I really do not know what to write for this kitten diary. Amaretto's due date was supposed to be August 26, so on the 25th, I attended a cat show with Cacao and Ashanti while Graham remained at home and was keeping an eye on Amaretto, as well as the rest of the "gang". All was going really well and both cats had fantastic results at the show, then during the afternoon, I had a phone call from Graham telling me that Amaretto had gone into labour. I could not believe it..........................this was the first time that I had ever not been there for one of our births. I knew that I had nothing to worry about because the babies would be in good hands and Graham certainly makes just as good a midwife as I do, but the thought of not being there was really horrid. Graham and I spoke on the phone throughout the births and he successfully delivered 2 beautiful children and both he, and Amaretto coped incredibly well. Graham had to do the cord on Jonesy as Amaretto was not particularly keen. It was a nightmare in the respect that our bedroom was quite hot, and Amaretto apparently wanted to walk around while delivering her babies which certainly makes life a tad difficult. Ray was actually born in Graham's clothes shelves in the wardrobe, rather than on the birthing bedding that had been set up in the wardrobe for days now. Whilst I was on the phone to Graham, he weighed and coloured the babies and I was told that Ray was a mini Ashanti, in other words, a Brown (Black) Oriental Tabby, Jonesy was allegedly a Blue Oriental Tabby although Graham felt the colouring wasn't right for a Blue and I told him over the phone that he would almost have to be a Blue because to the best of my knowledge, Ashanti did not carry the "b" gene, (meaning he is not a Chocolate carrier). Prior to this litter, 2 of our other ladies that Ashanti had mated are both chocolate carriers and we had no chocolate babies in those litters. Towards the end of the show, Graham had said there was definitely another baby in there but nothing else was happening so after the show, I drove home as fast as humanly possible whilst keeping to the speed limit :) and I arrived home, brought Ashanti and Cacao inside and let them out of their carriers, I then went upstairs to relieve Graham of midwife duty. He came downstairs while I examined both babies, declared that both were looking to be male (typical really!), but both babies were fine, Ray was already feeding, and Amaretto was in her element, hugging her babies close to her and looking content, but quite tired. I flew back downstairs made a drink, unpacked the car and put a load of washing on and I then took my drink back upstairs where I could sit with Amaretto. At 1833, we had a leg, nothing else, just a leg hanging out and Amaretto was putting an awful lot of effort into trying to deliver this baby so I just chatted calmly with her and stroked her gently. The other leg appeared, then half the body appeared but the shoulders, front legs and head were still not delivered. It was at this time that Amaretto chose to stand up and try and go for a walk so I put her back in the wardrobe and the action of her standing up and moving forced the 2 front legs and shoulders to come out. So now all were were missing was a head! I waited until Amaretto was pushing and then I gently but firmly gripped the baby around the body and over both shoulders and I gently pulled as Amaretto pushed and fortunately, the head and placenta were both delivered safe and sound. The sac had already broken so I quickly did the cord, vigorously dried the babied and weighed/sexed him. I then gave him back to Amaretto with his head pointing in the direction of the milk bar and Retto put both her arms around him and snuggled in with her little family. I came back downstairs to tell Graham that we had yet another Oriental Chocolate Tabby and it was then he decided upon names for our 3 boys (well possible boys, you know what my sexing is like!), and collectively they will be known as the "Ray J's" in tribute to Ray Jones who tragically lost his life in a car accident on Saturday. We would now like to introduce you to our beautiful new Ray J's.........................................

By 10pm all 3 babies were well and truly latched on and feeding and it does appear that our 2 Chocolate Tabbies have different patterns but as of yet I have not been able to examine them closely. They have been permanently latched on to their mum since last night, it's now 11:19am and they are still suckling away and I have no wishes to disturb them while they are feeding because it is so important that they are latched on and getting the colostrum that they need for their own immune systems. We are totally delighted to have our first Oriental Chocolate Tabbies and we are thrilled to bits that our Ashanti is now a proven Chocolate carrier as this opens up a realm of possibilities for our future breeding. As you can imagine, everything is just all up in the air today, particularly as one of our older babies, Snow Queen, was leaving home at 9am this morning and I had done no paperwork at all to say nothing of the fact that we have copious amounts of washing now, normal washing, show washing and birthing washing all to be done. I would like to thank my husband, Graham, for doing such a fantastic job in my absence, he really was a star and I am so grateful to him. Now whether or not I will be able to talk him into letting one of these Oriental Chocolate Tabbies stay with us I have no idea...............................