8/9/2019 MANX by Sophia Parker http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/manx-by-sophia-parker 1/33 MANX by Sophia Louise Parker, age 8 I am a girl who loves animals.Before this fall, I had one bunny, one dog, and two cats. When I had gotten Lovey, the second cat, I did not want to spay her; I wanted to breed her. But my parents said, “No, you’re not ready.”And they were right. I had been asking for a long time, since we spayed Lovey when I was three, if I could get two cats and be able to breed them, not spay them. I had been asking and asking. It was okay with my mom by this point, now that I was seven and ready to be more responsible.And my grandparents had donated some money for me to begin breeding cats. But my dad still had doubts.Then, one day, my dad came downstairs from his office (my dad’s office is the second level up in our house; he works at home), and he said, “It’s fine to get some kittens.”And I was bursting!I was jumping up and down, literally!My mom and I started researching possible cats. She wanted me to experience lots of different cats before I made my choices. She took me to the Humane Society, and a few farms with wonderful barn cats, and one pet store, and I loved all the cats we met! Then, the next Sunday, my dad called a Manx breeder.The breeder said there were no kittens available, but she invited us to come over and meet her cats and kittens so we could learn about them.I had never seen a Manx -- my other two cats are rescued-from-a-barn cats.
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MANX by Sophia Louise Parker, age 8 I am a girl who loves animals. Before this fall, I had onebunny, one dog, and two cats. When I had gotten Lovey, the
second cat, I did not want to spay her; I wanted to breed her. But my parents said, “No, you’re not ready.” And they were
right. I had been asking for a long time, since we spayed Lovey
when I was three, if I could get two cats and be able to breedthem, not spay them. I had been asking and asking. It was
okay with my mom by this point, now that I was seven andready to be more responsible. And my grandparents had
donated some money for me to begin breeding cats. But mydad still had doubts. Then, one day, my dad came downstairs
from his office (my dad’s office is the second level up in ourhouse; he works at home), and he said, “It’s fine to get some
kittens.” And I was bursting! I was jumping up and down,literally! My mom and I started researching possible cats. Shewanted me to experience lots of different cats before I made my
choices. She took me to the Humane Society, and a few farmswith wonderful barn cats, and one pet store, and I loved all the
cats we met! Then, the next Sunday, my dad called a Manx breeder. The breeder said there were no kittens available, but sheinvited us to come over and meet her cats and kittens so we
could learn about them. I had never seen a Manx -- my othertwo cats are rescued-from-a-barn cats.
Manx are tailless cats, except for “longies”, who are born
with a tail. Most need it docked when they are kittens because,otherwise, they can get a painful arthritis in their tails. (The
docking is not supposed to hurt at all if they dock the kittensyoung enough.) Most Manx are either dimple rumpy, rumpy riser, orstumpy. Dimple rumpy means they have absolutely no tail. Dimple rumpies are the classic show Manx. But they can getpoopie butts more easily, because the cats can’t lick right above
where the tail would normally be! Rumpy risers are cats witha little bump of a tail on their butt, but they really don’t have
any tail at all. It is a few extra vertebrae that make that littlebump. A stumpy has a short little tail, but not nearly as long
as a non-Manx cat. It might be an inch to two inches long, andthey wag their little stump when they are excited. Manx are very loyal cats, they are really sweet, they arevery playful and also very cuddly, and they love kids.
TIGERINA
At the Manx breeder’s, I fell in lovewith this little brown patch tabby and
white female dimple rumpy kitten. Shewas very sweet and a bitty bit skittish. Right away, I knew what her name wouldbe. I would call her Tigerina. But I
thought she was taken and someone elsewould be getting her. There was also a gray mackerel tabbykitten that I loved, named Sheilanoya,
beautiful, sweet cats and kittens there, butthose were the two I was most smitten by.
The breeder’s name is Claire, and herhusband’s name is O.B., and they love their
cats. They are very nice people and I lovedbeing there tremendously. There was a great
abundance of the most extraordinarily friendlycats I had ever seen.
I told Claire that I wanted Tigerina, and Claire said thatTigerina was taken. BUT the lady who was taking her wanted
her for show (because she is a dimple rumpy and very pretty),but Claire felt that Tigerina was not growing quickly enough to
be shown as a kitten. So Claire said, “I will email the lady andtell her that I think Tigerina is growing too slowly to show, and
maybe the lady will wait for another cat.” Meanwhile, we played with all the cats for a long time. And then I went home full of images of beautiful cats.
I kept thinking about Tigerina. And then we got Tigerina! She lay in my lap in the car on the wayhome and purred, and she was right
away at home here. She was as lovingas a kitty could possibly be on her first
night. She loved me and I loved her. But she did not eat, poop, or play for
the first two days. On the third day, I“piddled” her with a cloth and she made
a nice poop. From then on she poopedand she ate just fine. But it took her
there, and many of them came in when my mom, or me, or my
dad would go in and out the door. The cats all loved them.First, Tigerina, Portokali, Lalluvia and Puff were playing with
them. Soot was taking a nap in his little cat cottage, and I wentand got him and brought him to where the gnats were, so he
could play with them, too. Portokali helped him catch a lot of them. They always stayed close to each other that evening,
catching gnats. When it came time to give Puff and Soot back, I was very
disappointed. I wanted to keep them with me. But we gavethem back.
After we gave them back, all I could talk about was Puff andSoot, Puff and Soot, Puff and Soot. I really wanted to have
them here with us. Finally, we borrowed them again...
TIGERINA IN HEAT
One morning, when I woke up, I heard a loud purrooping,almost yowling! It was coming from the end of the hall. I
threw back my covers, leapt out of bed, and went to see whatearthquake was happening! I crept down to the end of the
hall, so as not to wake my parents, to see what was the matterwith my cats. That sound did tell me that something was
happening in the feline world. “Oh, my gosh! Porto is humping Tigerina,” I thought. I
picked him up and got him off of her. That part wasn’t sosurprising; he had been doing that quite often. But then I
watched them very closely. In the same instant, after Portowas off her and just standing there, Tigerina presented to him. She had never done that before! But I had never seen a cat in
about feline hormones yet. Ithought she might just be
trying to trick him: in case hewas humping her to make her
go into heat and then he wouldstop once she was in heat, and
she was just pretending to bein heat so that he would stop
humping her... Then, my parents woke up, and I opened up the screen
porch so the cats could go out there. When Tigerina was outon the porch, she started rolling around on her back. That
was strange -- I had never seen her do that either. Then, shecame into the kitchen and was rubbing on the refrigerator, my
mom’s pocketbook, and some grocery bags, trilling all thewhile. My mom said, “What is up with Tigerina?! Is she in heat orsomething?” I said, “I don’t think so. She’s too young. She’s only eightmonths old!”
My mom said, “You know, they cango into heat that early. Remember
Lovey? She went into heat at sevenmonths old.”
And I said, “There is that. And shewas presenting once upstairs at the end
of the hall. But I thought she was justtrying to trick Portie so he would stop
lying next to me on the bed, about half a foot away. Porto
came in and sat down next to her. I was excited because my Grandpa Sid had given me a book
about jungle animals and I wanted to look for macaws in it. SoI opened up the book and began to look. I could not find a
macaw, but I found a toucan, and I eagerly began readingabout it. It said: “Toucans are noisy birds that live in groups. They build nests in the treetops. Toucans use their giantbeaks to pick berries and slice up soft, juicy fruit...” Suddenly,
I heard, “Rrrrahrrr, rrrrrraowr, rrrrrrhaaaa!!!” I thought, “what tornado just hit??!!!
And Porto was jumping off Puff! It was Puff who made thatsound! “How quick Porto is!,” I thought.
I marked the date down on my breeding calendar, so Iwould know when the kittens would arrive in case, by any
chance, Puff was now pregnant. At 21 days, I knew the truth: she was pregnant! If they are
bred, they usually have pink nipples at 21 days, and if theyaren’t bred they don’t. Puff had big, pink nipples at 21 days. At 45 days, I knew it even more. She was as big as a barn, andfatter than a barn and a half. And she had an appetite bigger
than a jaguar’s. At 51 days, we brought Puff in to the Vergennes Animal
Hospital for an x-ray to see how many kittens she had insideher. I had decided to do an x-ray on Puff because it was the
first pregnant cat I had ever had. Mark, one of our vets, saidthat since both me and Puff were first timers, it would be a
good thing to do. My mom was concerned about the radiationexposure, but Mark said that one x-ray would be safe and I was
excited to do it, so we did. Mark said the x-ray indicated that Puff had four kittens.
They count the spines and the skulls in order to find out how
many kittens there are. I only saw three skulls, but I figured
the vet must know more about it than I did. But it did sort of look like there were four spines. And I couldn’t wait to meet
the kittens!
KITTENS
One Saturday in August, I wanted nothing more than to go
over to Claire and OB’s house, since Claire and OB are two of my very best friends, and especially kitty friends. Puffball was
sixty-three days pregnant. They are supposed to give birth at63 to 65 days. So we figured we would bring Puff, so there
were no accident-type things, like her going into labor that daywhile we were gone.
But we had observed her making a weird noise. She wasjust lying down, and then I heard a weird noise like
Aarrrhhaaarr. And then she got up from her sound nap to gostorming into the basement under some bags of quilts. And,
by golly, no one had ever done that, especially her. Then, when she came up from the basement after hiding
under the bags of quilts, she had a wet liquid on her. It lookedalmost as if her water had broken. Just one more reason to
take her to Claire’s with me. So off we went, an excited car fullof me, my parents driving of course.
When I got there, it was all a storm of excitement andhappiness. I told Claire what had been up with Puff. She said,
“Oh, it could be, it could not be, but keep her here just incase.” Then, next thing we know, Puff was a big storm of growlsand cries and weirdness altogether. What was up with my
sweet little Puffy? She never growls at me. And she was
clearly not growling at anything in particular, just growling
randomly. And then, all of a sudden, she jumped into thebasket we had brought her to Claire’s in, and lay there as if she
was about to give birth any moment. A few hours later, she started to push. Claire said, “I guess
you’re right, Sophia. It must have been her water breaking.” We sat there and watched her push. Then, when she had
made a few pretty good pushes, we called my mom. Unfortunately, my dad was busy that night and couldn’t come
see Puff have kittens. But my mom said she would leave asquickly as she could. The moment a birth sac was visible, my
mom showed up at the door.
PUFF GIVES BIRTH
Claire said it’s just a water sac, but I still observed veryclosely. Then, I began to see color inside what we thought was
a water sac. Weirder yet, something inside the water sacmoved. I said, “Claire, I know I don’t know anything, and I’ve
never even been around a cat in labor before, but I don’t thinkthis is a water sac.” And I said, “Claire, please look at it.” And she said, “Oh my goodness, you’re right, I think that’s
a kitten!” And she got out her kittening equipment. Just then, a pair of feet began to be visible in the sac. Unfortunately, they were not front feet, they were back feet. Uh oh! This was going to be a breech birth!
Then, poor Puff had a very hard time getting the kitten out. Claire had to put some k-y jelly on Puff (k-y jelly is a lubricant
for cats giving birth, like petroleum jelly). Then, Puff strained,
Claire pulled, and out came the kitten. Unfortunately, not
alive. Claire worked on it for half an hour, trying to revive it,until the next kitten was imminent. The next kitten was also a
hard birth, but Puff got that one out all herself. That kittenwas alive. But then, squirt! Out came another, before anyof us knew what was
happening! This was about9:00 at night.
Then, we waited up until3:00 in the morning, waiting
for her to push out the fourthkitten that we had seen on the
x-ray. But it didn’t come. Somy mom had to take Puff to
the vets, while I got threehours of sleep on Claire’s and OB’s couch.
I woke up at 7:30 to sun pouring in the windows and NOMOMMY! “Where’s my mom?!” I asked Claire, desperately. “She has gone to take Puff to the vets, because there’s no
fourth kitten,” Claire replied. “Will she be home soon?’, I asked.
“Yes, she will,” replied Claire. “In about an hour.” Until my mom returned, I had to tend the kittens. I called
them Junior and Junior Two Squiggle Pants (And June and Junefor short) because they were very active kittens.
Claire said that the second born (first born alive) kittenlooked like a three week old kitten when she was born!
“Wow! That’s a big kitten!” I said, just as my mom walkedin the door!
“Hi, Mom!” I said. “Did the vet help you get the fourth
kitten out? Where is the fourth kitten? What are we going todo about the fourth kitten?”
My mom said, “There is no fourth kitten!” Our other vet, Nate, examined the x-ray that Mark had
taken way back when, and said there were only three kittens. He took an extra x-ray to confirm, and Puff’s womb was empty. Then, at about 9:30that morning, me,
my mom, Puff andthe two live kittens
went home. Wealso brought the one
who had died, sothat we could bury
him in our garden.
PUFFY RAISES KITTENS
I called the two living
kittens Big and Little, asone was big and one was
little. They were twocalico kittens. They spent
most of their time nursingon their exhausted mother
days old, me and my mom had afamily reunion in Massachusetts
that I really, really wanted to go to. We had gone the two past
years, and I adored being therewith all of our family. My aunts
and uncles and cousins andgrandma and grandpa were all
there with me and my mom. Icould not resist going! So I asked Claire if I couldleave Puff and Big and Little at her
house, and also Lalluvia, Puff’ssister, who was too pregnant to
take on a trip like that. Claire agreed to take care of them for me. And I rented a
van from Enterprise Rental company with my savings. Mymom and I brought Marigold Rainbow, my blue and gold
macaw parrot (we needed the van to fit her big cage!); Tigerina, who was not occupied in a breeding cycle; Portokali,
my breeding male, who had not yet started spraying; Lovey, mybarn cat; and Shiva, our dog! And we all had a wonderful
time! The day after we got home, Little had a big swelling under
her left arm. Claire thought she was going to have to be put tosleep. I was very sad. Claire and me and my mom brought
Little to the vets. Mark, one of our vets, examined her -- andall three of us waited, white-faced and anxiously, for the result. Then, finally, Mark came back and said it shouldn’t be toomuch of a problem! And I just then realized that I had been
TIGERINA HAS KITTENS Portokali bred Tigerina at the end of August. About sixty-
eight days later, Tigerina went into labor, on October 28, 2006. We had been waiting for her to go into labor for a week! We didn’t want another experience like we had had withLalluvia’s kittens. So we were keeping careful track of her at
all times. This meant that we had to keep her in our sightsduring the day, and check her every two or three hours in the
night. I would usually wake up and check her two times, andmy mom would check on her four times, and this way we
supervised her through the night. (My mom was real tiredafter a week of this! I was as happy and chipper as ever. Although I was probably a little tired, too, even though I wasbarely aware of it.) Finally, Sunday evening at 6:16, Tigerina started to push --hooray! We called Claire at about 6:30 to let her know. She
came over at 8:21. I saw the fetal membrane sac of the first kitten at 9:12 PM. Tigerina could not get this kitten out on her own. Claire andmy mom needed to help her. This was a breech birth,
meaning that the kitten was coming backwards, rump first. And it wasn’t progressing. For half an hour, the kitten was
stuck with its butt out. We decided to call the vet for help on
this one. We all figured this kitten would probably be dead,
but we were starting to get worried about Tigerina and the restof the kittens inside her surviving this. The vet said the kitten
would be dead, and to have my mom and Claire pull him out of there, because Tigerina and the rest of the litter were in grave
danger. So my mom and Claire pulled! And out came the kitten,
looking quite dead. But we didn’t give up. Claire rubbed him and rubbed him,
and did all she could to resuscitate him. Then, suddenly, my mom saw him open his mouth! But at
first we weren’t sure that it wasn’t just Claire moving him. Sowe gave the kitten to Tigerina and she nuzzled him, and we saw
him open his mouth again! Now we were sure he was alive! Against all odds! The kitten was a male with brown tiger stripes and white. Inamed him Peekaboo, because when we first saw his membrane
sac, it peeked out of Tigerina and then fell away from view,back inside her.
But don’t forget, Tigerina still had more contractions tohave and more kittens to give birth to. She couldn’t spend
too much undisturbed time with Peekaboo before the arrival of the next kitten.
My dad was there for the birth of Peekaboo. This was thefirst birth he had seen. And when Tigerina started her next
contractions, he got to hold Peekaboo, before either me or mymom got to hold him. I think he is secretly very proud of this,
but he didn’t tell me so! This time, Tigerina had an easier birth with a beautiful
orange and white kitten. But it was another breech birth andstill pretty hard. Claire had to pull slightly with this one.
Then, moments later, Tigerina gave birth to another orange
and white kitten who was twin to the first orange and whiteone. I called the first kitten Gin and the second Ger. Both of their individual names created one whole name: Ginger! They
were indeed twins, and shared a placenta. These two kittens seemed to think they had to play as soon
as they were dried off! They immediately started crawlingdeterminedly around the basket we placed them in. How
totally unusual for newborn kittens! Usually, they don’t reallystart to play until they are 10 - 14 days old, when their eyes
open. Next, came something that looked at first like a deformed
butt! (But soon turned out to be a beautiful kitten.) This onewas headfirst, but Tigerina just couldn’t get it out on her own. She eventually got the head out, but Claire and my mom had topull the kitten the rest of the way out; it just wouldn’t come
with only Tigerina’s contractions and pushing. When we got itout, we saw that it was a beautiful brown tabby kitten. Claire
said it was a girl, and I named her Rocky. Then, at 5:00 AM, on October 29, 2006, the last kitten came
out quite easily. It was an all-red boy. I called him Sunny. With five new beautiful kittens, and lots of hugs and kisses
and sympathies to Tigerina, and grateful goodbyes to Claire,Claire went home and my mom and I went to sleep for a few
hours.TIGERINA AND HER FIVE KITTENS
Later that morning, we woke up to a peaceful box of five
kittens nursing on their mother, Tigerina. Tigerina seemed to
Tigerina was sad to loseone of her beloved kittens, but
might also have been relievedto have one less mouth to
feed. Fortunately, all the restof them made it.
TIGERINA’S FOUR LOVELY KITTENS GROW UP
Tigerina turned out to be a wonderful mother. Her onlyproblem was that she did not lick her kittens’ butts! For the
first seven weeks of kittens’ lives, they need to be“piddled” (licked) by their mother in order to poop and pee. Tigerina thought (and I agree!) that that was a gross job andrefused to do it. So I had to do it for her! Luckily, I didn’t
have to lick their butts -- a warm cloth worked well enough. Ihelped them pee three times a day, morning, afternoon and
evening; I helped them poop two times a day, morning andevening. That’s what Claire said would work best, and it did.
Kittens are born with their eyes closed. Their eyes shouldopen naturally at about two weeks of age. Ginger, Sunny and
Rocky all followed that pattern. Peekaboo, however, did not. They were nearly three weeks, and Peekaboo’s eyes still hadn’t
opened, even a crack! So Claire finally said, “help him.”
And she told me how: I got a warm, damp washcloth, and set it
on Peekaboo’s eyes, one at a time, and very gently rubbed themopen. The first thing Peekaboo saw was me! And he gave a
soft “mew.” I said, “Hi Peekie! Now you can
finally stop bumping into things and play withyour brother and sisters.”
After that, every time I came into theroom to feed Tigerina, give her more water,
give the kittens a toy ball to play with , or walkby their box on my way somewhere else,
Peekaboo would stand up wih an eager look onhis face and go, “Mew! Mew! Mew!” I was the first thing he saw, so it gave him aspecial connection with me. He was irresistible
in his enthusiasm! So I would always smile, pick him up, andgive him a little cuddle.
THE KITTENS GET BIGGER
Peekaboo was very relieved to be able to see now. Whentheir eyes open, the kittens start to play. At first they give a
sibling a gentle nibble, or bat at their mom’s ear, and play withthe little balls we give them, etc.
Sunny, when he was about two weeks old, he climbed out of the box that we used for their nest. So we moved them to a
pen. But, somehow, Sunny got out of that too! To this day,we’ve never figured how he got out of that pen. Clever boy!