I'm afraid that there are still no photos as I haven't yet had the chance to sort out the camera situation. It's been quite busy today which is why this is such a short entry and why it's taken me so long to get it online. We went to footy yesterday afternoon (and QPR won which was great news) but this meant that I had to spend today trying to catch up on some housework. I also have a future owner of our next litter coming around to visit this afternoon to see Tia Maria so it's really been non stop. I do have some absolutely fantastic news though regarding my darling Chives. Up until today, Chives was still not spoken for which I couldn't quite understand as she is such a pretty girl with a delightful temperament and I had a phone call from Vicky, who will be Tarragon's new owner and am thrilled to bits that Chives will now be sharing her home with her sister Tarragon. We do love it when our babies can go in pairs and this is an ideal situation all around. The Herbs have been absolute angels today. I think they knew how much work their human mummy had to get through and they have been really good and have allowed me to get on with my work, while they ran riot in other parts of the house. I am desperately hoping that by tomorrow, I will have caught up with everything and can get back to my normal diary entries.

Unfortunately there are no photos in today's entry and you can blame the babies for that one! To say I'm annoyed is an understatement actually because it now appears they have done "something" to the flash on my digital camera and now it doesn't work so I am really cranky. Hopefully I'll be able to sort something out in the next day or two though. Apart from being destructive, our little Herbs are doing really well and they stay awake a lot longer now than they used to a few weeks ago which is really lovely because watching them play and run around is so very entertaining. Although, when I noticed that Chives was swinging on the tablecloth, being followed by Tarragon this morning I did kind of wish that the babies would have a rest period. When there are kittens in the house, the only time you can actually get anything done at all is when they are asleep because at this age, they are little terrors, but adorable terrors though. Of an evening now, the Herbs sleep on my office chair instead of their own bed near the radiator and it's really funny when I come downstairs for their last feed at around 10pm, because my first glimpse is of 7 little babies all sitting up on my chair. I am relieved that unlike our previous litters, the Herbs have not tried to destroy my chair at all (what's left of it anyway). Thyme can now make it up the stairs with the rest of the babies which is really cute, although when it comes time to getting back down the stairs it's a slightly different matter. She has no problem at all going up them but does struggle coming back down so it's not unusual for me to then carry her back down the stairs.

I had a missing baby last night which had me slightly worried to say the least. After dinner, the babies were running around the house, in particular the loungeroom, as they do most evenings now and when I went to feed them, I noticed that one was missing. It was my little Thyme! I made a frantic search everywhere, even looking in stupid places that she could not have been in and panic was starting to set in. The silly thing is that there was absolutely nowhere she could have got to as the downstairs part of the house was the only area the babies were in and the upstairs had been closed off. In the end, I had to get Graham to help me search and both of us went through everything and still could find her. I was calling out to her but she wasn't responding and it didn't help that every time I called out, Sambuca would call back, obviously thinking I was looking for her. Suddenly I heard the tiniest of little voices make a sound and I had a look at the TV unit and found her. She had squashed herself between the DVD player and the glass shelf, how she fit I do not know, but you have no idea how relieved I was to have found her. I managed to get her back out and we had lots of cuddles and kisses with her. She truly had no idea just how much she had worried us I'm sure. Apart from that, everything else has been fine. We've now lost one of Gemma's mice, it must be in the house somewhere but I do not know where and it doesn't help that the babies now spend their waking hours all over the place and you'll often see some of them on the lounge, others playing with a cardboard box, and others here in the back room. I do think that Cacao and Amaretto entice the babies to the lounge, telling them it's a great place to sleep because it's right up against the radiator and sure enough, the babies love it, particularly Parsley and Sage. Speaking of those two, they have been real little bullies for the last 24 hours, wrestling with each other, and their mum's constantly. It got to the point where both Amaretto and Cacao, pinned them down, one each, and had words with them because they were sick of being pounced on or chewed on when they were trying to sleep. Unfortunately, it didn't calm either of them down because within 10 minutes of being told off, they were at it again!

The Herbs have run riot all morning so far, in the back room and in the dining room and making more mess in 3 hours than they would normally make all day. The floor in the back room has been swept twice so far this morning! It doesn't help that Cacao encourages their mad play time by joining in and instigating the chase games. Cacao comes tearing out into the back room, followed by the Herbs close to her back paws, she then does a remarkable "about turn" at top speeds and goes tearing back out through the dining room and into the loungeroom, with the Herbs still chasing behind her. The only problem is that when Cacao turns around, she waits until the very last minute and sure enough the Herbs (whose agility still isn't that of a mature cat) tend to crash into whatever Cacao has turned in front of. This doesn't stop them though, they barely pause for breath and they're straight off after her. I am absolutely convinced that Chives (who still doesn't have a home yet) thinks that the small water bowl is part of her games because 3 times this morning, she has run straight through the small bowl, spilling water everywhere, and hasn't stopped once to clean herself off. I guess it's probably time I removed the small bowl altogether. I don't know why I even keep it out actually when they all drink from the large bowl anyway. If all that isn't enough to keep me occupied, late yesterday afternoon, I discovered both Sage and Chives on the dining room table! I thought they wouldn't be doing this for another couple of weeks however, I soon figured out how such small beings could reach such a high place. Yet again, it's Cacao's fault.............I stood in the corner and watched her, she took a couple of the babies over to the chairs, jumped up on them, waited for the babies to scramble up, she them jumped up on the table, while the babies used the chair and the tablecloth as climbing implements! I now keep the chairs out from the table just enough so that if the babies want to get down, they will use the chairs as opposed to trying to jump. All this aside, I can tell you that our little Herbs are doing wonderfully well and are making really good progress for this stage of their lives. We still have no toilet accidents at all, and everyone is more than happy to snack on the dry kitten biscuits whenever they are hungry. I've had the most lovely cuddles today with Parsley and Tarragon, Parsley has been sitting/sleeping on my lap, while Tarragon has been sitting up on my shoulder, watching me type and purring away like a Ferrari.

It's not unusual any more to find one or more of the babies upstairs. Quite often the humans in the house will go upstairs only to find some of the Herbs up there checking the place out. The only one so far who hasn't been up there is Thyme. It's really lovely to see the babies so relaxed and at home throughout the house and even now, they are still not phased by anything. Some of them were rather delighted to discover that there is yet another food bowl up there. I guess the next step will possibly be the Herbs making use of the cat run. Yesterday afternoon, and today, I've had the back door open that leads straight into the cat run. The adult cats were delighted because it's been permanently shut for a while now due to the weather, however, I figured it was about time everyone had some fresh air. So far, the Herbs haven't ventured out there but they do appear to be interested in watching the adults go outside. If nothing else, the fresh air won't do the little ones any harm at all. I was rather pleased to see that they hadn't managed to lose any of the new toys yet, but I'm sure it will happen over time, particularly as the babies carry them around in their mouths now. Sambuca also loves playing with them, as does Cacao, so sometimes it's a bit of a battle to see who can actually get their paws on the toys. Poor little Tarragon got closed in the kitchen this morning which upset Cacao a great deal. I just been in the kitchen making a coffee and as you know, our pets aren't allowed in the kitchen at all so I closed the door behind me as usual. Ten minutes later I could hear a little crying sound which I knew belonged to one of the babies. The problem was that I had no idea where it was coming from. I went out to the loungeroom to see if someone had become lost, but Cacao was already ahead of me, running to each corner, looking for "her" little one. I came back into the back room and realised that it was coming from the kitchen so I opened the door to find darling Tarragon sitting there, looking up at me with a very sorrowful look on her face. Trying not to laugh, I picked her up, gave her a kiss and put her back with the other Herbs. The look of relief on Cacao's face was unmistakable. Mind you, during the time we were looking for her, Cacao was giving me a look of reproach as if it were my fault! I told her she should pay closer attention to the Herbs and then they wouldn't go missing.

Our little ones spent all of yesterday afternoon and quite a few hours this morning creating havoc on my desk, as usual, and in the back room. Cacao was really funny because every time the babies went up on the work surface, she was straight up behind them, trying to herd them back onto the chair and the floor. None of the little ones would listen to her though and continued to run riot everywhere. At one stage, she got Sage back onto the chair pinned him down, started grooming him and then sat on him so he couldn't cause any more trouble. This was all fine until Sage bit her on the tail and she soon decided to give up and just sit on the fish tank and watch that they didn't get into too much trouble. Chives has finally learnt what kitten growling is and she's become very possessive of her little "toy". The toy in question does not resemble a toy in any way, shape or form. In fact, it is the remains of what used to be a little furry mouse that hung in their cylinder post until Amaretto pulled it off and chewed it to bits. Anyway, all that's left now is a scrap of fur and Chives has claimed it for her own. She gets it in her mouth, takes it away and sits down with it, chewing it and growling at anyone who happens to look in her direction. Obviously her brothers and sisters are intrigued by her growling so they edge a bit closer. Her growls then get even more ferocious and she takes her bit of fur even further away, sits down and begins the process again. To be totally honest with you, even I struggled to remove it from her! I gave the Herbs some new toys this morning that Gemma (Rosemary's new owner) brought around for them on her last visit but they were a little young for the toys at that stage. They have fallen in love with them and spent ages playing with the balls this morning and they all fought over the toy mice, trying to steal them from each other. I did explain to them all that they were Rosemary's toys and she was actually just sharing them with them but no, the babies insisted that they EACH owned one. Goodness only knows what condition they will be in when it comes time for Rosemary to go home with Gemma.

My little darlings (or not so little in some of their cases) are now 7 weeks old and as per usual, the time is simply flying by too fast for my liking. As you can tell by the first 2 photos, Sambuca is now warming to the Herbs. I'm not sure if it's because she is now 5 weeks pregnant and her maternal instincts are coming or through, or whether she has now realised that the Herbs are as fascinating and delightful as we do. Either way, she was happy to share the kitten's box with Chives and one could be mistaken for thinking they were mother and daughter, lying there like that. I've become a bit firmer now when it comes to feeding the Herbs because up until now I'd got into a really bad habit with this litter that I've never done with the others, and that is "Demand Feeding". This basically means that up until now, if the babies wake up and are squealing for meals, I'll feed them regardless of whether or not they had been fed less than a hour beforehand. This was originally started due to Thyme because it was imperative that she was fed as often as she wanted and it is rather difficult to feed one and not the others. I noticed a couple of days ago that by 10:30am the babies had been fed 3 meals! So yesterday from lunch time onwards, I started my new regime which is approximately 5 meals a day. The worst part is having the little ones running around screaming at me for food when it isn't due so I had to "toughen up" a little and ignore their pleas. I am happy to say that it didn't take long for them to catch on, because once they realised that it's not actually their meal time, they went and at the dry kitten biscuits instead and this is what I wanted them to do. Their kitten biscuits are left out 24/7, the same as with our adult cats because felines like to eat small quantities lots of times throughout the day. I was a bit concerned that the Herbs would try and feed from Amaretto if they thought I wasn't feeding them as much but as luck would have it, if they tried that, both Amaretto and Cacao took them straight over to the dry food bowls and the babies just started munching away. I'm pleased to say that the Herbs are still making good weight progress, even my little Thyme has been great. She's had no losses, there was one occasion where she had the same weight 2 nights running, however, had gained lots again by the following night so I'm over the moon. Sage is our biggest baby, naturally, followed closely by Parsley but I do find that the boys we've bred (few and far between) are always the largest babies and end up being incredibly big cats. I'm delighted also to be able to tell the new owners that every single one of their babies is now totally litter trained and we have no accidents at all around the house. Not only that, but they all make good use of the scratching posts and do not scratch their claws on any furniture...............yet!