THE NOVICE BREEDER
BY Kay Hill
You want to breed just one Siamese litter? Are you sure? Have you
thought about what you are in for?
If your reason is that it is for love of your queen, that, being aware
of the shortness of her life against the probable length of your, you want
some part of her to go on into the future, then this is the most touching,
and most understandable of reasons. You will not be the kind to sell her
kittens to just anyone..to take blood money for a living thing and forget
about it once the cash is in hand. In fact you will suffer when t parting
comes. That is part of the price, the "take what you want, and pay for it,
says God" in the most terrible, and true, of sayings.
Of, on the other hand, you are thinking L150 for this and there are
four more, that's L750 for kittens. Say twice a year. L1500 just for that,
then sit back on your heels and take a look at L1500 or so of what the
trade calls "soft furnishings" in your sitting room, and when you call on
me, do not take a header down my stairs where the carpeting is scratched
thin, or look too closely at the perforated curtains, or wonder why I am
always in slacks and can never go for a holiday or take a long day off.
Make no mistake, there are two ways open to. Considerable damage to
your property on the one hand (including five little monsters, wailing
like seagulls, hurling themselves down from available furnishings and
curtains by way of your back, head, or anything worth clinging to), or
expensive preparations, in a suitable room or building, on the other.
I recommend the second course. Here you will need a room with temperate,
even heat, with ventilation day and night. The source of heat must be
indestructable, therefore, central heating by oil, or heavy electric night
store heaters, is ideal. Anything that could be knocked over by a
galloping horse is unsuitable, so are trailing cables, wires and unguarded
open fires. You will need a shaded, quiet and private place for the queen
to produce her litter and you will need to be prepared to murder anyone
who lifts the kittens out into bright light until they emerge under their
own steam, or who picks up queen or kittens without supporting their hind
legs.
You will want to breed one litter for the love of it? Then you will
probably succeed and be rewarded with indelible memories. Do your queen
the honor of registering her kittens so that, if another breeds from one
of her progeny, her name goes down in the history of an illustrious breed
for as long as records last, and there are human beings who do not believe,
a hearth is a hearth without a cat, folded in sleep, sharing it with them.
