On Saturday, my mother and I went to see her colleague with the cats. For one thing, they are after all not Chartreux cats, but rather British Shorthairs (info and info) which come in a variety of colors. The blue ones, British Blues, are commonly called "Chartreux" because of the color, but, while there used to be a bit of crossbreeding between the two breeds, they are registered separately with the FIFe and are therefore not Chartreux cats. Whatever.

Which makes more sense anyway since my future cat's siblings and foster siblings are all either lilac or chocolate (their mothers are blue resp. lilac with a chocolate mask, their fathers chocolate resp. blue). My little one is the only blue kitten in both litters.

Anyway, since the kittens will be entered into the breeding book soon, I had to come up with a name beginning with an "E" and chose Elena.

Since I already had a vast number of people cooing over the kittens' collective cuteness, here are the pictures:

	They are big enough to be petted on someone's lap without their mothers getting anxious. Still, Elena and her siblings are not much more than perhaps two handfuls. And big eyes, of course.
	They don't always look up when the camera flashes and are not in any way afraid of it, but look! The eyes are still blue, and they look so startled.
	After a few minutes of playing, petting and carrying them around, they are exhausted. Most of them (with Elena in the middle) fall asleep in a pile. Even little Eros, the hyperactive mischief among them, is asleep on the left.