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Inger Lise together with Petronella (left). She is 11 weeks old at the pic.

The tenth (N) OffBeat litter was born 24 Jan, 2010. Parents are (N) OffBeat Bella, SIA f, and S*Casa el Gatos Sgt Pepper, SIA n. A very nice boy, owned by very nice people! Click on the link below to see a picture of him and read more about him.

To see pictures of the kittens and read about them, scroll down. Click the smaller pictures for better size and proportions.

Inger Lise exactly 11 weeks old. She has grown tremendously during the last weeks.

First I thought I would let Inger Lise to a friend of mine who has a Siamese from me already. Since I frist thought that thought, it has troubled me more and more.
Now I have decided. I simply cannot let go of Inger Lise. She has become too dear to me. Her tough start in life, her fighting spirit and not the least, her robust health and mentality, plus her incredibly affectionate nature; how could I deprive meself of all that?
So Inger Lise stays with me. And I am so relieved, now that I have made that decision.

Inger Lise 9 weeks old. I like her more and more, "betterer and betterer". Am I right to give her to one of my friends? She's so funny.

Inger Lise is now nine weeks old (28th of March), and has developed tremendesly during the past couple of weeks. At the moment I actually think she will grow into a cat of normal size?

She is, and has for that matter always been, a very energetic cat. She is all over the place in nanoseconds. She jumps on her "prey", whether it's a toy or one of Olivia's kittens, she climbs legs, furniture and whatever surface she can put a little claw in. If the surface is smooth, she jumps to the top to get a grip with her paws/claws and heaves herself up to the edge and then jumps down on the other side or on top of it.

She is actually quite a handful...

I think she will become a rather good looking girl.

She is still brindled, but it seems to go the right way.

Inger Lise sleeping with Olivia, her "stepmother".

Inger Lise with Brutus, Olivia's son.

The post mortem came back with the results for the poor little girl who suddenly died on her fifth day in this life.
Nothing was found; the internal organs were all normal, and no signs of neither viral nor bacterial infection.
This is the conclusion of the post mortem report:

"Multiple tissues were evaluated and there is no evidence of a viral or bacterial infection or congenital disease. The cause of the acute death is uncertain, but hypoglycæmia and/or hypoxia is a possibility. No lesions are evident in these tissues, however the likely cause of death (perinatal ischæmia due to dystocia) would not be expected to produce histologically appreciable cellular changes unless the animal survives for at least 3-4 hours following the insult.
The lung sections had minimal changes, which are seen in neonatal animals (meconium aspiration) as a result of fetal distress during birth. This is a common event during dystocia or prolonged parturition leading to fetal hypoxia (less oxygenation) that causes the fetus to release meconium into the amniotic fluid before delivery."

So then there were three kittens left. Two boys and one girl. The boys didn't put on weight despite bottle feeding and to some extent force feeding, while the girl gained weight little by little.
The boys were put on penicillin, and responded well. They started to gain weight, and seemed to develop normally.
However, as soon as the medication stopped, they lost weight again, regardless of how much milk I gave them.
After a week they were put on new medication, and responded well again. But the same thing happened; when the medication was through, they lost weight again.
The veterinarian and I decided to give the boys yet another chance, and put them on a new round of medication. Sadly, the same thing happened. When the medication was over, they rapidly lost weight and became very weak.
After six weeks the vet and I decided they had had enough, and they were put to sleep.

The girl, however, never needed any medication. She was small and thin, but very active and seemed in good shape despite all.
She is now seven weeks old, lively, very outgoing and funny, and gains weight all the time. Hopefully she will grow into normal size quite soon.
Her name is (N) OffBeat Inger Lise, SIA n, and she will be given as a pet to a friend of mine. She is adopted by Olivia, who has a litter of her own, three weeks old now.

Bella with her daughter after the boys died.

Inger Lise was soon adopted by Olivia.

Inger Lise enjoys every sec with her new mum.

Inger Lise 4.5 weeks old. She looks better today.

Bella gave birth on the 71st day, counted from the presumed first day of mating. Friday I took her to the clinic for an ultrasound, and we saw five kittens in super shape.
On the Sunday she finally started to have contractions, and the first kitten came easily. The next one, however, came with her bum first and got stuck with elbows and head inside.
It took forever, so after close to an hour I inserted a finger alongside the kitten and pushed her out from the inside.
The kitten didn't make it.

After this three more kittens came just like that, however, before the last one came, it had passed 3–4 hours.
All looked good, despite Bella having trouble with getting enough milk. The kittens have been part bottlefed, part fed by Bella this first week.

Everything looked good, as mentioned, until one kitten suddenly and without warning just died. This kitten is sent to a laboratory in England for a post-mortem. The remaining three are so far looking good.

I call this one Apple. I think she is a girl.

It's Apple under Bella's chin. The others sleep.

They are a lively bunch, and Bella plays along.

Lovely to have kittens again. They are so cute!