10/18/2025
Trillian update time!
Ms. Trilly Bean is doing OK. A couple weeks ago I was thinking it was about time for her to go into heat, but instead she had a health emergency and had to be spayed. Fortunately, her surgery went well and she has mostly recovered - I'd say she's at about 95% back to normal Trillian routine. So that's really good.
The bad news is that one of the vets who saw her detected a heart murmur. This is new news. She is 3 and has never had any issues in the past. The thing is, Trill has 100% perfect genes, according to her DNA test, but if she has HCM it is the right age for it to show up.
HCM is fairly common in C**n cats as a breed, although it is still rare. There is a genetic screening for it, but that is just for a specific mutation and unfortunately it doesn't detect all the cats that will get it.
To be clear, I don't know if she has HCM. There are tests you can do for this, but in the short run I just needed to get her through the surgery and that stuff, and we can monitor the heart stuff later if or when it becomes an issue.
Finding out that she may be having issues, though, it made me glad that she didn't have kittens. I was told last year, during the middle of when I had my three litters going, that one of my mentor's cats had HCM. She also tested negative. She had several litters. She was from the same line as Trill. It kind of puts a breeder in a pickle: you do all the testing, and everything you can to be responsible, and then you still end up with the problem. My mentor was really dealing with how to feel about this and how to move forward. I didn't have any clear answers because I don't have any clear answers.
My sense of it is that responsible breeders tend to want to work with others with a good and long-standing reputation. Of course it takes all of us putting in the work to get there. We all have to learn our lessons, but hopefully with some guidance.
Knowing your lines is very important. This is just my take on it, of course, but the thing about the imported eastern European cats is that we don't have a solid family history of the health of those cats. They're beautiful cats, don't get me wrong about it.
..So anyway, let's get back on topic: what does this situation mean for Cushnoc? The immediate thing is that we do not have a litter coming for spring 2026. Sorry, folks.
The longer thing is that I need some more time to think about where the cattery is going. Trillian doesn't get to be my heart cat only because her title is my 'Actual Baby' since she believes she is a people. The first thing we need to address is what is going on with Trill, and if it seems that she is not doing well the choice may be not to even consider getting another queen until the post-Trillian era. I hate to think about that being a thing. The reality is, though, Trill doesn't like other cats that much and that is what was making it so hard to have 3 queens at the time that I did. She was the instigator: she would start a bunch of stuff and then not be able to finish it! It was making our home life unpleasant. I would like her to just be able to do her thing.
That notwithstanding, I need some time to figure out what I am doing aside from cattery stuff. I like doing the kittens, it is very rewarding, but it is also very time consuming. That is why (aside from Trillian being a hater) I decided I don't want to have more than 1 queen for now because I don't want to have to deal with so much cat management.
I (meaning Alex the human) have worked in quite a few startups, and this cat thing has been the only time that I have felt like I have just straight up failed at a business. All told, what I did this past year is broke even for the cats. That doesn't count my labor, or anybody else's labor or effort (or frustration of hearing my crazy kitten stories). When you get into cats, you do it because you love cats and you want to share the joy of cats with others. That's true for me and I feel very happy to have been able to do that. But it wasn't a good investment.
On the positive side, the cats totally sustained themselves. On the negative side, I have been unemployed for most of the year and a lot of my time was just eaten up by kitten related stuff. I enjoy that, but I'm a software developer (normally a job with long hours). This means I don't normally have that much time to just do cats. "Just do cats" being a slogan from my mentor...which, I got joking that this was really meaning "only do cats." Yeah, but I want to also do other things in my life besides cats! So, I'll have to figure out what my new schedule will be like and how much time and space I have toward moar cats.
Until then the cats are more fancy pets than active cattery since Gizmo doesn't have a mate. They are a very cute family though, and they are all pretty happy and having a good fall. :)
