Again like yesterday, there are no photos yet, but please do check back much, much later this afternoon as I will try to invent some new hours in the day so that I have time to take photos and upload them.

Today I have some rather bad news I'm afraid (at least for me it's bad news, I am sure other breeders would be pleased) with regards to the results from Amarula's poo sample. I telephoned my vets this morning and the results had just come in. Unfortunately, they were unable to find or grow anything at all. There are no bugs, no parasites, not a darn one. The most they could come up with was that Amarula has damaged bowel flora which can easily be corrected with Protexin. I'll be popping in this afternoon to pick up the Protexin which can also be given to Patriot. However, it's fairly safe to say that Amarula's bowel issue is not the cause of Patriot's demise so we are absolutely no better off at all. For me, this is actually quite depressing because I had been desperately hoping that the results would come back showing some parasite or other which would have meant that we could treat Patriot but it just is not going to happen. I know I should be pleased that Amarula is healthy and there are no "nasties" lurking around but I've been relying on these test results so we can make Patriot better but we are now back to square one I'm afraid and at this point, there really is nothing we can do but sit it out and pray that a miracle will happen and she will start getting better all by herself.

There will be photos later on in today's entry, however, at the moment it's just so busy that I don't have time to put any online (in fact, I've not actually taken any yet), but I wanted to get the entries online at least. So check back later on this afternoon and there should be some photos in the entries.

As you know, today should have been the day our results were back from the poo sample, however, when I telephoned the vets, unfortunately the results are not yet in, so I will contact them again tomorrow. So obviously we are no further at all with Patriot and any possible treatment for her. Yet again, she has not lost weight, nor has she gained so we are still at a standstill where she is concerned. As I write this entry, the babies are all sound asleep, Patriot and Mad Max are on "their chair" along with the Condiments, whereas Lethal Weapon and Braveheart are both asleep on my lap. They are in for a bit of a rude shock though as I must get up and put the washing in the dryer and make a cup of coffee. Both of them do curl up on my lap quite often too sleep and they get extremely offended when I have to move them. You would think by now they would learn that if you sleep on mum, you have to be used to get constantly disturbed as I am always up and down. Mind you, they do get their own back on my by jumping off the back of my chair, straight onto my shoulders. This is something that Lethal Weapon started, Braveheart then decided it would be a fun thing to do as well so she now does the same.

There is no photos today sorry and not much of an entry either for that matter due to lack of time yet again.

Patriot has had very little change, again she has not lost any weight, however, she has not put any on either so she remains exactly the same unfortunately. Everyone else is doing extremely well and I think the babies are pleased that it was not as hot today. They have been running around like lunatics, and eating like there is no tomorrow. Mad Max has become extremely possessive about his fish and when he eats it, he puts one of his paws on the plate to make sure none of the other babies get "his" share. I had to laugh this morning because Vinegar was beside him at the plate and Vinegar's mouth must have gotten too close to Mad Max's part of the plate, so Mad Max growled at Vinegar most ferociously, but instead of backing off, like I thought he would do, Vinegar turned around and bit Mad Max on the leg that was on the plate. Mad Max got a bit of a shock and I just burst out laughing. Lethal Weapon and Braveheart have much better manners when it comes to meal times.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Before I go any further with today's entries, would all of our kitten families please note that your babies have now received their first set of vaccinations which means that they will be able to go to their new homes, as originally planned which is the weekend starting July 7, 2006. Now I am fully aware that some of you have organised holidays around the date change, so please don't worry about this as naturally your babies are welcome to remain here the extra week. This is not a problem at all. Could I ask that you please send me an email with regards to when you would like to collect your babies?

I'm going to start with Patriot on this one. As you all know, Patriot has been the only baby to continue to go downhill and we are all extremely worried about her. She was still however, vaccinated today along with the rest of the babies, after an extremely thorough examination. We had a chat about her and what was going on etc. There is nothing out of the ordinary with her at all, heart, temperature, glands, mouth, eyes, ears, etc. are all perfectly normal and apart from her weight, there is nothing in her outward appearance that suggests at all that anything is wrong. So after weighing up the pros and cons, Andy and I decided that the risk of not vaccinating her would have been higher than the the risk of having her done along with everyone else. At the moment, there is absolutely nothing at all we can treat her with, remembering that she has been on protexin and enzymes. We are currently waiting for results to come back this week from a faecal sample from Amarula that was taken in last week. Our last hope at this moment for Patriot is that the faecal sample will come back positive with some form of bug or bacteria in which case, we then know exactly what to treat Patriot with. There is no point putting her on any form of treatment when nothing is outwardly wrong, she is just underweight so we are playing the waiting game now. This is not a wonderful place for us to be at the moment however Andy feels that we do still have some leeway and some time, despite the fact that she is losing an awful lot of weight and is so very thin, and the results will be back in time to hopefully be able to start some form of treatment. This is where we stand at the moment with Patriot so we will keep praying for her, and that the results will be positive and we can treat her. She is such a little poppet and the biggest part of her is her ears, and her vocal chords! Everyone else sailed through their vet check and their vaccinations and they were all so incredibly well behaved. I do think they were very pleased to get back home though because the moment the carrier door was opened, the first babies to shoot straight out were Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, and Mad Max.

After vaccinations, when we arrived home, the first thing I did was to feed the babies as they were all hungry. All 7 babies will be closely monitored for signs of any side effects, particularly Patriot because if anyone is going to be affected worse than the others, it will be her. Everyone is asleep at the moment so it is rather peaceful. One of the problems we will have is the heat. The vaccinations themselves can take quite a lot out of the babies as it's such a shock to their bodies to be pumped with the drugs and when you add the heat on top of that, it can be a dangerous combination.

Again I must apologise for the lack of entry in the diaries yesterday, however, we recently had some unexpected news which means that we are going to be extremely busy during the next month and half. I was also busy trying to catch up with all the house work and washing of show equipment from the day before. In short, it has been an exhausting day to say the least. The babies are coping quite well with the heat which surprises me and today, Patriot, Braveheart and Salt, had a visit from their new family, Linda and Peter which was really lovely. We had a chat about Patriot and they had some cuddles with their babies and I think even they were amazed in the difference with all the babies now, except of course for Patriot who is not improving at all.

Many apologies for not getting an entry online until the following day. The reason for this is that we were exhibiting Cacao at the London Cat Club show yesterday, as were the owners of other Schimmel cats. It was an extremely long and tiring day however the results made it all worthwhile. Our Mel's and Condiments were left in the hands of Graham and on Friday night, I made up all their meals for the day and put them in separate, labeled containers in the fridge so Graham just had to heat them up. The babies apparently ate extremely well in my absence, particularly when it came to the fish meals which they are still incredibly hooked on. As I wasn't here for the day, we had decided beforehand that we would not have the house opened up, instead, the babies had their back room as well as the cat run to play in all day. Apparently the rest of the family were most annoyed at this because in such warm weather, they all like to go out in the cat run. When I came home early evening, I did open the door up so that the babies could wander through the house and the adults could go into the run.