We are 6 weeks old now!

Day 41 - October 5, 2007

Our Ray J's are doing exceptionally well and all 3 of our babies have amazing agility. I always knew Jonesy was extremely agile hence the problems with him in the 2nd kitten room, but to see all 3 of them in the main room, climbing on absolutely everything, really does make me smile. None of the Ray J's ever hesitate before making a massive leap, or climbing as high as they possibly can, they just have no fear whatsoever. The older they get, the more prominent their tabby markings are becoming and it's very easy to believe that tomorrow they will have reached the 6 week mark. I'm actually a bit ahead of myself in one aspect and that is when I was at the vets this week, I did book our Ray J's and Chefs' first kitten vaccinations, so at least now all I will have to do when the Chefs turn 9 weeks old is to turn up for the appointment, rather than forgetting to book it until it's too late. Ray is having a visitor all of her own tomorrow so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of having a kitten family all to herself.

Day 40 - October 4, 2007

Sorry guys, there are no photos at all in any of today's kitten diaries and the entries are the same for our older litters, and our Chefs/Ray J's diaries are the same. It has been an exhausting day as I had to be at the vets at 9am with some of our ladies who were booked in to be spayed. When I came back from the vets I had to move the babies around and thoroughly clean both kitten rooms and the upstairs part of the home. I started the cleaning at around 10am (much later than normal due to the vet appointment) and I didn't actually finish the cleaning until around 1430. I also have to go back to the vets to pick up our girls and settle them in the upstairs room to recover from their ordeal.

Today was "moving" day for our Chefs and our Ray J's and let me assure you, it was far more traumatic for me than it was for the babies! I first had to thoroughly clean and scrub the main kitten room. Once that was done, I had to swap all the litter trays/food bowls/water bowls around so that the babies had all their own stuff with their familiar smell on it. When the room was set up, I then started putting the babies in there, 2 at a time as that was all I could really manage to hold as I stepped over the hoover and other bits and pieces. The look on our babies' faces was priceless. Their little eyes were opened with wonder and awe as they stared at their new room. Once all babies were in the room, I waited to see if they found where everything was i.e. litter trays, food etc. but they were more interested in climbing on top of the big scratch pole. How do such little babies manage to climb so high? They were even on top of the work surface. Both mum's are thrilled to be in the big room and the babies have been having the time of their lives. We did have a few problems with their bed as I obviously didn't put it in the right place. The first place I put it was in a snug corner between the wall and the scratch post. I thought that would be ideal. When I went back up half an hour later, I discovered Sambuca had led all the babies to a corner underneath the work surface and she was feeding them there as they all lay on the carpet. So that's okay, I picked up their bed and put it in the new place under the work surface. I then went back in an hour later to feed the babies, only to discover they were sound asleep curled up on the carpet underneath the chair. So while the babies were all gathered around the tray of food, I moved the bedding yet again to underneath the chair and hopefully, that is where it will remain.

Day 39 - October 3, 2007

Jonesy will be the death of me, I swear! Last night at around 11:30pm I was giving the babies their last meal for the evening. Barry and Ray went to the plate as per normal, however, there was no sign of Jonesy. I called him, no reply. I looked underneath the small wall unit, no Jonesy. I did find a toy ball though :) I pulled the door out (it is residing in the kitten room at the moment, a spare door), still no Jonesy. Look in the litter tray, still no Jonesy. He was absolutely nowhere to be seen. So I start pulling out all the furniture. As I was doing so, I heard a scratching noise, so I stopped what I was doing and just listened, I heard it again. I continued to move the furniture, and suddenly spot Jonesy, at the very top of the single bed. This single bed stands up on it's end and he has somehow managed to climb up the entire length of the bed until he has made it to the top where he is just a few inches away from the ceiling. I was absolutely amazed. I managed to get him down, pushed all the furniture back together and by the time I had done that, Jonesy was happily tucking into his meal. At this time of night, I don't need this, I really don't. The time is definitely drawing nearer to move those babies out of that room!

Day 38 - October 2, 2007

At some point, within the next few days, the Ray J's and Chefs will move out of their smaller kitten room, and into the main kitten room. Our Ray J's are so incredibly active now and they do need a lot more space to run around and play. This will mean evicting our older 3 litters from the main kitten room, however, they tend to sleep on the bunk beds in the hallway upstairs, and they go up and downstairs whenever they want. I think our Ray J's will love being in the larger room and at least I won't have to worry about Jonesy squeezing in behind all the stacked up furniture :)

Day 37 - October 1, 2007

You will have noticed I totally skipped yesterday's kitten diary entries? We had a kitten family visit, and we had friends visiting, so I had the day off :)

The Man in the White Coat has now made his decision...............................................we are over the moon that Barry will be sharing her home with Ray, Caryll, Jacqui, and fur kids, Kidd and Kyla. I was of course wondering if he would actually tell the Rosette Queen which baby he had chosen and did have visions of loud arguments in their car as they left here yesterday :) We are hoping this will be a match made in heaven and that Kyla and Kidd will both accept their new friend when the time comes. We shall also be having very stern words with Barry before she leaves here that she is not to touch the "Fat Fairies" and if she does, then she is to blame it on Kidd ;) It was so great to see Jacqui, Caryll, Ray, Jim and Marcelle yesterday, we have an enjoyable chat, and a laugh as we always do and it was nice for Marcelle and Jim to be able to see their baby, Pecan. Our Ray J's were actually well behaved yesterday, well reasonably anyway, and quite a few of our Chefs had a huge fascination with the Man in the White Coat, so much so that I didn't think he would be able to get out of the kitten room as they were clinging to him. I really am going to stop this entry now as I am finding it difficult to type because My Cino is on my lap and wants me to play with her.

Day 35 - September 29, 2007

At 5 weeks of age our Ray J's are absolute delights. They are thriving and doing incredibly well and I couldn't be more pleased with their progress. In typical Ashanti fashion, they are happy, mischievous, active little children and as time is passing, they are now starting to look like proper little kittens with very defined features. In other words, they are losing their "babyish" looks. Having said that though, they are incredibly appealing and adorable in that way that all babies are. It is hard to believe that our Ray J's are this old already and I don't know why the time seems to fly by way too quickly for my liking. I had words with our Ray J's today, well, it was more pleading than anything else actually. The reason being is that tomorrow, we have a kitten family coming to visit our Ray J's, and we also have The Man in the White Coat, and the rest of his family coming to visit the Ray J's. Now on the whole, Barry, Jonesy, and Ray, really are very good little children bless them, and I'm trying desperately hard to keep up the pretence that Schimmel babies are well behaved children, so I have asked all 3 of them to please be on their best behaviour tomorrow. They are under strict instructions that no one is to deposit little nuggets anywhere than in the litter tray, no one is allowed to chase anyone through the plate of food, and if Jonesy is picked up for cuddles, he is NOT allowed to swear at whoever is cuddling him <sigh>. All 3 have also been told they must look their "prettiest" so they can be examined by The Man in the White Coat who will no doubt cast an expert eye over all 3, while the Rosette Queen will no doubt just cuddle Barry, convinced that she should be the one, and quite possibly, will keep putting Barry in the arms of The Man in the White Coat. Of course, that would be a waste of time as The Man in the White Coat will come to a decision all by himself without being influenced by any family members :)