Update - New Companies on WE RECOMMEND

I have recently added two very exciting companies producing superb handcrafted products.  Both are personalised unique quality gifts to your best friends and family 4 legged and 2.  

Firstly Kritter Kradles fantastic pet furniture with personalised finishing options, and secondly Tara Epps Fine Art, captures any subject to the finest detail.  Working from high quality picture, a forever lasting moment captured in the most amazing hand drawn portraits.

So go to our We Recommend page, and start planning your Christmas and Birthday gifts in advance for everyone, a while you're there stock up on some essentials too. 

Update - Cat University

You can never know enough about cats, right?  Well there's just the place to convert your existing knowledge and expand on it, obtaining genuine qualifications at the TICA University.  So if you want to learn more about cats, (behaviour, husbandary, genetics or something else) visit and enroll.

No, I'm not a Pixiebob, but I am a Freshman!

Fun Stuff - What's in a Name?

Totallycoastal uses nautical or coastal theme/connections as names, for most our homebred kittens. There are a few exceptions of course, like Annie O and Big Mac Supersize Me.  Every exception has a story behind it.  So can you guess why Totallycoastal Supersize Me and Totallycoastal Annie O were given their names?  If you follow us regularly, you'll find this an easy question to answer.

Its very important to us that the name fits the face, or rather the kitten.  I was just wondering if you had a chance to name a litter...what would you choose?  The same as me?  Or something completely different.

The reason I'm asking this is, often when our kittens go to their homes, the owners choose to change their nickname.  Plus I have had names that suited the kitten that no longer fit as an adult or they grow out and then back into their name again.

Please leave your comments via facebook, or indeed directly here on Blogger.  Look forward to hearing from you all.

Annoucement - Totallycoastal Prizes!

To give a bit of incentive to enter our competitions, we are offering a priceless item.  OK so it's just a mug, but it's a TOTALLYCOASTAL CATS mug, so that makes all the difference, right?

We have no competitions running right now, but from here in all competition winners will get one.  They will be sent directly from the supplier to you.  We can only offer mugs to UK entrants for free I'm afraid, unless you wish to cover cost of P&P yourselves. 

Alternatively if you'd like to buy a TOTALLYCOASTAL CATS mug, then then please contact us with your details and we can get an overall price for you from our suppliers.

Fun Stuff - Kitten Naming Time for Nebraska Babies.



Nebraska X Ed Litter due August

The fun continues... Our Second Summer litter is Ed's.  It will be his only litter this year, and we wanted to ensure it was the very best of our girls he was paired to.  We also will be retiring our very best girl this year and this will be her Grand Finale.  We hope this last crack of the whip, will ensure that her fantastic look continues here at Totallycoastal for years to come. 

Yes, Nebraska is having her second litter of the year, which breaks our normal policy of only breeding a queen once per year.  She handles pregnancy and nursing extremely and it being her last, with all things considered, we thought this exception to the rule was justifiable.  As usual Nebraska is happy as Larry, and she is in her best condition when she is carrying babies.  We will be spaying her as soon as the kittens are weaned, and she will be spending her retirement years here with us.  So Nebraska x Ed will bring to us Straight-footed, Shorthair kittens with absolutely super type and gentle quiet personalities.  Both these cats have outstanding faces, and their behaviour mild.  They both love a lot of fuss and give it, but are not so intense as Shanty and Van (their love is overwhelming) it still devotion but in a more controlled manner.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand... Names.  Nebraska's litters tend to be 3-4 maximum, the chances of her having a greater number than 4 is very slim (I'm tempting fate here I know). For these kittens, I want to return to Nautical Phrases.  They are quite fun, and there are plenty to chose from.  Some of these may not be as obvious as others, but they are all of Nautical Origin (according to this book) . 

Rather than asking for suggestions, as I did for Shanty's imminent litter.  I am going to play this one a little different, and provide a list for you to comment on your favourites.  It is not an extensive list, from previous experience you just get 1 or 2 votes each over 30 choices. Less choice means more vote per entry and gives us a chance  seeing bulk votes, and choosing 6 from the 12.  Why are we looking for 6 names?  Well, this give us some contigency for sexes.  We're opting for 2 boys names, 2 girls names and 2 unisex names, to cover all permutations of ALL Boys, ALL Girls and any combination of the 2.  OK, so here are the ones chosen from the the book.  You can have a look at the meanings of them if you so wish and how early they date back to.  For me, they seemed the most interesting ones, most well known and also ones I could associate a nickname to.

Totallycoastal Ship Shape AKA Pip

Totallycoastal Hook LineNSinker AKA Linus

Totallycoastal High N Dry AKA Heidi

Totallycoastal Missed The Boat AKA Missy

Totallycoastal Ebb N Flow AKA Zeb or Flo

Totallycoastal Good Catch AKA Goodwin

Totallycoastal Know The Ropes AKA Noah

Totallycoastal Shake A Leg AKA Alan

Totallycoastal Tide Over AKA Ida

Totallycoastal PushTheBoatOut AKA Theo

Totallycoastal Plain Sailing AKA Sal or Sally

Totallycoastal The Bitter End AKA Terry or Terri

Fun Stuff - Kitten Naming Time for Shanty Babies.

Sea Shanty

I know a lot of Totallycoastal followers love our coastal/nautical names.  We are expecting kittens soon from a homebred girl Totallycoastal Sea Shanty.  The sire is also a homebred boy, the loveable Van (Handale Vantage Point).  Van is very leggy, has a super muzzle, brow and side profile.  Shanty also has a great muzzle and general body conformation, and her coat and tail are perfect.  Both these cats have super temprements, and both have a habit of wanting to be so close to you and love you.. that they lay across the neck (like a fox fur).  Temprements are equally important to us, if not more important than standards.  We are however, quietly confident that Van x Shanty will give us some nice typey kittens all with super lovable traits. You only have to look at them as kittens in these pictures to see that.

Van

We have no idea how many kittens Shanty will have, but on average a first litter is 3-5 babies.  As they are due in August, we are thinking about names for them.  We are looking for 5 names and if we need more (heaven forebid) then I have a back-up name list I can always use. 

For this litter I'd like the theme to be Sea Shanty's or Nautical Theme Songs.  However the only one's I can come up with are "Sailing" by Rod Stewart (which is truely awful), "What Shall We Do With The Druken Sailor" (again truely awful and too long), and "Don't Rock My Boat" by Bob Marley which is I think is a worthy entry (As Van's Grandfather on the sire's line, was in fact called Marley).  Blogger (which is what this Newsblog utilises) gives an opportunity to leave a comment for a post, so I am drafting in your help to leave your ideas here via the comments facility.  If you don't want to use that, you can always email your ideas instead. 

A TICA registered name can not be any longer than 32 characters, including spaces and the Prefix.  Based on this, we have 15 of the 32 characters used already with "Totallycoastal ", and no grammer can be used (So Sailor's would simply be Sailors).  So come on chaps and chapesses, get those thinking caps on.  Also when leaving your answer, can you also leave a shortened similiar sounding nickname too (For example Anchors Aweigh - Anika). 

This is a chance to redeem yourself for the appaulling WHOS THE DADDY competition.  We are not running this as a competition, purely for fun, help and for your name to go down in history.

Fun - Candid Camera shot of Declan!

We had to publish this fun photo of Declan.  Being a kitten is tough work... He fell asleep while grooming his leg, and even 5 minutes later was still sleeping in this pose.  So out came the Camera... Sorry Declan, but you did look funny.

Update - Berry Photoshoot @ 16 weeks

Berry never really stays still for long enough to get pictures of (which is why there is a lack of photo's of her).  I was changing the bedding over, and she decided it would be really good to roll around in the laundry.  So while not the greatest composition, it did mean she'd stay in one place long enough to get some snaps.  I am still trying to get the hang of my new camera so not all these photos are the greatest of quality either.   Howver, one thing for sure is Our Berry is developing into a very gorgeous girl indeed, and will be taking over from her mum Nebraska at Totallycoastal.

Update - Naming Day for Sandy Trio!

Ok, so Sandy's 3 kittens have now opened their eyes... I always wait for eyes to open (as this instantly changes their appearance) before choosing names.

Kitten 1, the chubby longtail, straightfooted girl, is now named Totallycoastal Harbour Lights (aka Lottie).  Kitten 2, the Rumpie Girl also straightfooted, and is now the biggest in the litter is named Totallycoastal Tidal Wave (aka Tilda).  Finally the leggiest, Longtail Quad Poly Girl Totallycoastal Long Stay (aka Stacey).  I will be posting pictures of these three gorgeous girls again over the weekend, so you can put a name to the face! 

This will also give you an opportunity again to think who these girls most look like... Quinn? Ollie? Ed? Van? or Big Mac? and take part in our WHO'S THE DADDY competition for fun only.  There is no obligation to purchase from us!

Fun Stuff - Bobcat Kits and their Surrogate mother!

We're not exactly sure these kits will be fooled with the makeshift bobcat costume.  It looks more like palmtree print bomber jacket with matching zoaves, and a sack or carpet tile mask, and since when did a bobcat wear trainers!!!  I don't think it would fool a Pixie-bob.... maybe it's the thought that counts!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/06/humans-dress-as-bobcat-to-ready-kittens-for-the-wild.php