Meet the Vieuxtemps cats!

Here are our beautiful Norwegian Forest Cats, in order of age:

Vieuxtemps Valkyrie - black female kitten NFC born August 2011

Kyrie aged 3 months

Kyrie is from Quink's last litter.  She was promising at birth (appearance wise) and now she is developing, I just love her laid-back, sweet nature.  Here's hoping that she will develop an extra loud purr just like her half sister Velcro! On her mother's side she continues lines going back to our very first Forest Cats, now gone but still loved and remembered.

Vieuxtemps Velcro - black and white female kitten NFC born April 2011

Velcro has the dearest character, and as she also has some of our very favourite cats in her pedigree (including Gr Int Ch Tilia Nova's Ingjalf) we realised we had to keep her.  We hope she will be a successful breeding queen when she grows up, but at the moment, she's just enjoying being a kitten.

Ukulele Gyldenloeve, tortie mackerel tabby and white female born 2006

Uku was born in Denmark and together with Quink (below) came to live with us in spring 2007, brought by car by her breeder, our good friend Carli of Gyldenloeve cattery.  I had fallen in love with Ukulele’s mother on an earlier visit to Denmark so was delighted to be offered the opportunity of having a queen with such gorgeous ancestors.  She settled in instantly and became particularly good friends with our dog as well as all our other cats.  Uku has a wonderful temperament and is sensitive and responsive towards us – she has the ideal NFC character.  Uku hopes to have her next litter of kittens before the end of the year.

Quil Gyldenloeve, black male neuter NFC born 2006

Quink, as we call him, was also born at the home of our friend Carli Haekkerup in Denmark. I really liked his pedigree and fortunately Carli agreed that he could come and live with us, knowing that we would keep him lovingly as part of the family rather than shut away as happens with so many stud cats.  She kept him in her home during the long process of inoculations and blood tests to gain his ‘Pets’ Passport’ and eventually he arrived along with Uku in spring 2007.  Carli brought him over by car so that they wouldn’t have to endure a plane journey and they settled immediately.  As you can see from the photo, Quink was an excellent dad to his kittens, but he is now retired as (like most stud cats) he was rather too liberal with his urine spraying technique!

Vieuxtemps Valentine, red classic tabby and white stud male born 2004

Valentine was born in our house. His father was a wonderful boy called Grand International Champion David Austin av Boxerhaven, born in Norway and brought to Denmark by our good friends Carli and Allan.  Carli was kind enough to allow me to borrow David for six months, and we were able to mate him with our queen Penny.  The resultant offspring were Valentine and his brother Vieuxtemps Vanquish, now a Grand Champion. 

Valentine has a very cuddly teddy-bear temperament.  He behaves more like an adorable, laid-back neuter than a stud cat, and doesn’t smell (except when he is entertaining the ladies!)  He has excellent boning and so far we are extremely pleased with the kittens he has thrown, both to our own queens and outside queens.  And he is an excellent father, teaching his offspring how to be good Norwegian Forest Cats :)

Cleasanta Seorsa Sioda (Jet), tortie ticked tabby and white born 2003

Jet is a large, gentle and rather shy girl whom we got from our friends Fiona and Ian Hermon.  In fact Ian took the super photo above.  We bred Jet's mother and grand mother and also imported/owned her handsome father.

Vieuxtemps Hermione, green eyed white female neuter NFC born 2000

Hermione was one of our ‘Harry Potter’ litter and the daughter of our very special champion girl Skovmus Felis Jubatus, the first Champion NFC in the UK.  So when we had all our cats tested for HCM it was with great sadness that we heard Hermione had a slight heart murmur.  We retired her right away as we don’t wish to breed kittens with defects, and she has remained healthy ever since.  I hope she spends many more years with us as she is full of character – sometimes naughty, sometimes loving, but always lively and interesting.  

Sad post script, 22.11.12:  After never really fully recovering after an operation for a tumour and a cyst earlier this year, dear Hermione died unexpectedly in her sleep.  We will miss her sweet, funny, loving character always :((

Premier Vieuxtemps Impromptu, green eyed white male neuter born 1995

Photo by Alan Robinson

We are very proud of Impromptu because he was the first Norwegian Forest Cat to gain a title in any registry in the UK.  He was born in our house and is the most gentle and loving cat you could wish to meet, which isn’t surprising as both his parents were like that too.  He was one of a litter of seven kittens that we called our ‘piano litter’ as they were all either pure white or black and white (some smoke) and arranged themselves in the order of a piano octave!

Sad post script:  Impromptu died in his sleep aged 17, late spring 2013.  He was a gentleman to the end and we truly miss him :(

For more information about Norwegian Forest Cats, why don't you visit the website of the Norwegian Forest Cat Club