This is quite a sad day for me as this morning, Chives & Tarragon are leaving me to live with Vicky and Charlotte. It was really love to see Vicky again today and also to meet her mother Anne (hope I spelt that right?) and I had a lovely visit with both of them. I do think that I got the worst half of the bargain though as Vicky got to take 2 babies home and I was given, in exchange, a bottle of Amaretto :) As a reminder of the Herbs mother naturally. Rather clever of Vicky to think of that. Then later on this evening, Rosemary is leaving me to go and live with Gemma. The last couple of weeks since Sage & Parsley left have simply flown by and our house is going to be so much quieter without these three. The babies are always "in your face" demanding cuddles, purring like mad, trying to trip us up, being rather naughty and I do not know what we're going to do with out them. Out of these 3 babies, Rosemary is the "tomboy" as she's far more concerned with wrestling with Sheridans and doing what the "boys" do than she is just looking beautiful and sometimes being naughty. Since Sage and Parsley went, she took over their role which she shared with Sheridans who isn't one of the Herbs but is still a baby himself. Chives is one of a kind, she's a typical Oriental Black. An absolutely beauty and rather talkative. She definitely is the most talkative of all the Herbs. She's also extremely mischievous, more so than the other girls but again this is the trait of all Blacks. If ever we are standing near her or walking by her, she will look up at us as we go by and start to talk to us to remind us that she is there and would like to be cuddled. She really is such a fantastic girl and the house will be much quieter without her little chats. As for Tarragon, well anyone that has ever met her will tell you what a cuddly girl she is. A real people person. Tarragon will sit on anyone's laps and if allowed, she would let herself be carried around by a human all day long being cuddled and loved. She is such a pretty girl, more like a Princess really and she does act as if she is so very regal. That's not to say she is a snob because that couldn't be further from the truth, she just loves to sit on your lap and look beautiful. Just like Rosemary, Tarragon has the most amazing Seal Point colouring that is commented on by all our visitors. I know that Chives and Tarragon are going to have a wonderful live with Charlotte & Vicky and they are going to be spoilt rotten and will have each other for company which is really wonderful and I think within 2 hours of being with their new family, they will have forgotten all about their previous life and brothers and sisters. Gemma is also going to be a fantastic mum to Rosemary and very soon, Rosemary will also have some feline company in the form of another kitten of similar age which will be so great for her and will give her someone to play with and curl up with. I'm such a very lucky breeder to have such loving, caring homes for my Herbs and even though it's going to be so terribly hard for me when they leave, I know that all 3 are going to be loved and cherished for the remainder of their lives and that is what makes my breeding so worthwhile.

We now only have 1 Herb left and that is my little Thyme. She will be leaving us in a week's time so our next, and final, diary update for the Herbs will be Friday, May 7, 2005.

It's so hard for me to believe that our babies are now 13 weeks old and the time has gone by far too quickly. The Herbs were a bit upset with me today when I took their playmate, Sheridans, away from them as he had a visit to the vet for his vaccination and when I put him in the carrier and closed the door, both Rosemary and Tarragon were climbing on top of the carrier, talking to him and were either trying to get in with him, or (and this is more likely), trying to let him out. Even though the door has been opened today, none of the Herbs have gone out into the cat run at all as they have spent most of their time upstairs. I'm a bit disappointed with them over this because I specifically mowed the grass in the cat run yesterday afternoon as it was looking like a jungle and none of them have appreciated it at all because they haven't been in there since the grass was mowed. Chives thought she would try something new and decided that today she would explore outside the front door! I had opened the door and was about to pick up the 2 cat carriers for the vets and next thing you know, Chives has come tearing down the stairs, seen the open door and started to walk out with me. Fortunately, by the time she had taken 2 steps I scooped her up and put her back inside.

As they have reached this age, and as I mentioned earlier, the Herb's kitten diary will now stop, however, on each day that our babies leave us, we will add an entry for that day. This diary will be next updated on Sunday, April 22nd, when Rosemary (Cleo) will be leaving me to live with Gemma.