Today is yet another of those manic days where there simply are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I need. I also visited my good friend, Lynny of Tumbili Siamese as I haven't seen her in ages and she has some lovely babies there, sired by our own Ice. It will be great to have cuddles with someone else's babies as I only ever get to see my own. I have nothing else planned..........................yet, until Saturday (we are having visitors all weekend), so I'm hoping to get the kitten diaries back to normal tomorrow.

Well our Pints are doing incredibly well and I can't believe that tomorrow they will actually be 7 weeks old. Well actually, when it comes their levels of maturity I guess I can believe it as they are all litter trained, they all eat from the plate, they all run around like lunatics and they are not really phased by much at all (apart from our adult cats which I'll explain a bit further into the entry). XXXX and Caffreys are both progressing beautifully which I'm delighted with. Guinness still concerns me as she is such a very small girl. Admittedly, her mum, Amaretto is also quite tiny however at 7 weeks of age I really would love to see Guinness looking a lot bigger. I'm going to put her back on the A/D today to see if that makes any difference to her weight. Apart from her size though, she is doing wonderfully well. Such an active little girl who is willing to take all her sister and brother in battles, to the point where she actually creeps up on them, pounces on them and starts a wrestling match and she does not let her size get in the way. She's also a super fast baby who runs about the room at top speed yet, unlike her brother, she is much more agile and rarely ever bumps into anything at all. While I'm doing this entry, I absolutely must remember to mention something here for the new owners. Normally, we keep the babies with us until they are 13 weeks of age and once they reach that age, they then go to live with their new families, however, this time around, the Pints will actually be with us a little longer. The reason for this is that rather than vaccinate them at 9 weeks of age, I will be holding off until the Bush Rangers are also 9 weeks old so that both babies can be done together. If I were to do it the other way around, it would mean that once the Pints were vaccinated, they would not be able to associate with the Bush Rangers at all as the Bush Rangers would be totally unprotected from the shedding that occurs after vaccination. Despite what many vets say, I firmly believe that when vaccinated babies mix with unvaccinated babies, then the unvaccinated ones have a very good chance of showing symptoms of the diseases that the other babies were just vaccinated for and I am not prepared to take any risks at all. So whereas our Pints normally would have been able to go to their new homes from April 18th onwards, they will not be able to go until April 26th onwards. During the day yesterday, we again opened up the door to the back room and let the babies out and about into the main part of the house so they could explore some more. Everyone was having a really great time and Tia Lusso and Toussaint spotted these "troublesome little furries" invading their territory. Toussaint went up to Caffreys, and then XXX and growled and hissed at both babies who automatically went running straight back into the back room and onto their beds. When they saw that the horrible blotchy black monster didn't follow them, they started a wrestling match on their bed. However, 2 minutes later, Tia Lusso thought she would go and scare them as well so she went up to the bed, had one sniff and hissed at the both. Naturally this brought Drambuie running in like a shot to protect "her" children so she gave both babies a lick, sat down at the front of the bed in Sphynx position and gave Tia Lusso, and Amarula who has also ventured in by now, that look that says "Go on, take one step further, I dare you to." Fortunately, Tia Lusso and Amarula are both incredibly intelligent cats and are fully aware that when Drambuie looks like that, you simply do not mess with her at all and they very quietly slinked, walking backwards all the way back to the door when they then beat a hasty retreat.

Photos are few and far between today, as well as being rather boring. Again, this is due to the lack of time I have today sorry. I will try to get some better photos for tomorrow's entries.

I'm feeling rather tired today as we stayed up to watch the Calzaghe v. Lacey fight which didn't start until 2am. It was worthwhile though as Calzaghe was just amazing and it was one of the best fights I'd seen in the last 12 months (apart from Hatton of course!). So this, combined with the fact that I was out all day yesterday, means that I have mountains of things to catch up on today around the home, and we have family visiting for the day as well as Joe Byrne's owners who will be here this afternoon. Just like the Bush Rangers, the babies had their first foray into the world outside the back room. After dinner the babies were all wide awake and playing so I opened up the glass doors allowing the babies into the whole of the downstairs of the home.

All 3 Pints went zooming out the door once it was opened and straight away, XXXX got herself into trouble by trying to climb up under the inside of the gas fire <groan>. I removed her, took her away from it and 2 minutes later she was back trying again. No matter how many times I explained to her that if she went in there, she would be stuck for the rest of her life, she blatantly ignored me and continued to try and climb in. So yes, it had to be blocked off just to avoid any accidents. Guinness was so funny as she had absolutely no idea what to do with her newfound freedom. She went for a little walk/run, then stopped, had a look around her with wide eyes, just taking everything in, then she sat down under the coffee table and just watched her litter mates to see what they were doing. She would then venture back out, go to a different part of the room, then stop and sit down and watch again. The look on her face though when she spotted our small dog who was sitting down wagging her tail was simply priceless. Even though they have seen the dogs every day because the dogs come through the back room to be let outside, this was the first time she had ever been up close to one of the "beasts" as she calls them. I was proud of her though as she was content just to sit there and watch and she didn't try to run away at all. Caffreys was just his typical self. Charging at full speed around the room, not really stopping to take anything in at all, he just wanted to run.

Both diary entries are exactly the same today and unfortunately there are no photos at all. The reason for this is that we weren't home for the majority of the day as QPR are playing at home. It's my first proper day out since the babies were born which was really nice although I did wonder what they were getting up to in my absence. In the morning before I left I double checked that everything would be okay for the babies. Both litter trays were cleaned out, both water bowls were filled with fresh water, the kitten biscuit bowl was full and there was also a plate with some slightly softened biscuits on that as well. We didn't actually leave until 12 noon, so the babies also had 2 wet meals before we left as well. When we arrived home that evening I was pleased to see that the room was still in one piece and no damage had been done thank goodness. The first job on the agenda was to feed the babies straight away and they did look at me reproachfully as if to say "you went away and left us to starve all day long". So we had lots of lovely cuddles after dinner and the babies soon forgave me for abandoning them.

It's going to be one of those days today with the babies! Straight after breakfast this morning, XXXX decided to get herself into a spot of bother again. I swear that this girl will be much more troublesome than her brother when usually it is the other way around. I heard Drambuie going nutty behind me so I turned around only to find XXX right at the top of the clothes airer which a horrified expression on her face. She wasn't horrified because she was stuck or couldn't get down, she was horrified because she had just come face to face with 3 Chinchilla's in their cage. The poor girl had no idea what to make of these furry creatures who were staring at her and making all sorts of noises. It's not really until this stage in the babies' lives that they realise they are not the only living creatures in the back room. The more climbing they do, and they more confident they become, they soon realise that they share the back room with Chinchilla's and a tropical aquarium. I picked XXXX up and placed her back on the ground in front of Drambuie and Buie was rather pleased about this and quickly herded XXXX back off to bed. Guinness decided that she would follow in her sister's footsteps and try to create some mischief of her own. She accomplished this by waiting until Ned Kelly was standing right next to the small water bowl, she crouched down, took a flying leap, jumped on his back, knocking him straight into the water bowl which sent water everywhere, including all over the kitten biscuits, and Ned was soaking wet. I'm rather relieved that Caffreys hasn't had an "incident" of any kind so far this morning although the way it's going, I might be better off finding another room in the house to reside in for the rest of the day just for some peace and quiet.

I am really delighted to say that at 6 weeks and 1 day of age, all 3 Pints now use the litter tray and do not have any accidents in the bed. Obviously we have the odd accident here and there, but remember they are still quite young, and I'm really pleased that their litter training has gone so well, without virtually no help from me whatsoever. Oddly enough though, whilst they use the large, hooded tray to toilet in, they do still use the small tray to toilet in but then they also have the bad habit of playing in it! Go figure! All 3 of their weight gains are now totally back to normal and every 24 hours they are making gains that I am more than happy with which is really lovely. Now that they are getting a bit older, I am starting to see very defined differences between Caffreys and XXXX whereas before, it was extremely difficult to tell them apart at times. (yes I know I just have to lift their tails to know which baby is which, however, I am referring to when I am looking at them face on). Our daughter was rather pleased last night at the dinner table when we were discussing registered names for the babies as I told her that she can choose a name for XXXX. Guinness, because of the home she is going to, needs a "special" name, and Graham will be choosing Caffreys' name. I am wondering though if this could be a mistake because last time our daughter named a baby, we ended up keeping that baby and have been stuck with a Schimmel Sakuya in our home ever since!.

If you are wondering why there is a photo of a pair of feet at the end of the diary, the reason for this is that our daughter insisted that I take a photo of her feet to put in the diary so that they will be famous and will be seen by everyone. Who could possibly argue with logic like that?

Today, I am extremely proud of Caffreys, and also rather disgusted with him! The reason that I am proud of him is because when he turned 6 weeks old today he went and used the hooded litter tray belonging to his mums, and he was so proud of himself because he is a "man" now. No more baby trays for him. He climbed out of the tray looking so very pleased and smug that I just had to smile and tell him what a clever boy he is. As for the reason that I am disgusted with him, well, I came downstairs first thing this morning to find Caffreys' (and this is gross) beautiful white fur covered in poo on one side. At some point during the night, someone had gone to the toilet at the edge of the bed and it appears that Caffreys must have rolled in it............................over and over and over. My poor baby looked terrible which chunks of poo stuck throughout his fur, to say nothing of what one side of him smelt like! So Caffreys had his first ever bath. I filled the sink with warm water, got a clean cloth, stood him on a towel and soaked the cloth, dripped some of the warm water on his fur and gently ran the cloth over it. The whole procedure took me about 10 minutes but he was as good as gold and didn't squirm at all. I think he knew I was trying to make him better. Guinness is still eating from the plates and is eating well, however, the little minx refused point blank to eat the raw rabbit mince. Her brother and sister and both mum's were eating it but she had one sniff and decided that it was not for her. So because I am still trying to get weight on her, rather than persevere with it, I went into the kitchen and made up a plate of kitten food for her without rabbit mince. As soon as I set it down in front of her, she looked at me with a knowing glint in her eye, bent her head down and sniffed the plate, and decided that yes, she would eat this as it doesn't smell like the "other" food. Spoilt little madam. Still, so long as she eats something, I really don't care if I have to prepare her 20 special meals a day. Now, onto XXXX.............I am sure that Teresa will be pleased to hear that her little girl managed to stay out of trouble (so far) today and has not had a single accident. She has been as good as gold and was even trying to encourage Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne to use the litter tray. She watched them climb in there and then she went running over to them, got in with them and showed them how it was done.