C-c-calendar Cat Contest!

Noah says---"hurry and leave a comment! even if you have to dip into your nap time!"

August 5th, 2010 will mark the first birthday of the Kittens...who are fast becoming Cats. In honor of the day that instituted my gradual and unknowing slide into 'crazy cat lady' status, there will be a giveaway on the blog.

The 'rules' such as they are as follows:

You must comment to be eligible to win. Your name will be entered in the drawing only one time (but if you want to comment more than once, you certainly can!). The prize winner's name will be randomly drawn from all entrants. You can enter until midnight August 4th. Contest is open to USA citizens only, unless you live in another country and want to help with postage costs (if they are extremely high), then you are welcome to enter as well.

Please gear the subject of your comments to the following: Ways you have helped an individual animal in need; ways you help an organization; favorite animal adoption, rescue/success story; etc--I'm sure you all will have some good stuff to share. I would love to hear about how you help our little furry friends--inspire us and share what you do, or have done in the past. The need is great, and I'd like for this post to encourage us all to find avenues to help out!

The prize will be a 12 Month 2011 custom calendar from Shutterfly. The subject of the calendar will be (I'm sure you've guessed it) the little six pack of kittens, with some of my favorite pictures taken of them over the past year. This will be nice professionally put together calendar. If you enjoy cats, I think you'll enjoy this calendar.

Winner will be announced either on August 5th or as soon after as I can get it done.

Looking forward to reading your comments! Let the contest begin....

Clockwise from the top: Meshach, Noah, Chaco, Gabe & Verity in the middle--definitely need a bigger bed....

Contest Winner!

First off, thanks so much to everyone that participated! There were three people who guessed the gender of the kittens exactly. In fact the first person to comment with the answers was the winner....drum roll please....


...congratulations to Vicki for correctly guessing the kittens gender and for being the first 'out of the gate' as it were. I have to ask if it was a lucky guess, or if you picked up hints, or if you could just tell by looking at their sweet faces?

Vicki if you will let me know which kitten you want as your prize, I will get it shipped to you in a few weeks. Okay, okay....which book you want....

The second person to correctly guess, was Tammy at Wrensong. Once Vicki decides which book she wants, I'll let Tammy know what is left and see if she wants a runner up prize.

Thanks again for participating! I enjoyed all your answers. Sage was insulted about some of the weight guesses though. Michelle and Allena came closest to his actual weight of 14 lbs. Phylliso & Tammy are his furever friends with their guesses of 12 lbs.

Coming soon...a day of Celtic Clannish-ness...

Contest! Books for Prizes!

Object: Guess the gender of the six kittens born here August 6th. There are hints in previous blog posts, or if you don't want to take the time to look back, just give it a guess. Interesting thing about cats--colors are sex-linked depending on who the the sire/dam are and their color. I knew that a couple of colors in cats are almost always one gender, but didn't realize the rest of the story. Google it if you are interested. I found it quite fascinating. If only Shetland sheep colors were that predictable....

Hints: 1) The daddy to the kittens was most likely...black. And you know that Butterfly (the mom) is a black/yellow/white calico.... 2) There are three boys and three girls.

Rules: Contest will end next Friday, September 11th at noon. Winners will most likely not be announced until Monday, September 14th. Enter only once, please. I can only ship to the USA, but if you want to enter anyway and you are in another country, please feel free to, just for the fun of it! Winner gets first choice of a kitten...or okay, one of the three books listed below.

What I need to Know: Gender of each kitten listed below. To make it easier I've numbered them. List number and sex of kitten in your entry. First person that lists them correctly wins. However, if no one gets them 'exactly' right, I've thrown in a bonus question. How much does Sage weigh? Hint--he is a big kitty, and stands 13 " at his shoulders and is 34" long (including his tail) more or less. He wasn't real happy about being rousted from his nap for measurements. So the person that first gets all the genders correctly wins. However if there are two or more that do not get all the answers correct, but have an equal amount correct, then the Sage weight guess will break the tie.

Here are the kittens:

#1 -- Orange Tabby

#2 --Black/Orange/White Calico

#3 -- Solid Black

#4 -- Black/Yellow Tortoiseshell

#5 -- Yellow/White Tabby

#6 -- Solid Black

Group Shot: L-R #3, 5, 1, 6, 4 & 2

And here are the prizes: (I know...no books about cats!)

Coop
Practically brand new--only read once. Click on the title for more information.

Cesar's Way
Very good condition. Click on the title for more information.

The Joys of Beekeeping
Gently worn..ex-library book. Click on the title for more information.

Oh yeah...and about that tie-breaker......Sage himself. (I can't help it if he looks like a dork....wait a minute..he is a dork...)

Sage says..."Think long, and hard before you make your guesses...especially about my weight"...... I say--I hope lots of folks enter and please enjoy yourself!

Name the Time Contest!

Okay, so here it is. Name the Ewe and the Time of delivery for the first lamb born here at Fairlight Farm in 2008. Whomever gets the right ewe with the closest time wins. This means if you guess the correct time, but not the correct ewe, you don't win. Unless no one else even comes close..... ;-)

The prize: "Three Bags Full" A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann. This is a gently used hardback copy of this book.

The Ewes Clues:

Hope is a merino/dorset cross and is due on March 10th. This will be her first lambing.

Blackberry Winter is a Shetland and is due on March 11th. This will be her third lambing.

Duckie is a Shetland and she has never lambed before. She is a wild card and possibly will lamb during this time frame... possibly.

Willow is a Shetland and it is a very remote possibility she could lamb during this time, but doubtful. She is usually one of the last to lamb. This will be her sixth lambing.

I feed the girls their grain in the morning (for those who believe this makes a difference in lambing times).

The ram was put in October 11th.

Now these are approximate dates, but the first two should lamb near these dates. The last two are simply guesses. Even though ewes usually lamb near their due dates, those that shepherd know this is not always the case, so good luck!

Whomever gets the first, closest guess will win. I will then ship the book to you (anywhere in the Continental USA only). You can guess as many times as you want, but again, the first correct guess wins. In case of a tie, or two answers that aren't correct, but closest I will draw one of the two names and that will be the winner.

If you don't know beans about sheep but still want to play, go ahead and give it a try---you might just be the winner. And the book will be a good read for anyone that likes a mystery.

Any questions??

Excerpt from Book

Here is an excerpt from the book, Three Bags Full, that will be the prize in the upcoming contest.

Background: The sheep's shepherd is dead and the sheep are confused and uncertain, and wishing for their routine.

"Sir Ritchfield (the head ram) decided to count the sheep. It was a tedious process. Sir Ritchfield could count only up to ten, and not always that, so the sheep had to stand in small groups. There were arguments, because some sheep would claim they hadn't been counted yet, while Ritchfield said, yes, he had counted them already. All the sheep were afraid of being missed out of the count, because then they might disappear. Some of them tried to steal into other groups on the sly so as to be counted twice. Ritchfield bleated and snorted and finally came to the conclusion that there were thirty-four sheep in the meadow in all.

They looked at one another at a loss. Only now did they realize that they had no idea how many sheep there really ought to be in the meadow. The figure so laboriously worked out was completely useless to them.

It was a great disappointment. They'd hoped they would feel safer after the count. George (their shepherd) had always been so pleased when he had finished counting them. "Excellent," he used to say, although sometimes he just said, "Aha." In that case he would march off, either to the cliff tops to throw dried droppings at Zora (a sheep who would climb the cliffs and not come back in for George), or to the vegetable garden to find a bold lamb pushing its neck through the coarse-meshed wire netting and putting its tongue out.

After counting the sheep George always knew what to do. The sheep did not."

To clarify I put explanations of the names in parentheses. For all shepherds who automatically count your sheep many times a day---this quote is for you! ;-)