complex, non-contagious disease called FIP!) - I am so touched by how many of our friends and followers have reached out to ask how we are doing, and I'm really appreciating the break from being as active on social media.

Part of this break from kittening was also planned for more happy reasons - my fiance & I are getting married in the spring, and I didn't want to have kittens during this time because I knew I wouldn't be able to give the kittens, and our adopting families, the attention they deserve. It's why our website has had our breeding plans listed that way even before I made a post about taking a step back from social media too, but we will be getting back into kitty 'romance' season here in April, with kittens to come sooner than later! ❤

I just wanted to share a quick update with everyone! The picture here shows Pink and our stack of wedding invitations just before I sent them out yesterday! (But I did cover up the addressses on the envelope for privacy haha!)

I have also been working away on our website, with some very exciting new updates! They aren't live yet, just know that I have some really fun updates planned 😉 - and I'll be updating the profiles of our breeding kings and queens this spring with new pictures and information as well!

~ Lots of love from Loraine and all our dollies here at Mittenstar 🩷

02/07/2025

The kitten in the selfie with me and the necklace I’m wearing are both all thanks to my friend Kristin - the breeder over at Cottonblues Ragdolls! ❤️

Thank you so much for everything girl - from getting to know me as the ‘newbie on the block’ back when I began my cattery and giving me a whole lot of grace as I was figuring everything out lol!! And for entrusting me with Nikon (who is the father of the kitten I’m holding in the selfie!!) - and then Plum (who will hopefully be having his first kittens this year, and is truly a one in a million Ragdoll!) - and now for this beautiful necklace!! There are challenges big and small in this cattery hobby, and it means the world to me to have a friend where I can share the highs and the lows and I know either way - you’ll keep my confidence with integrity. ❤️

This necklace is so adorable and beautiful, it’s a custom kitten she had made for me after my grandfather passed, and she took the time to notice the kind of jewelry I preferred wearing and made sure it would match my rings! It is so dainty and sparkly, it’s so purrfect ✨🐱

Receiving it when I did, in the middle of such a difficult season of loss, has been one of the most heartfelt gifts I’ve ever accepted from a friend. 🥹❤️ I’ve worn it every day since!

I know I’m a bit behind on social media, emails, and messages. I just need a bit more time to get back to feelin’ 100% again - but surrounded by support, awesome friends, and with spring on its way, I am feeling better and better as the days get brighter and brighter. ☀️🌿🌷🐾

01/25/2025

Just a quick video this of momma Katarina!! She loves to roll around and be playful when she wants attention, I think it’s soooo cute 🩷!!

01/23/2025

Thank you all so, so much for the kind comments and messages of support after my post earlier this week. It’s hard to even put into words how much it means to me… It was very hard to make that post, and I am continually humbled and grateful for the community around our cattery, from my fellow breeders to our followers and our kitten families. Thank you ~❤️

This is baby Magic, she is the kitten we kept from Cocoa’s litter ~ it is chilly and overcast on this wintery day but her bright eyes are warm like sunshine 🥹☀️💛

01/20/2025

I’ve been silent on social media these past weeks because I haven’t known how to find the words to share what’s been on my heart. Friends, family, and fellow breeders have given me well-intentioned advice not to share this, knowing how online conversations can be twisted. But I can’t move forward without processing this openly.

As I enter my third year as a breeder, I’m heartbroken to share that we’ve experienced our first loss of a Mittenstar kitten who has passed away unexpectedly.

This kitten was one of Cocoa’s babies from this past autumn - we named him Skittles. When he went home to his family, they named him Asher.

The updates I received after he had gone home were everything I could have hoped for - he was happy, healthy, and adored.

These images are from the last update I received after he had been home nearly two months - Asher, happily watching the snow fall.

Just a week after this update, he became severely ill. What started as an ear infection rapidly spread to his spine and brain, causing meningitis. Despite his family’s tireless efforts, involving multiple hospitals and specialists, meningitis is incredibly hard to treat, and it was just too much for him.

After reviewing his medical records, we believe scratching at his ear caused trapped bacteria, which spread quickly due to being close to his spine and brain. This tragedy was sudden, devastating, and despite everyone’s best efforts, it could not have been prevented.

This all happened as I was severely ill myself from pneumonia, I think my immune system was already weak because of the stress and grief I went through at the end of 2024, losing my grandfather I was very close to in a very painful and unexpected end with cancer.

And on top of this, with the loss of little Asher, I have just been… so hollow. I am devastated that this happened. The pain of his family has been my pain as well. Part of what makes the difficulties of breeding worth it to me is knowing the love and joy that our kittens bring to their families. This is the first time that instead, a family of ours is experiencing this kind of grief.

Asher lives in my heart as one of my ‘grandkittens’. It has even been hard going through my phone at times, as there are so many pictures of him there. He was an incredibly special boy. He brought his love and sweetness with him when he left me to his forever family, and I know he was so, so, so loved by them.

I had already planned to take a small break from breeding to heal and reflect on balancing my work, life, and cattery. This loss has made that need even more apparent. While I’ll be reviewing how we move forward as a cattery, I don’t believe there was anything that could have been done differently by me or his family. This was a heartbreaking and unforeseen tragedy.

To those who have sent updates, pictures, and videos of their Mittenstar babies, please know how much they mean to me. I’m so sorry I haven’t been sharing them lately. Grief and illness have made it hard for me to share anything at all.

Thank you for your patience, love, and understanding.

01/17/2025

Have a new year kiss from Pink ~ 🩷

Sorry I haven’t posted much, I’ve been extremely sick with pneumonia, I’m only just starting to come out of it and getting some of my spark for life back!

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas! ⭐️❤️🎁

The first pictures are of our boys from their final photoshoot with us just before 12 weeks old ~ and the rest are just some candids from Christmas Eve of our different Ragdolls all enjoying the tree! 🎄

I thought it would be fun to mix things up and include a little slice of life around the cattery and our home ~ we do so much to make sure our cats can live with us as much like ‘normal pets’ as possible. 😊❤️

12/23/2024

Look at that smile! 😊❤️✨

Baby Altitude loveddd his photoshoot and was playing in the wreath that was ‘supposed’ to just be part of the background… I think you can see in his expression just how much fun he was having!

12/20/2024

Earlier in December we brought home two adorable potted pine trees for Christmas, and we just brought them inside and decorated them!
🎄❤️✨

I was totally inspired when I saw a news article about a family who had a living potted Christmas tree that has been alive for over 30 years - I’ve always said that I disliked the thought of chopping down a tree just to display it for a few weeks, or getting plastic, so when I learned that you can keep potted evergreens (with a bit of year round TLC!) I knew we had to try it.

We decided to get two from our local garden center, they’re each about 3ft tall and so adorable! They can’t stay inside for long as they need full sunlight, so they’ll just be indoors for the next two weeks before being placed back outside ~ I think that’s the perfect amount of time for Christmas and New Year ☺️❤️!

I love that our home is so full of life ~ from our kittens to our Christmas trees!
🎄⭐️❤️

12/19/2024

I had little Christmas elves ‘helping’ me decorate last night!! ❤️🎄🎁

12/18/2024

These pictures were from almost 4 weeks ago when Sport & Rubicon’s parents came to meet them in person! (It was chilly but the boys weren’t in the cold for long, and we kept them warm and toasty with hot water bottles and thick blankets!)

After this wintery meeting they decided to name the boys Frost (for Sport) and Blaze (for Rubicon!)
☃️🔥💙

While at the time of these pics at 8 weeks old, the brothers were fairly close in weight, Sport has been the smallest in the litter, but over the last two weeks hasn’t been meeting his growth goals like we want to see - and his parents have been so kind and understanding! So in the best interest of the kittens, Sport will be staying with us for a few more weeks so we can make sure we are figuring out what is going on, and so we can keep a close eye on him with our vet.

Lexi & David - thank you so much for everything! I loved meeting you guys and thank you for your permission to share these special pictures of your first meeting with the boys ~ and thank you for trusting me and for seeing baby Frost for the living creature that he is! 💕

We plan and strive for perfection but it is just impossible to predict what strengths and weaknesses each kitten will have, and I’m just so touched at your understanding and willingness to be there for him no matter what, and wanting the best for him even if that means he will be here with me for a little while longer.