A bit of bad news unfortunately. Amarula's diarrhoea has come back. I'm currently waiting for a product to arrive at my vet surgery that was ordered for me and hopefully that will get here this week and it should make a big difference. The Mel's are doing very well though and this hasn't affected them at all which is a relief. Poor Amarula must be so uncomfortable though and the bedding is being changed on a very regular basis today. I sometimes think that cat breeders should be given shares in washing powders, bleach and softener with the amount that we use! When I took the bedding out earlier (with babies on top) and placed it on the floor while I put new bedding in, I turned around to pick up the babies and put them back in the box, only to discover that Lethal Weapon and Braveheart had gone walkabouts! They had walked off the bedding that was on the floor and were making their way across the room. I decided it would be wisest to put those 2 babies back in the bed first, before Tia Lusso noticed. Fortunately she was busy stuffing her face full of cooked chicken. Due to the situation with Amarula though, rather than upset her I've just taken some "box" photos again today. It's going to be rather amusing when the kids move house in three days time because I do have visions of the Mel's running all over the room at 3 weeks of age while their mum's run along behind them and herd them back into bed.

Entries are a bit short today as it's very hectic with the babies leaving me on Friday and I have also cheated to save time because as you will see, I took "box photos" today rather than individual ones. I had mentioned earlier that the babies would be moving house on Monday, however I have now changed my mind and they are going to move house on Sunday instead. The reason for this is that my beautiful Guinness will be remaining me with an extra day or two which means that I now have Sunday free to bring the kids downstairs and let me assure you that moving the babies is a mammoth task. One of the biggest problems with having them in the back room is that for the first few weeks, no other cats will come in or out at all which unfortunately means that the rest of the feline household will not be able to access the cat run for at least 2 weeks because chances are I will not open up the door leading into the back room until the kids are at least 5 weeks old. I've also now discovered that it is definitely only Tia Lusso who has the problem with Ice because this morning when I went in to feed the mum's and weigh the babies, Amarula got out the door before I could stop her and she was perfectly happy to greet the rest of the cats who were lounging around in the upstairs hallway and she had no problems at all.

The Mel's weights were very good again this morning. Patriot is our smallest baby and I am sure she is going to be very fine boned, just like Guinness, and just like her mum and her grandmother. She looks so delicate in comparison with her brothers and sister. What really pleases me about the Mel's though is that they like my singing!!!! Can you believe it? Last night, I went into the room to check on them all and to have a chat with them and they were awake in the box having little games so I leant my head over the box and started singing a rather ridiculous song to them and Patriot, Braveheart and Lethal Weapon, all looked up at me and continued to do so while I sang, with their little ears wiggling the entire time. I think Graham thought I was mad when I was telling him about it a bit later.

Photo session this morning gave me nothing but a headache. First of all, I went into the kitten room at lunch time to take the mum's out so that I could take photos. I put a clean sheet on the cat bed that sits on the unit and I put the 4 Mel's on there. I started taking photos and I must have taken at least 20 when I suddenly thought that something wasn't right. I looked at Mad Max closely through the lens and realised that Mad Max was indeed Pepper and not Mad Max! So that was 20 wasted photos (thank goodness for digital cameras). I then took Pepper off the bed, put her back in the box, and grabbed Mad Max instead. I knew for sure that I had Mad Max this time around because of the noise he made. I then started the photo session again, managed 2 photos and the darn batteries died on me. So I had to quickly open the door, call out for Graham to bring me up the batteries that were in the kitchen on charge because I couldn't leave the room as the babies might have fallen off the unit. Graham brought the batteries up, I quickly changed them over and started again. This time I managed to take some photos of the right babies. I'm really pleased with Max's eye now and as you can see by the photos, it's no longer "stuck" and he certainly appears to be just fine and dandy. Weights were very good this morning, I'm really pleased with their gains at the moment. I looked at today's photos today as I was sorting them out and already, I know I am going to regret not keeping Patriot here! If you read the other diaries, you will know that I regret not keeping Guinness, and it's the same for Patriot. I do like the look of her and she has a fantastic personality so far. I think Graham is sick and tired of listening to me moan about the Havana's and the fact that I keep letting them go to new families. However, next time Amarula is mated to Sheridans and produces me a Havana girl, then she is going to stay here!!! Never again am I going to book another Havana until I have one of my own. Having said all that, I must say I'm rather fond of Lethal Weapon and Braveheart and I am convinced that as they mature, they are going to be really funny little people who are just going to be absolutely wonderful. At this stage, I find it rather easy to tell them apart so it will be interesting to see what if this is still the case in a few weeks' time. I had better sort finish sorting out photos now and go and kick myself for not having kept a Havana!

Our Mel's are really becoming very active now and trying to get them to keep still while taking photos today was almost impossible. I placed all 4 of them on the bed, facing the camera and within seconds, 3 of them had turned their back to me and started walking towards the wall. I'm rather attached to all four of our Mel's and can't wait until they move downstairs into the back room where I can be with them all day long. I made the decision that when I bring the babies downstairs on Monday I am not going to bring the box down, instead they will have kitten bedding on the floor and I will put a makeshift curtain up on the work surface so that the mum's will feel secure but this way the babies will have more freedom. I've come to the conclusion that Whingey Bum (aka Mad Max) is really an Oriental in Siamese fur. In all the litters I've had, there has never been a kitten this loud, and the loud ones that we have had have always been Orientals which is par for the breed. If Mad Max doesn't quieten down soon, I may just pop him in the carrier along with Joe Byrne when Lee and Susie turn up on Friday to take Joe home and they can deal with Mad Max. Actually, if he doesn't become a bit quieter it's entirely possible Lee and Susie may change their mind!

I'm really pleased to say that Amarula's diarrhoea has almost totally cleared up now. The diet of chicken, and her normal JW biscuits seems to have done the trick which is great because whilst it wasn't pleasant for me with regards to the litter trays and kitten bedding, it was obvious much worse for poor Amarula who was not feeling 100%. Lethal Weapon is looking more and more like a teddy bear each day and his sister, Braveheart looks more and more like a Goblin. So far, Patriot and Mad Max are looking relatively normal :) Max's voice is just piercing, it really does go straight through you. I've picked him up 5 times today to examine his eye and each time, he used his vocal chords to their fullest capacity. But one thing which surprised me is that Tia Lusso was happy just to sit in the box with the other babies today and as Mad Max was swearing at me, she didn't come out of the box to paw at me to try and take him back. This is wonderful progress and I think at long last, she has finally figured out that I am not hurting her children and that I give them back to her straight away. Patriot is a real sweetheart and an intelligent girl I think. She is not the 2nd Havana baby I have bred and I must say that the more Havana's I have, the more I actually would like to keep another one here. Maybe next year......................

There are no photos at all today sorry as we've had some visitors for most of the day and I've no really had the chance to take any photos.

At 2 weeks of age, our Mel's are doing incredibly well and they are moving around the box so much more now. They are also starting to play little games with each other. Well it would appear that I had better get on my knees and start groveling to my mate, Kim because yet again, Kim was right. No surprise there as she always is :) If you don't know what I am referring to then you obviously don't read each daily entry but I will go on to explain. Earlier, I insisted that Patriot (our Havana) was a male and that he was most definitely not female. I came to this conclusion by instinct only. Kim on the other hand, told me that she was definitely a female (going off her own instincts) and I told her she was wrong. Well if you haven't guessed by now, let me say that Kim is right and yes, Patriot is a female. So I am feeling rather foolish now. I do however, know one couple who will be rather thrilled about this and that is Linda and Peter because this now means that Patriot and Braveheart will both be sharing their home with Linda and Peter. So our Mel's are now confirmed as the following:

Patriot	Havana	Female
Braveheart	Oriental Black	Female
Mad Max	Seal Point	Male
Lethal Weapon	Oriental Black	Male

Mad Max had a rather special visitor today in the form of Lee and Susie who are going to be his new family. Normally, our babies wouldn't start to see their new families until they were 3 weeks old and had been moved downstairs to the back room but Lee and Susie were here to visit Joe Byrne who is going to be going home with them on Friday. While they were here, it made sense to introduce them to Joe Byrne's new "brother", in fact, Joe and Mad Max are actually half brothers so that's lovely. Fortunately, Amarula and Tia Lusso were not too bad when I showed off Mad Max, although we couldn't hold him for too long because I didn't want to upset Lusso and it's much better that the children are handled for short periods only when visitors are here so that she will remain calm and she will see that we give her babies back to her fairly quickly. The more often we do this, the more she will hopefully get used to it.