Dark Birman Seal point??

[segelkatt]

My 16 year old Birman was much lighter when I adopted her from a shelter when she was 7 months old than she is now. Most of the years she has lived in SoCal with the same temps that I endured, sometimes warm, sometimes hot, sometimes cold (what we call cold in SoCal is 50 and below, lol!) But I also lived in Seattle for 2 years and she actually ran out into the snow only to come right back. I have not seen any seasonal color changes but she is definitely darker now than when she was a baby. Her face mask and ears are almost black and her other points are dark brown. I always thought she was a      sealpoint, now I am more inclined to think that she is chocolate point. Who cares, she's my sweetheart, has never been sick with anything although after using a LitterRobot for 8 years decided she hated a covered litter box and now will do her business on the floor before she will use a covered box, go figure.

 

best pic 2.JPG

• segelkatt
• Apr 2, 2015

best pic.JPG

• segelkatt
• Apr 2, 2015

 

[balibabies]

Segelkatt, your beautiful cat is a seal point for sure!!

 

[segelkatt]

Thank you. She does look purebred and if so she could not be shown as her "spurs"  (the white on her back legs) do not go up on the back of the legs but more on the outsides and are not perfectly even either.

Somebody was bringing her (in a cat carrier) to the shelter, (she was still in the parking lot) saying the cat was hanging around her father's house but he could not take care of her anymore.

I took her and on the way home my daughter said she thought the cat was pregnant. As we were passing my vet's office we stopped there as we had planned anyway to make sure  the cat was not ill or diseased, and he confirmed that she was indeed "very pregnant" , meaning she had about 2 more weeks to go and that she was no more than 7 months old. We decided to abort the kittens (who knows how they would have looked, there are too many kittens and I would have had a hard time finding homes for them all) and to get her spayed at the same time.

When I picked her up the next day she was in great spirits, the vet said she had 6 kittens which is too many for such a small and young cat and that I might well have saved her life by having the procedure done then. On the way home my daughter said I had saved the cat's life twice. On my puzzled look she said that "kill" shelters will not keep a pregnant cat, that they will "put them down" as soon as the cat's condition is discovered, they only keep mama cats that already had  their kittens until the kittens are weaned.

So yes, I saved her life twice and I hope she will be with me a lot longer, she has seven more lives to go. 

 

[segelkatt]

I have just adopted another look-alike from a no-kill shelter. This one is 10 years old and had several monikers attached to it. Siamese, Ragdoll, Snowshoe, Hymalayan. I took one look at her and it was obvious she was a Birman or Birman mix. The shelter people had never heard of Birmans, only of Burmese. Those white feet are a dead give-away. Her nose is a little long and the white on her front feet is not cut straight off but goes sort of between her toes. The white on the back legs is there but not in the classic spurs. Otherwise, her coloring is a light seal point. She is hiding a lot so it is difficult to get a good picture of her and she is also overweight. She will now be put on a strict eating schedule until she has reached her proper weight, she needs to loose about 5 lbs which is a lot.

The shelter let the cats in and out of their cages to the play area at will and the food was there left out all day. So some of  the cats were really fat to the point of obese. I'm sure the people who run the shelter mean well but do not have the knowledge they should have. Mostly a bunch of old ladies who love animals although they do have a younger male technician who can give immunization shots etc. No animal is ever put down unless it is sick beyond hope. Some cats and also dogs have been there for years.

Anyway: here are pics of the new addition:

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• segelkatt
• Jun 17, 2015

  sorry about the yellow pupils, but it sows the blue eyes

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• segelkatt
• Jun 17, 2015

  all four white feet are showing here

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• segelkatt
• Jun 17, 2015

 the brown on the feet is not cut off straight

Since the resident cat is called Capucchino, an Italian coffee drink with milk, this one now has the new name of Morocchino, which is also an Italian coffee drink with milk but it has cocoa in it.  

 

[segelkatt]

Unfortunately Marocchino only lived for a few months with me before she passed away from liver failure. The vet also thought that she was quite a bit older than the shelter people had said.

Capucchino is also winding down. She has lost weight and her fur is getting thinner and shorter. She sleeps a lot and wants to be with me all the time, sitting on me and talking more. She is hogging the canned food, keeping even the largest cat ( a newly adopted red Maine Coon who weighs 13 lbs) away until she has had her fill. I will not make unusual efforts to keep her with me, she has had a good life and she'll let me know when it's time to go. So far she still gets around well, jumping up and down to wherever she wants, apart from her appearance she is still the same. But I am preparing myself for her eventual loss. Who knows, she may live another few years.

 

[StefanZ]

 
Unfortunately Marocchino only lived for a few months with me before she passed away from liver failure. The vet also thought that she was quite a bit older than the shelter people had said.

Capucchino is also winding down. She has lost weight and her fur is getting thinner and shorter. She sleeps a lot and wants to be with me all the time, sitting on me and talking more. She is hogging the canned food, keeping even the largest cat ( a newly adopted red Maine Coon who weighs 13 lbs) away until she has had her fill. I will not make unusual efforts to keep her with me, she has had a good life and she'll let me know when it's time to go. So far she still gets around well, jumping up and down to wherever she wants, apart from her appearance she is still the same. But I am preparing myself for her eventual loss. Who knows, she may live another few years.

A sad update.  But its the way we all must go, sooner or later.  Here at least they did have / had a good life with you.   And this counts.  Here in our unruly, difficult world.  Every oasis of peace, of mutual happiness, of love given and received,  of the goodness -  its this which sustains life.  In the desert and in this world of ours.

 

[segelkatt]

 
A sad update.  But its the way we all must go, sooner or later.  Here at least they did have / had a good life with you.   And this counts.  Here in our unruly, difficult world.  Every oasis of peace, of mutual happiness, of love given and received,  of the goodness -  its this which sustains life.  In the desert and in this world of ours.

Thank you, @StefanZ.