As pleased as I am of the achievements of the Mockingbird kitties in the show ring, I am even more proud of their quality of life at home. The Mockingbird babies lead a "lap-cat" lifestyle, enjoy the run of the house and receive enormous amounts of personal attention and love.

Mockingbird kittens are raised underfoot. The girls have the run of my home. The boys have their own separate rooms with supervised access to the rest of the house.

I live in a rancher designed in the Frank Lloyd Wright style... no stairs, open concept. The back walls of my home are floor to ceiling glass that look out on the garden. The cats spend their days watching birds and butterflies out the windows, sleeping in the sunshine streaming in through the skylight, or holding cat races from the family room to the kitchen to the living room and back again.

I live just a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean, so the climate is temperate, allowing for lots of open windows and patio doors and fresh air.

Mockingbird kittens are born in a playpen with a custom designed top. An expectant mother is placed in the playpen a week before her due date so that she begins to think of this special place as "hers". The playpen is on wheels so I can have it by my side in my bedroom or typing at the computer, or working in the kitchen. The babies spend the first few weeks of life in their "baby" hand-me-down :-)

As the babies outgrow the playpen, they graduate to the kitten room - a large bedroom filled with toys and cat trees and beds where they remain separate from the rest of the cats until they are old enough for their first vaccinations. Once vaccinated, the spend their days exploring the house and learning kitten manners. Their nights they spend in their bedroom (to avoid getting into trouble).

With lots of personal attention and playtime, Mockingbird kittens grow up loving people and having outgoing personalities that make for wonderful companions.

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