Chocolatedot Tonkinese
Retired Girls
As time progresses, our family changes due to the nature of breeding. New lines need to be brought in, and other cats retire, pass away or move house. This page is a reminder of the cats we have known and loved here at Chocolatedot, but are no longer in the breeding programme for one reason or another. We have fond memories of every cat who has stayed with us, even if it worked out for only a short time, so although this page is short, and only a fleeting mention of them all, we hold so much more in our hearts and minds.
Chocolatedot Inferno (Feeble)
Feeble is our eldest breeding queen. Born in June 2012 she will be 10 this year. Feeble was born here, and is daughter to our first Tonkinese queen Aero, who is an F1, making Feeble an F2. She is a brown mink, and is a typical Tonkinese! she is very loving, intelligent, playful and makes a wonderful mother. When she is pregnant, the first sign I can tell is not the usual body changes, but the fact that she will sleep on my head! she never does this when she is not pregnant and has done it with all 7 of her pregnancies. Feeble is half sister to our beloved Whispa, who we lost feb 2016.
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When I was choosing a mating for her mother, I particularly wanted to use the lines of Whispa's father, Shadow, as he was very well known to have a wonderful temperament and good health, he was still able to work as a stud at over 10 years old and was still enjoying the work. I was very lucky that he was still working by the time I got round to breeding Tonks! Thus, Feeble had been chosen to have a further litter then I usually allow, specifically in the hope that we had a little boy we can keep as a pet, just as Whispa was, using shared lines. I know we can never replace any of our departed cats, but I feel I must have this link with our new boy if at all possible. Thankfully, our baby Dexter was a perfect fit!
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This Photo is a particularity sentimental photo for me, it was taken at night on my old old Nokia phone as I was being pinned in bed by all the cats! it shows Whispa with Feeble, half brother and sister, and just peeking out the back is Feeble's Mum Aero. It is still my phone wallpaper 8 years later!
Chocolatedot Mistycopeland (Misty)
Misty Is a Lilac solid pattern. She was born here in May 2015 and is the daughter of Feeble. Misty is a terror... Tonks are naughty and cheeky but never nasty with it. Misty has so much energy she doesn't know what to do with it. She gets bored very easily and also back chats you when you tell her off! she is a complete attention seeker.
Initially I was in 2 minds what to do with Misty, When she was was born I intended to keep one of her litter so I could retire Feeble and keep my line going. I was so pleased when a lilac arrived, up until then we had 99% browns of all the patterns so I was very pleased to have something different to breed from.
Nothing unusual about her was showing as a youngster, but once her litter brothers and sisters left, and she had no one to play with she started being very attention seeking and if we didn't play with her enough she would rip the wallpaper off so we would pay attention to her. I really was unsure of if it would be right to mate her, I was worried she wouldn't have the mental capacity to cope, still being in the mindset of a very naughty kitten and I was also worried she would teach her babies bad habits.
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I went to see a wise woman to ask her advice, she suggested that Misty needed something to occupy herself, and that being a mum would not leave room for boredom and the attention seeking would stop. So on that advice, I was going to allow her one litter and then neuter her and re home her with one of her kittens so she would be guaranteed a playmate. . ... yeh.. our plans are often not matching our cats plans! So although she no longer rips off the wallpaper, and has calmed down a bit, she still has her mad moments.
Millie
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On the 2nd April 2005 Merrydancer Jody’s waltz was born, her mother is Padi, Merrydancer Padjuska and father Archie. Millie is a beautiful, well marked Ocicat. She is a chocolate silver Ocicat just like her dad. She has the typical personality of an Ocicat and is exceptionally playful and loving.
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Millie has been neutered, and is retired from breeding but stayed with us as a pet cat. She has given us three lovely litters. from 3 different studs. Since being neutered, Millie has reverted back to her loving self she was as a kitten. After she gave birth to her first litter, she had become more independent, and less of a lap cat but we where very happy and surprised to see that she is now very loving again, and likes to be cuddled and to sleep on the bed next to us once again. She does not get on with the Tonkinese very well, I think they speak a different language, or maybe Millie just wants a quiet retirement and the Tonks sometimes get in her face a bit much so she does have a hiss now and then, but luckily the Tonks are trained and I just have to firmly tell them to leave her and they back off. We lost Millie early 2019, she died at home where I was spared from having to make that sad choice a third time in a short amount of time.
KitKat
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Merrydancer Marie’s Wedding, Black silver girl, born on the 21st of Feb 2006. Kit is still here with us. After her C section in her last litter in 2009, we have decided that Kit will be neutered once recovered, she didn't have a wholly easy time with her second litter being born, the first kitten getting stuck, and having to go to the vet the second time made our minds up, our vet advised us that one of three things could happen if we mated her again, she could be 100% fine and have a normal home birth, she would need another c section because of the weakness in her womb having been cut once, or possibly she could rupture herself and we could possibly loose her and any kittens. Faced with these choices, we did not want to put Kit at risk.
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Kitkat was our second breeding queen. Once again fate was smiling down on us, Kit was already booked to another couple and I was gutted when Millie had a genetic problem in her first litter. We where in line for a new kitten from Christine but when that litter was born there where no girls for us then either. Then fate stepped in and Kit's couple couldn’t take her anymore and we snapped her up! This is the second time this has happened to us, we had Whispa in the same way. Its funny how things turn out sometimes and we are very happy to have her here. Kit is growing up very fast, it seems only yesterday she was a cute kitten who had just arrived, she may have grown a little in height, but I doubt she will ever "grow up" she still retains the extreme playfulness and madness of a 3 month old kitten.
In June 2016 Kit had another big operation, in mid 2010 we noticed a little growth starting under her front leg, fearing the worse and knowing that cats have difficulties leading long lives after a cancer tumour removal we decided to just wait and watch it, and that if it was seen to be interfering with either her health or happiness, we would then decide to make the hard decision to put her to sleep. we watched, we waited, Kit never showed any signs of slowing down, or pain, or any problems at all really, we waited and waited, waited for her to go downhill, to stop playing and look ill and all this time the growth was, well, growing. 6 years later, she started to bleed from the growth, when she groomed herself the skin had gone so thin and it was so large she was tearing it and the growth had 1 large vein that kept bleeding so we knew it was time. I was so upset and I guess in a strange way cross, she was still not showing any signs that the cancer was slowing her down, and it didn't feel right to kill a cat who apart from the bleeding growth was completely healthy.
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We took her to our vet, explained the situation, and I steeled myself to have to go through comforting her as she was being put to sleep, having done the same for Whispa only 3 months earlier. Our vet cheerfully informed me that if it was cancer she would have been dead years ago! it was probably a benine cyst so he said he could operate, he wouldn't know exactly how bad it was until he got in there but that it felt like it would be simple, it didn't feel connected to any organs or ligaments and would be straight forward So that is what we did. The growth was 3 inches diameter and 3 deep. I felt guilty not removing it earlier as removing it wouldn't have killed her as i thought it would but the vet said he wouldn't have done it anyway as it was not effecting her life any earlier.
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After her op, Kit started to develop many smaller growths to the point where her entire underneath from front to back legs where covered in them. Too many to count but there must have been at least 20 which came quickly after her op and grew very quickly, about a year after her op she started to loose weight and stopped eating. we knew there was no way we could remove all the new growths and if we did they would probably re grow so we made the very sad choice to have her put down, she had also started to act differently, becoming aggressive and turning on Millie who had lived with her all her life and also loosing control of her bladder daily so maybe her brain was effected also.
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Our Ocicat stud boy, Sunstone Watusi. Watusi is Lilac and carries cinnamon. He was born on the 20th March 2003.
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Watusi has gone to live with a breeder in Croatia, Dorotea, we are ever grateful to her for giving him the best care in the world.
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Watusi was with us just over a year, he fathered 3 litters from our girls resulting in 11 healthy kittens. We are so proud and privileged to have been allowed to have had this boy here, It was after a very long search for just the right cat that we found him. We where desperate for new bloodlines to come to England and after a lot of thought we decided we would have to import to further the breed. Sadly, as many people find, getting a stud cat is not just a case of keeping a boy cat separate from your girls and putting them together when you want kittens. There is MUCH more to it then that and we where not as prepared as we should have been.
Initially, the dynamics worked, Watusi was happy, and lived inside our home with us as a part of the family. he arrived as a fully grown proven stud, so this was not an easy thing to do. Whilst we had 3 girls to keep him happy it was all fine. the plan was to have him at restricted stud so he had enough work to continue to be happy, but as time went on he just was not getting the chance. We lent him to another breeder in Croatia on a long term agreement to help out the pool in Europe, he was very happy here with his new family, the children loved him so much it was decided he should stay to prevent the all-round stress of him being separated from the children.
Other cats who have shared our lives for a shorter time but needed to be rehomed for various reasons.
Aero & Squirrel
I couldn't possibly put these two girls in to separate paragraphs. These are our first Tonk breeding queens, they were part of a new scheme to broaden the Gene pool and are F1 tonks, coming from a Siamese queen and a Burmese stud. Aero is Feeble's mother and these sisters have never been seperated a day in their lives, even going to stud together. When Aero had her kittens, she became very protective and she would bully our other cats, working in a tandem team with Squirrel to trap the other cat and then attack it so we decided it was best for them to be neutered and re homed together as only cats in their new house so they couldn't bully anyone else!
Jenkka
Jenkka was the litter sister of Oreo, and was also black silver in colour, we loved her as soon as we saw her at Christine's house when we went to see Oreo but she had already decided to keep her as a breeding queen herself. After Jen had a litter, she turned against the other cats living with her so Christine offered her to us as our 3rd Ocicat breeding queen hoping the change of home would solve the problem. Jenkka never really settled here and we ended up giving her her own room she could live in where she wouldn't be annoyed by the other cats, after one litter we realised the situation wouldn't change and for her own happiness neutered and re homed her to an only cat household. we kept her Daughter, Humbug.
Humbug
Humbug is daughter of Jenkka, and also a black silver. Bug had one litter here with us, which turned out to be our last Ocicat litter. at the time there was some nasty politics going on within the Ocicat world and I was determined to give up breeding and get out of it all as the stress was upsetting me too much. After her litter left and I had decided to give up, I offered her to another breeder who was the owner of the father of Humbugs kittens who fell in love with Bug when she went to stud. Bug went on to have many successful litters in her new home, and I believe she is one of only 3 of my home bred cats to have actually made any impact at all on Ocicat pedigrees! The other 2 having gone to Scandinavia to broaden their gene pool.
