Day 98 - December 1, 2007

Such a manically busy day today as Ray and Jonesy both left home, so did 3 of our Chefs so I've had almost no time at all to get any kitten diaries online and as it stands, the Ray J's and the Chefs diaries will not be sorted out until tomorrow.

It was lovely to see Amy and Alex today, even though they were here to take Ray from me but I know that Ray will have an amazing home and hopefully it will not take her too long to settle in with her new family. Ray is a beautiful, happy little girl who loves wrestling and she loves to play so I do think once she is settled in and feels at home that she will keep Amy and Alex entertained for hours on end, just as she does here with us. Like Barry, she is also an extremely cuddly little child and she has never really cared who gives her cuddles or whether she knows them or not. I do know that with Amy and Alex, she will have all the cuddles she needs. They are super people and I think Ray will do just fine bless her and she now has a fantastic new mum and dad, and she will also have the company of Shnarf to play with.

Jonesy also left me today it was lovely to see Liz and her husband again and I am feeling rather embarrassed because for the life of me I can not think of her husband's name. I do know that once the boys settle in (Gary is now living with Liz and her family too), that Jonesy will keep them on their toes. He is such an energetic boy and is a typical mischievous Oriental Tabby and he isn't one for sitting still too long as there is always something else to explore or a new game to play. Jonesy is a beautiful boy, so long and elegant, just like his father and he is going to grow up into quite a stunning creature. I can say with 200% conviction that Jonesy (and Gary) could not have asked for a better, more loving, family to be homed with and they are very lucky boys. I know they will be cherished and spoilt and will want for nothing.

With our 3 Ray J's now gone, this means we have reached the end of another Schimmel kitten diary and what happy diary this has been, no problems, easy, confident, totally gorgeous children, why aren't they all like this? I am missing not seeing our Ray J's around the home, even though it's only been a few hours since they left, but they were such beautiful colours and were always getting into mischief and despite still having other babies here, the home does seem quite empty. I would like to take the time now to thank our 3 sets of kitten families who have offered homes to our babies, and despite feeling so sad that they have gone, we are delighted that once again, we have found 3 absolutely brilliant new families who will love our children in the same way that we love them. One of the hardest parts of breeding is ensuring we find the right homes for our children and we do feel on this score that we have had 100% success with our Ray J's. I would also like to thank those of you who have taken the time to follow our Ray J's kitten diary, particularly as there have been quite a few missed entries this time around for one reason or another.

I guess it's time to sign off now, although I doubt very much that finishing off this diary entry will make a great deal of difference in the respect that we still have 3 other diaries on the go, with more new ones to start in January.................

Day 97 - November 30, 2007

As expected, this has been a happy day and a sad day. I'm happy because Barry has now gone to a wonderful new home where she will be totally spoilt and loved, but sad because within an hour of her leaving, I was already missing not seeing her around the home.

I know that I will be able to see Barry in her new home once she has settled in because she will only live about 35 minutes away from me. I will also see her at cat shows so will have a chance to watch her grow up which will be wonderful. It will be interesting to see what Kidd and Kyla both think of their new playmate and I am fully expect some mixed reactions from them both but Barry's charming ways will soon win them both over as she is an absolute delight. There is no need for me to say how wonderful it was to see Ray, Caryll and Jacqui again because that goes without saying. We do all see each other quite a bit and they are "family" to us. Barry could not have asked for a better home and she is an extremely lucky little girl. The only thing that concerns me about Barry leaving is whether or not Caryll actually remembers that Barry is Ray's baby and not hers and I have visions of them both fighting over her ;)

Overall, I think it went extremely well, despite Jag almost knocking Caryll over, and despite Cointreau drinking from both Ray and Caryll's coffee cups, and despite Cacao jumping into Barry's cat carrier thinking she was going somewhere too, we all made it through the visit :) Ray, thank you so very much for the 2 lovely bottles of wine, that's really kind of you. I will add here than when Ray brings wine, you know darn well it's an extremely good one as Ray is something of an expert when it comes to wines. My photos of Barry are totally awful so hopefully when she is settled into her new home, Ray will send me some photos for a Gallery page for Barry.

We now have two other Ray J's to leave us and that is Ray and Jonesy, so please do check back for their special "Leaving Day" and the final entry to our Ray J's kitten diary.

Day 96 - November 29, 2007

I totally gave up on trying to get photos of our older babies, and as they will be in the throes of leaving home within the next 24 hours I don't think it's going to really make a huge amount of difference to be honest.

Tomorrow is going to be a day of mixed emotions as Barry is leaving home. I am in no way prepared for this, nor have I even done any paperwork for our new families, something that I must remedy fairly quickly hence the extremely short kitten diaries today. The kitten registrations also did not arrive today which no doubt means they will turn up on Saturday morning and will then have to be posted to their new families <sigh>. I don't know Barry is even aware of what will be happening to her tomorrow and I know that it is always a huge shock but hopefully it will not take her long to settle into her home with their the Blue Paws.

Day 95 - November 28, 2007

We've still not had our registration certificates back for the Ray J's or Chefs so I am hoping they will be here by Friday morning at the latest. As it stands at the moment, I can't even do any paperwork for any of the babies who will be leaving this weekend as I need the registration number for each baby.

Yet again today, when our Ray J's haven't been playing, they have stuffed themselves in the little box on the scratch post, along with some of the Chefs (and mum's) to have a sleep. I honestly do not know how they fit in there, truly I don't. I tried desperately hard to get some photos of them while they were in there but you have no idea how difficult it is because they all lie on top of each other and it can be hard to know which legs belong to which bodies :)

Day 94 - November 27, 2007

I have to say that I'm really at a loss as to what to write about our Ray J's now. They are at that age, the same as the Chefs, whereby half the time I honestly don't even know where they are. Some babies are upstairs, some are downstairs, I seem to miss half of them when I'm trying to take photos and in the end I do just give up. At this age, they are really starting to become independent and they all think that they are proper grown up kittens now and no longer need to be mollycoddled by the mum's. Jonesy in particular thinks he is a man now and he does as he pleases and goes where he pleases. Ray and Barry seem so much smaller in comparison, I guess because they are females whereas Jonesy is male, but I look at those 2 and even now I think they are too young to be leaving home in under a weeks' time.

Day 93 - November 26, 2007

After a manic few days of rearranging our home and the way we live, and converting one of the kitten rooms to "indoor stud accommodation", I am finally getting diaries back on track. Although this is going to be a manic week as we have a few babies leaving us from Friday onwards so I will be up to my eyeballs in paperwork so don't expect great diary entries this week. By the end of this coming weekend, I'll be down to just 2 kitten diaries so life may become a tad easier.

There are no Ray J or Chef photos today because I very stupidly deleted all the photos once I had downloaded them and despite spending an hour trawling through my recycle bin, I still can't find them so I am absolutely furious with myself. There will definitely be photos in tomorrow's kitten diary!! Our Ray J's and Chefs no longer have their own kitten room as they were evicted a couple of days ago so that Drambuie and the Indians could move in there. I'm very pleased with how well they accepted the changes, although a few of the babies still continue to go upstairs to sleep, but they all know that food/litter etc. is all downstairs now and I am thrilled that despite being so very young none of them have had any little "accidents" since the changes. It was the one thing that I was concerned about because often little babies will forget where their trays are and now that there are none upstairs, everyone has to come down to use the trays but they have all been wonderful :)

Barry had some cuddles from her new dad today as the Man in the White Coat and the Rosette Queen came to visit. It's always great to see Ray and Caryll and this time was no exception. We had a lovely chat and they are the first people to see all the changes we have very recently made. Ray (the kitten, not Ray the man) decided to show Ray just how feisty she could be during an incident with Jag, our Rottweiler, and poor Ray (the man, not the kitten) ended up with blood seeping from both hands. Apart from that, the visit went fairly well ;)