Alchemist Persians

12/08/2026

10/08/2026

I came across a good deal on Temu last week so I'm trying out a new water station for the house cats. No batteries, no electrical cord, no USB charging - all there is, is an old school drip regulating doodad attached to the water tube. It works by letting a slow drip of water fill the bowl and once the bowl is full, the weight of the water makes the bowl automatically tip over and spill the water into the waste water reservoir. I have it set for one drip every 15 seconds. The cats are fascinated by it and do drink from it. The old water station is great, but I've had 2 of them that had the USB charged battery go dead within 18 months. Luckily, I didn't pay much for them but still - I think the batteries should be lasting longer than they seem to be. So now I'm going old school with gravity - something that's free and always available. The cats will sit and watch the slow drip for a long time and when the bowl tips over and hear the water splash, the come running into the kitchen to watch. 😂

01/08/2026

I'm looking forward to starting this month with a clean slate.

01/08/2026

What July was like: Vaccinating Paisley and Cheeto kittens, making appointments for them to go home, and a lot of counting the days for the Sarah and Leya new arrivals. 🙃

01/08/2026

What's been going on behind closed doors? Oh, nothing much, the just the usual, plus an extra thing or two. Meet Thing One and Thing Two. Delivering kittens is always a traumatic event, not knowing how it will go and the results will be but it is, nonetheless, exciting. So keep detailed notes so I can refer back to them the next time.

30/07/2026

Well, I wanted to share with you things that go on behind the cattery door, so we go: Being a cat breeder isn't easy. Some days, you feel like nothing is going right and other days are even worse. Wednesday was one of those days. Born on Monday, Leya's little Smoke girl struggled to take in nourishment from the very beginning. I spent every waking moment and the moments when I should have been sleeping, hand-feeding her every 2 hours. She would never take more than 1ml of formula at a time so I knew something inside her wasn't right. Tube feeding would not have been the right thing to do in this case and here's why: While listening to her heart early Tuesday morning, I heard an occasional extra beat and although I'm not very experienced with such things, I suspected a bad valve. By Tuesday night, I couldn't hear any heart sounds at all which probably meant the area surrounding the heart was full of fluid from it not being able to function properly. By Wednesday morning, around dawn, her formula intake was down to 1/2ml and she was starting to refuse the bottle. On Wednesday evening, I asked my husband to see if he could hear any heart sounds - he could not hear anything and agreed that the area around her heart was probably full of fluid. I've seen this sort of thing once before and when it happens, the kittens don't last long - and now, she is gone. I tried to help her the best way I knew how. No vet could have saved her. Nothing more could have been done. These things just happen. And so we move forward hoping the other kittens continue to do well.

27/07/2026

My bedroom exploded today. After only 3 hours of sleep with my head at the foot of the bed to be close to Leya, and trying to satisfy Sarah, who was VERY unhappy with the box situation again, I finally set up my show tent on the floor next to the bed. She was pleased with the new venue. After all of that rigamarole, I got to spend 6 hours delivering kittens. Leya and Re*****on have 3 babies - a Black Smoke girl, who will go to my friend, Jean (Leya is her Silver Patched Tabby out of Trace), to show/breed, and 2 red boys. Are the boys Solid Red, Red Tabby, Red Smoke, or Cameo? It's the new mystery . . . I will probably keep one of the boys so I can create a lot of cameos next year. Now I get to do a load of bloody, icky laundry, take a shower, and MAYBE get something to eat. BTW - there was a still born Black Smoke girl, too. Very disappointing, but sometimes it just happens.

25/07/2026

I didn't get much sleep last night because the lovely and delightful Sarah kept digging at the bedding in her kitten box and at times, accidentally covering up some of the kittens. Luckily, the new cardboard boxes came this afternoon so I cut one in half, taped the bottom flaps together, and ta-da! a new kitten box was created. Sarah chews on the edges now and then but has ultimately settled down with her kittens and accepted the new box - without any bedding. I think the cardboard will be cooler than the plastic box and won't require any bedding - and although it is my preference, I need to choose my battles wisely. The kittens will be out of the box in another week so I'm trying to cooperate with the cat in charge of my life at the moment - Sarah.

24/07/2026

I've been getting a LOT of friend requests lately on my other Facebook account. That account is for cat breeders only. Not pet people. Pet people can follow me and my cats only on this account.