Tama's Birthday Sunday!

#1 here. Today is a very special day at Poupounette Central as our reigning Queen, Tama-Chan, celebrates her 7th birthday! Perhaps some of our newer friends are not familiar with how she came to be one of us. When this blog started, it was written by Tommy and Sen-Chan, both of whom were very young at the time. Then, one day, I got this photo from Sen-Chan's breeder:

I was totally transfixed. On closer enquiry, I found out that she was one of a litter of five sisters. She was drop-dead gorgeous but she had a problem which made her unsellable: she had only three toes on her right front foot and a couple of atrophied toes on her left front foot. Would I be willing to take her on condition he could breed her once? I said yes immediately and she moved in. She was a pretty scaredy-cat initially, but Sen-Chan and Tommy were both so sweet to her and she settled in very nicely.

She was devastated when Sen-Chan ran off to the Bridge but Tommy took over her care and, a few months later, Sei-Chan joined the household and the two became good friends:

 

 

In the autumn of the following year, she was bred to a handsome Aby boy and on December 4th, 2009, she produced four healthy kittens, three boys and one girl, by Caesarian section:

 

You all know that one of those kittens was Da Beebs!

And this was Tama just after the kits were weaned!

 

Ever since that time, there has never been any doubt that Tama-Chan is Queen of the Poupounette Gang. She rules her kingdom with a velvet paw, and is in fact the sweetest, easiest, least-demanding of the Chans!

Here she is at three:

 

At four:

 

At five:

 

At six:

 

 And here is the official seventh birthday portrait!

 

As an added bonus, here is one of Tama-Chan hanging out with her son, Da Beebs, yesterday:

 

Da Beebs, Sei-Chan, Genji, Tommy, Vidock and Violette join me in wishing our sweet Queen, Tama-Chan, a Very Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns!

In celebration of Tama-Chan's birthday, we would like to have a draw for the catalogue of my photo exhibition, "The Travelling Percherons." I know that not everyone is into horses, so please say so if you woudl like to be included.