XXXX gave me an incredible scare yesterday afternoon, to say nothing of the scare that she gave herself! I had been outside cleaning out the stud houses and when I came back in to the back room, I heard a baby squealing and Drambuie was going absolutely nutty. Buie was scrambling in behind the tubs of food/litter etc. and I could not figure out what was wrong. I thought that maybe a baby had gone behind the tubs and Drambuie was stressing because she wanted to put the baby in bed. I yanked the tubs out and to my horror saw that XXXX had been trying to climb the radiator and had got her head stuck between the radiator and the knob that controls the heat setting. She had somehow managed to squeeze her head through the small space and then could not get back out. She was absolutely petrified, as was I. Fortunately, I was able to get her out within a few short seconds and checked her over thoroughly. She was not hurt at all so it would appear, just incredibly scared, as was Drambuie. I gave her lots of kisses and cuddles and put her back in the bed where she received lavish attention from both the mothers. I then felt quite sick afterwards as the outcome could have been so very different. I then went and got some thick toweling and wrapped it around the pipe bit so that no babies can even attempt to stuff their heads through there. So far, we have not ever had a kitten accident and I have heard some horror stories. We do always try to be so very careful but some things are just unforeseeable. This is certainly the first time any of our babies has ever been that daft that they think their heads and ears will fit through a gap that size. I kept a very close eye on her for a while after that but she was definitely not harmed by her incident and was running around and playing with everyone else. However.........................you would think that would have taught her a valuable lesson but no, not at all. After dinner I was doing the litter trays and again heard some a baby squealing. I came running into the back room to discover that yet again, XXXX had got herself in a predicament. We have one of those clothes airers that you fold out however we rarely use it as everything just goes straight in the dryer, but the airer resides in the back room, folded up. I don't know what possessed her to climb it but XXXX had climbed half way up the airer, and then got stuck. Half her body was hanging over one side of the pole and the other half hung over the side. So once again, I picked her up, gave her cuddles and placed her back on the floor. I then removed the airer from the room altogether. Even more fantastic progress with Guinness that I simply must share with you all. Guinness is no longer being syringe fed and is eating directly from the plate! This is astonishing when you consider that yesterday lunch time she was still be fed with the syringe, however when "afternoon tea" was fed to the mums, Guinness went straight to the plate and started eating the food, with absolutely no encouragement at all. She just went over there straight on her own, had a sniff and started gobbling. I couldn't believe it. This is just brilliant. To actually see her physically be hungry and want to eat means that we have done it. She has battled along with me and hung in there, despite her huge weight losses. During the last 24 hours she has actually made some tremendous gains. I am just so happy which is surprising really as it's still freezing in this home without a boiler. Mind you, the very nice boiler man will be coming today to fix it so we should have heating again very soon. Caffreys, fortunately, is causing me no trouble whatsoever at the moment thank goodness. He is making huge gains in weight and will be a very big boy when he grows up, just like his dad, Sheridans, who is a monster of a cat. All 3 Pints now just eat directly from their mum's plate. As soon as they see their mum's out of bed, they watch me go into the kitchen because they know that food will soon be arriving. Trying to get out of the kitchen door balancing a plate whilst trying to stop the PInts getting in is no easy feat let me assure you. All I need now is for the Pints to take an interest in the dry kitten biscuits as well and I will be a very happy woman indeed, or at least I will be when I thaw out!

The Ice Age is upon us and I fear that our diaries may soon come to a close due to death by hypothermia! To explain further, last night our boiler refused to work. Up until yesterday afternoon, it was just fine however when our daughter put something away in the cupboard under the stairs she accidentally flicked the switch thing to off so the heating went off. Graham tried to light the boiler (for over an hour!) but the darn thing was flat out refusing to work. This is NOT a good thing to happen when it's like the Arctic outside and young kittens and Aussies reside in the home. We can not survive with no heating and if it doesn't get sorted out today, chances are in a week or so's time, someone will realise that they haven't heard from me, will break in to see what happened to me and all they will see is a frozen block of ice sitting here at the computer. Of course by then, it will be too late and no amount of defrosting will save me :( My first thought when this happened was the babies who are still quite young and can not be without heat, remembering that their bed is right next to the radiator so I went upstairs to grab a heat pad which I set up on their bedding and the babies and mum's have been perfectly fine and more than warm enough with the heat pad. I did think the sudden lack of heating might also make them less inclined to get out of bed and create havoc but no, after they all played like lunatics running around the room, they then played like lunatics in and around their beds so they aren't too badly affected at all. My next thought was Sheridans who sleeps indoors of an evening in the upstairs kitten room. So I went upstairs and gave him a heat pad also. Then we had the problem of the rest of the feline family, all of whom sleep in the upstairs part of the home at night (they are no longer allowed to have the run of the house of an evening because they spray on all the computers!!!) and it was freezing upstairs last night and I had run out of heat pads as the others are in constant use in the stud house naturally. Then I remembered that we have a king size electric blanket that is dual controlled however only one side of it worked. It used to reside on our bed but when it stopped working (on Graham's side) we had to buy another one immediately however, Graham did not want to throw out the old one as he though it might come in handy at some point. I will add here that Graham is a hoarder! He never throws things out whereas I throw out everything but for the first time ever, I was very grateful that he had decided to hang onto something that really was no use at all. So, I found it in the linen cupboard, got it out, plugged it in to the upstairs hallway, lay it out, and put Cointreau on it as her ears were quite cold. She loved it, and I then went and got the others off our bed and put them on it so that they would realise what it was there for. When I checked on everyone 20 minutes later, I was delighted to see them all sprawled out on their own electric blanket, which remained on the hottest setting possible I might add, and it's still upstairs plugged in at the moment. I am going to leave it plugged in until we get the heating back although mind you, if the heating does ever come back, someone else will have to unplug their blanket because frozen ice statues will find it very difficult to move!

Wonderfully exacting marvellous news this morning. My darling Guinness gained 10 grams between yesterday morning and this morning. This is the largest gain she has made in days and I really couldn't put into words just how thrilled I was when I put her on the scales. I actually put her on twice because I thought I had misread it. Thank you to all those kind people out there who are praying for her. Please keep these prayers up as we still have such a long way to go. This morning, when I syringe fed her the Liquivite, she was actually sucking on the syringe trying to make the food come out quicker which is fantastic. I am going to keep going with the syringe feeding every few hours and I'm hoping that we have now turned that corner that, a few days ago, seemed quite a long way off. Caffreys totally surprised me this morning because when I fed the mum's their breakfast, he went straight over to the plate and started to eat their food. I just shook my head in disbelief because on 2 minutes earlier, I had been trying to encourage him to eat some rabbit mince, yet he didn't want to know. Typical child really! As for XXXX, well she is doing great although I do not know where she gets her energy from. I have to be so careful when she is awake and playing because she zooms around the room at full speed and so many times now I have almost fallen over her which is something I want to avoid. Last time I fell over a baby, I broke my foot and was in plaster for 6 weeks!

Well my little Guinness hasn't been sick today and she seems to have put on 2 grams which is minimal, but considering her large weight losses, then any gain is a good gain. I'm trying desperately to remain optimistic about her and am continuing with the syringe feeding, except I am now using Liquivite as she just does not like the taste of the A/D at all and with the Liquivite, she is happy to be syringe fed some of it before we have a battle so this has to be a good thing. I have such a long way to go with her and to be honest, I was starting to get quite down about the whole situation yesterday but we are going to keep battling on and just pray very hard that she is going to start making normal gains again and be just fine. I just turned around to glance at her and she is currently standing on a white rolled up bedding, trying so desperately hard to climb the metal leg that supports the work surface. I just do not have the heart to tell her she can't climb metal surfaces (she tries to climb up the radiator as well bless her). When our Pints are awake, everyone in the vicinity knows about it and their favourite game is still "Let's run into the kitchen and make the humans chase after us". However, we humans are smarter than the babies are at this age because whenever we are going in and out of the kitchen for meal times or cooking etc. we now put up a small barrier that the babies can not jump over........................................ yet. They are very active babies during the times when they are awake and are just so full of energy. Even now though, Amaretto and Drambuie will both chase after them when they are playing and drag them back to bed by the scruff of their neck. The Pints really hate it when the mum's do that, particularly XXXX. I'm going to put another small litter tray in the room this afternoon because even though some of them are starting to use the tray, we are now having little "wee" accidents in one of their play toys. So I will move the toy, put a litter tray there instead, and hopefully, they will realise what the tray is there for.

I'm really pleased to say that XXXX is now back to her usual self and has not been sick at all since yesterday morning. Caffreys is also perfectly fine. It's Guinness that is still giving me cause for concern. She hasn't lost any weight since yesterday morning, however she hasn't gained any either. She is very lively and playful and even runs into the kitchen when they babies are awake and I open the kitchen door. Her toilet habits are normal and she feeds from her mum as per usual. So at the moment, I'm going to persevere with the syringe feeding which is a battle because she fights me every step of the way and it's an incredibly slow process but it will be worth it if we can get there in the end with our girl. Today's photos are rather appalling because the babies had just been fed by me, their mum's wanted them to settle down in bed which none of the Pints wanted to do so I picked up the camera only to find the batteries were dead. I put them on charge, plugged in the lead, (once I finally located it), by which time all babies were back on the bed with their mum's getting their baths and their feeds.

As you can tell by the photos below, I went totally overboard with the camera again. I did cheat a little though as these photos were actually taken late yesterday afternoon rather than being taken today.

We are currently experiencing a difficulty with our Pints because it appears that one of the mothers' milk has gone sour which is having an incredibly big affect on poor Guinness and XXXX. Both of whom have been vomiting in spectacular fashion. They are still incredibly lively and playful, however, their weights are obviously being affected. I sent an email to my friend Kim, who had lots of good advice as per usual, and she suggested boiled water with a bit of honey in it because they should be able to keep that down and unlike food, it won't cause them to be sick. The honey would also keep their energy levels up. Well anyway, I've been doing that since yesterday afternoon. XXXX didn't have a problem with it and by this morning, she had already made some weight gains, so things are looking up for her. Guinness on the other hand is worrying me as she is still not gaining and I have such a battle every time I syringe the boiled water/honey into her. She hates it and fights me the whole way. None of them are dehydrated at all, and it's only these 2 babies that the milk is affecting. I'm going to keep Guinness on the water today and then tomorrow, I will try her with a tiny amount of liquivite and if she can keep that down, then I will give her very small quantities throughout the day and night until we start getting the weight back on her. I am very seriously considering removing Amaretto from the babies altogether for a few days because I can't help but think she is the cause of the milk problem because a few days ago, she came into call, she is singing again today and when mum's are calling, their milk does tend to go sour. Kim had suggested I check both mum's for any signs of mastitis and fortunately, that is not the case. So at this point in time, I am putting it down to Amaretto being in season again. Apart from all that though, they all seem to be doing okay in that they are all playing, they all drink from the water bowls, they run around like lunatics and wee in the bed! I had to change the bedding 3 times this morning in the space of an hour. I have no idea who is responsible, but I do know that it is definitely not Caffreys because he went straight to his litter tray this morning and did his business in there, before scampering back to bed. He is the first of our babies so far to become litter trained which is really lovely.

XXXX gave me quite a scare late yesterday afternoon which I could have done without. The babies were all awake and playing and running around the room which Amaretto was not happy with. XXXX ran behind the small filing cabinet and Amaretto went in after her and grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her across the floor. I say dragged because the Pints are really too large for Amaretto to carry them. I made Amaretto let her go which she did and wandered off, however XXXX sat there looking as if she were in pain and crying. I automatically picked her up, and sat her on my lap to look at her, thinking that Retto had accidentally harmed her. After an brief examination, the cause of the problem was soon discovered. Poor XXXX was trying desperately to expel a rather large nugget. I placed her in the litter tray rather rapidly as the last thing I need is for the kittens to think it's perfectly fine to poo on human mummy's lap! She sat in the tray, continuing with her exertions and then decided while she was there, she may as well eat the litter. So she is in the tray trying to go to the toilet, while I have her mouth open trying to get litter out of it. Is it any wonder she decided enough was enough and ran over to the bed thinking maybe that would be a better place. I caught her just in time to put her back in the tray where she finally finished her business and ran out of the tray, onto the bed feeling incredibly pleased with herself. I gave a huge sigh of relief, went to rescue Caffreys who saw that the kitchen door was open and took the opportunity to run in and try and get behind the washing machine, brought him back out, just in time to see my darling Guinness wee on the bed. I then changed the bedding, both mums put the children back onto the bed and lay down to feed them. XXXX and Guinness were feeding from Amaretto, Joe Byrne & Ned Kelly were feeding from Drambuie and Caffreys was just sitting quietly on the bed, until an idea occurred to him. That idea being "wouldn't it be great fun to take a flying dive straight into the middle of the pile of feeding babies and mums". Unfortunately that is exactly what the little monster did. He leapt as high as he could, coming down with tremendous style straight on top of Ned, Joe and Drambuie's head, giving all 3 a rather large fright! Drambuie then told him exactly what she thought of his actions and this scared him enough to make him settle down and chill out with the rest of the family...........................thank goodness!

Our Pints are 5 weeks old today although I am convinced that they believe they are much more mature than that. The first few photos today are all of Guinness and the reason for this is that all the babies and both mums were sleeping so I put the cover down to give them privacy (the cover is lifted during the times the babies are awake and playing), but Guinness was in no mood for sleep, despite that is what the rest of his family were doing. I had to smile as a little chestnut coloured head appeared from underneath the cover, peering up at me to see whether or not I would put her back into bed and once she saw I was more interested in seeing what she would do, she started playing games with the cover and her imaginary friend. SHe is such an adorable baby girl, so full of fun and energy. On our our Pints left me a little present on the bed this morning, the first one I have seen so far actually. It was a lovely, firm little nugget just sitting on the edge of the bedding. I do not know who was responsible for it, possibly Guinness with the amount of food she puts away, however I picked it up and put it in their small litter tray so hopefully, they will encourage them to start to use the tray and if they see and smell a previous nugget in there. It probably all seems rather odd to most people reading this diary however we breeders get very excited about first little nuggets from our babies. Both mum's are very pleased this morning due to the sound of the doorbell ringing and a man standing there was a massive order of James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits and as we dragged the boxes in and I got a bag out and was opening it, both girls were going nutty waiting for me to empty their bowl of the Iams kitten biscuits, wash it out thoroughly and replace the contents with their much loved JW biscuits.