DEVON REX AND SPHYNX CATS

Otherwise known as Beag - small in Gaelic - which is what she was at birth.  Beag was born four days early, the only kitten, surviving two bouts of labour as her mother passed the unviable babies she had conceived.  Beag had a traumatic birth with her mother running around the house shouting at the top of her considerable voice to 'get this out of me' in impecable Italian of course. 

I was travelling home from a hard night shift when I received a call from Eoghan - hands free of course - to say that Leyla had two feet stuck out of her - what should he do.  As Eoghan had never seen a kitten being born I was concerned, but as I arrived home he greeted me with a small pink and white scrap, barely breathing, laying in the palm of his hand. 

Years of breeding cats soon kicks in under these circumstances and Eoghan was dispatched to warm some water and make the milk, I rubbed the kitten in a roughwarmed towel, noting with concern the bruised condition of the kitten's back legs, due, no doubt, to the inordinate length of time the baby had taken to be born.  However, the resulting noise from the kitten soon interested Leyla, who had disappeared upstairs as soon as she deposited the kitten on the slate floor in the kitchen.  She watched with interest as I applied a few drops of Nutri-drop onto the tongue of the kitten, closely followed by a tube and 0.5ml of milk.  The resulting cacophany of noise obviously wakened her maternal instinct as Leyla then took over her nursing duties and never left the kitten for more than a few minutes to attend to food and toilet needs.

Beag was initially a girl, then for 3 weeks a boy, then I finally decided that yes, she is a girl.  A much wanted and prayed for girl as she combines her mother's Italian breeding (from the famous Degli Elfi Devons from Trieste in Italy) with her father's American breeding.  Her full pedigree is available to view here  Although I had not intended keeping a kitten from this first mating unless she was seriously gorgeous, the difficulties Leyla had experienced during this pregnancy convinced me that keeping this little girl was the wisest course if I did not want to lose this unique combination of genes.  So Beag stayed much to my husbands delight and the dismay of my Wolfies who are often used as a spring board by Beag when she is clowning around with her mum and Aunt Izzie.

Beag aged 4 weeks, little did we know that little angel was going to turn into a typical Devon kitten - in other words a mad thing on four legs.

the daugher of Leyla and PC, an American imported boy.  She has a

unique pedigree in the United Kingdom, combining European and American lines.  Like her mum, she does not enjoy showing, prefering the comforts of home.  She made Champion in 4 shows despite this as her type is so very good.  At the Supreme, the CC was withheld as she was so naughty - but class told and she made Champion at her next show.  

Well - when Beag does something she does it good and proper.  She won her first Challange Certificate and Best of Breed at this show and was placed in her side classes.

And Beag does it again.  She was awarded first Open Class,  Challenge Certificate and Best of Breed.  She also won all three miscellaneous classes

Sadly, a third CC was not to be at this show.  The type of judging does not suit my tempermental Beag and although she was awarded first prize, the CC was withheld - see show page for the critique....

And Beag does it again.  She was awarded first Open Class,  Challenge Certificate and Best of Breed.  She is now a GCCF Champion..

Beag went off to stud with Grand Champion Chichi Beethoven, came back home and 19 days later started to call again.  So - off she went again to visit Bambam and promptly went off call.  Sue agreed to keep her until she allowed Bambam to mate her.  This she did - eventually - and came back home again.  Four 4 hour journeys to Sue's home and eventually Beag conceived.  I booked a week off work in preparation for the birth, but nature doesn't always agree with forward planning. 

I saw Beag fall about 2-3 weeks before her due date and kept an eye on her for a few day to ensure she had not hurt herself.  Nothing was apparent, the kittens continued to be very active and everything seemed to be okay.  However, exactly one week before her due date, and whilst I was at work, Beag went into labour.  As I'm a critical care nurse I couldn't leave work, and so Eoghan, my husband had to deal with everything.  This was his second experience of a kitten birth, his first being when Beag was born 4 days prematurely 

By the time I managed to get home,  3 kittens had been born dead and one tiny baby that Eoghan had managed to get breathing and was still alive,  He weighed only 50grammes and I was very doubtful that we could keep him going.  However, thanks to being able to tube feed him, with stimulation from his half siblings and feeding from both his mum and grandma, George is still with us and now at 4 weeks weighs in at a mights 320 grammes.  He is late in his development, but is really in line with his projected birth date.  

Beag and George

We believe the reason Beag went into premature labour was that when she fell she damaged one of the kittens.  One of the dead babies was macerated and almost unrecogniseable.  She had a course of anti biotics - just incase there was any infection - but has been fit, healthy and loving since the birth of George.  He is called George because he was born on St. George s' Day.

As a long time breeder of Devon Rex, I am only too aware of the difficulties of establishing the colours a cat may be carrying and the resultant anomolies.  Therefore, I DNA test all my cats and Beags' results are as follows:-