Galadriel is actually even bigger than what this photo shows! She's waddling around :) I estimate that she could have her next litter anytime after Monday (yes, THIS Monday!). I suspect she'll have it maybe Thursday or Friday, but it's possible for them to be born earlier.

Depending on when her kittens are born, I estimate that her litter will go to their forever homes around the end of September. I never guess correctly, so I will not attempt to predict how many kittens she'll have - keep an eye out for another post!

Lúthien's kitten from her latest litter is doing really well! We've been calling him "Little Guy", but I'm sure he'll adapt to a new name when he goes to his new home in a few weeks. I will be contacting some folks on the waitlist with offers for him starting today. He had a vet appointment and received a perfect bill of health from the doctor :) Normally I start to contact folks earlier than this (he turned 7 weeks yesterday) but it's been a whirlwind around here; we've had family staying with us for a couple of weeks and I really did not have time to sit down at the computer to update y'all or reach out to folks. (Thank you for everyone's patience on that front; I know it's been longer than normal for me to respond to your emails!)

Lúthien has been doing well, too. It's been different for her, I'm sure, to have only one kitten to care for, but she's been taking good care of this little guy :) He just recently started to enjoy wet food; he did not care for it as early as other kittens have in the past. Some seem to have different tastes for it... The plan is still to have Lúthien retired (fixed) after he has gone to his new home and is no longer in need of nursing. While I am still very sad to see this chapter of our lives come to a close, I am confident that this is what will be best for her health. It will be interesting to see how/if her personality changes after being fixed this late in life. Because she only has one kitten, she has gone in and out of heat a couple times already; I've learned that one kitten isn't "enough" hormonally speaking for her to not go back into heat right away.

A note about the waitlist/NEW deposits: because I have only one active queen now, I will slow down on taking new deposits. I mentioned in my last post that I am in the process of deciding about a career change, which will likely require my going back to school next year. Lúthien needing to be fixed earlier than I'd anticipated has also changed the trajectory of my plans a bit, and I will have to adjust accordingly. I have considered adding new queens to the mix, but at best, new female kittens would not be mature/have litters of their own for a minimum of 8 months into the future. I do not know where my schooling/career would have me at that point, nor how it would all work together. I have always been as transparent as possible with y'all about what's going on in the cattery and kittens which is why I'm explaining this situation now rather than later.

My priority over the next year will be to focus on supplying kittens to those already on the waitlist, which will be more of a challenge with only one queen. I reached out to these families a while ago detailing this new reality and how it will impact them, and received much support and kind words in return; I have the best kitten adopters ever! Truly :)

I do not feel right about asking for anyone's new non-refundable deposit given these circumstances of not being able to guarantee that I'll have kittens to offer you before I have to take a "pause" for schooling/career change next year. However - I would love to put your names down on a list to contact if openings do come up during the time while Galadriel is still active and then at that point you can send in a deposit for that kitten. Please feel free to fill out an application for this end. I will be updating my website to reflect these changes soon.