Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Sex Fairy Visits . . .

So, we had a visit from the Sex Fairy last night.  No, it's not what you're thinking, lol! Get your mind out of the gutter!!!  Birman breeders all know that there are several small but powerful beings, who are in charge of things like, color, markings and gender in our kittens.  And last night the Sex Fairy deigned to visit BumbleBe Birmans.

A little background may be necessary:  Birmans are pointed cats, similar to the Siamese or Himilayan in their coloring (meaning they only have color on the points, or face, ears, legs and tail, versus being colored over the whole body), but they are neither long and skinny like the Siamese, or short and smushy-faced like the Himi.  In fact, according to most of us Birman folks, they are the PERFECT happy compromise between both extremes.  The Color Fairy is in charge (regardless of what genetics says SHOULD happen) of what color kittens you get.

Birmans are also known for their pretty little white feet, called gloves on the front, and laces on the back of their feet.  The Markings Fairy is in charge here - she determines whether you get pretty little show marked kittens, or if you get 'runners' (blazes of white color extending up the paw past the ideal point), or other little quirks like white chins and nose blazes, all of which are no-no's for showing Birmans.  Of course, these little color faults have no effect on how wonderful Birmans are as pets!!!

The Sex Fairy is in charge of whether you get girl kittens or boy kittens . . . and boy, has she been hard on me the last couple of years.  I mean, randomly, in any given litter or time period, you should statistically get fifty percent male and fifty percent female, right?  Well, I'm here to tell you, the Sex Fairy eats statistics for brunch, and laughs while doing it! 

Song (BumbleBe If Songs Could Be Held) and Dreamy (TGC BumbleBe Impossible Dream) had four kittens two weeks ago, on the 5th, three little boys, and one little girl.  I figured out pretty quickly that all three of the boys were either red or cream, since all are still white as the driven snow.  But I was having the hardest time figuring out what color the little girl is . . . I was guessing a lilac tortie (although that would have been a REAL long shot, genetics wise), but she almost HAD to be, since she was still snowy white, too.  I was just glad to have ONE girl out of the bunch.  (For the last two years, I've had a HUGE majority of male kittens, so girls are a happy outcome for me.)

Then last Friday, Maggie had her two kittens, both - you guessed it - male.  Sigh.  Oh, well, at least everyone is healthy!

Well, the Song's kittens are two weeks old, and starting to show little pink ears . . . and I took another really close look today . . . and lo and behold!  The Sex Fairy has visited . . . and my one lonely little girl kitten is now a boy.  Yep, four little red/cream boys.  But all healthy, so still blessed to have them.  Man, when do you think she's going to decide it's my turn for girl babies?!?!?   So far this year, we're now running a total of 14 boys, and 6 girls.    At some point, the Sex Fairy has to decide she likes me again!  I hope.





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