We are 4 weeks old now!

Day 27 to 29 - July 27 to 29, 2007

There are no diary entries for the above days because Friday was an incredibly hectic day, on Saturday we were showing at the KKNCC show in Reading, so we were in and out all day as we went to the show in the morning, came back to feed, and then went back to the show. Sunday was spent cleaning up the house as we weren't here on Saturday, and doing copious amounts of washing. Diary entries should resume as per normal on Monday, July 30, 2007.

Day 26 - July 26, 2007

Today's photos are awful as the camera batteries were dying halfway through the photo session so don't expect any great pictures today!

The sooner our Nuts are eating from the plate the better! When I came downstairs from one of today's weaning meals, even Graham couldn't quite believe his eyes when he saw the state of me. My trousers were covered in weaning mixture all the way down both legs. Let me explain why. I put the weaning plate down, on a towel, picked Pecan up and put him in front of the plate, he started eating straight away as it is becoming routine for him now. I then put Pistachio in front of the plate, and after walking through it once, he then realised that what was on the plate might be a bit yummy so he started eating which I was really pleased about, as this was the first time he has eaten so far. Then along comes Cashew and Macadamia, with no interest in eating the food, but then why would they? It's much more fun of course to walk straight through the mixture, across the plate, onto the carpet and straight up onto my lap. I couldn't believe the mess.Then while the other 2 babies are trying to eat, Tia Lusso starts covering up the food with the towel that the plate is resting on. Why? Quite simply because she believes the babies should not be out of the box and they should not be eating proper food, so if she covers it up, they can't get to it. I'm then trying to remove food covered babies from my lap, while I uncover the food, as Pecan had no idea what suddenly happened to his meal. Never, in all of my life, have I been so relieved to actually leave a kitten room. But even then, as I was leaving, all 4 of the little buggers are running as fast as their legs will carry them, trying to follow me out the door.

Day 25 - July 25, 2007

I learnt a very valuable lesson this morning and that is.............do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitten room in your pj's because my legs have now been scratched to pieces by the Nuts. I was sitting on the floor as per usual, trying to feed Sherlock, and the Nuts were straight up on my lap, using my legs as climbing posts and there was nothing I could do about it. They are going to be a real handful and I'm not surprised at all to be honest. Already, they are incredibly affectionate and very people orientated. As soon as I enter the room, they are straight out of the box and running towards me and I must admit that I do find this adorable. Our first baby to eat from the plate is Pecan and I know that Marcelle will be very proud of him. At last, one of the Nuts finally understands what it is that they should be doing. Despite trying with the other 3 Nuts, they just don't get it at all, not even when they were standing right at the plate beside their brother, watching him eat. Still, it's early days, they aren't even 4 weeks old yet so we will get there. As for their mum, Amarula...............well we are really pleased to say that 2 days ago, the pen was dismantled and put back in the shed where it came from and hopefully we won't ever have to see it again! Amarula is looking so much better now, although she does still have a way to go yet, but there is a big difference in her now, and what she was like last week. She'll not be able to go back to her babies at all obviously, although I know she is still missing them. Fortunately, our Nuts don't seem too concerned that they don't have their real mum, and as far as Tia Lusso is concerned, the Nuts are her children anyway.

Day 24 - July 24, 2007

Tia Lusso is not happy with me at all and she is holding me responsible for allowing the Nuts to have their freedom. Yes, the kitten box ramp is now permanently down so the Nuts can explore the room if they choose to and let me assure you, they have certainly been exploring. I don't actually think there is an inch of space left in the room that they haven't "checked out". I don't know how many times Lucy has climbed out of the box to go and get them and take them back to bed but I'm hoping that it will soon dawn on her that it is a futile effort because no sooner does she put them in the box, (right up the far back of the box I might add!), then they climb straight back out again and they are quite fast considering their age. Allowing them access to the whole room is causing me two problems, but they aren't major problems, and the first is that when I am doing the 2 hourly feeding, the Nuts now climb straight up onto my lap. I don't know that they are waiting for their turn to be topped up, or if they are just using me as their own personal climbing frame, but let me assure you it is very difficult to syringe feeding little ones when I have 4 Nuts on my lap exploring. The other problem is when I am trying to leave the kitten room, I have to be so very careful because as I'm about to walk out the door, there is a convoy of Nuts following me, thinking that they too can go where I'm going. They are so funny though and in true "Ashanti" fashion, they are phased by nothing at all. The words "fear" and "caution" don't even come into their vocabularies.

Day 23 - July 23, 2007

There are no photos, and no diary entries today, because as of early this morning, we have brand new children in the home and it's an extremely busy day with lots of cleaning up and washing to do.

Day 22 - July 22, 2007

Remember how Macadamia struggled at the start? Well he has now overtaken Cashew in the weight department, admittedly not by much, but who would have thought it, right at the beginning. He has come along in leaps and bounds. I'm quite happy with all 4 of our Nuts' weights at the moment for the 3 week mark and I do think all 4 babies, particularly Pistachio, are going to be large boys, just like their dad. They really are starting to get desperate for the freedom so as of tomorrow, the ramp will remain permanently down and I just hope that Lusso will be happy to let them wander about and explore without feeling the need to go and retrieve them every time they leave the box. I know that if Lucy had her way, they would remain her independent babies forever. Pistachio is defintely going to be the "cleanest" baby of all of them, not unlike his father (Ashanti is pedantic about keeping himself clean), because whenever he is awake, the is constantly grooming himself, and the other babies, unlike Pecan who seems to spend a lot of his time chewing his own limbs, and those of the other babies. I guess that Pecan hasn't quite got the hang of grooming yet................either that or he isn't fed enough :) Out of the 4 babies though, surprisingly it is going to be Macadamia and Cashew who are the most vocal. Even now at this very young age, they have no qualms at all about using their voice when they want food or attention and boy are they loud!

Day 21 - July 21, 2007

Today was Amarula's check up at the vets, so I drove to our vets, only to discover our poor vets had been flooded out, like many in our area, and couldn't see any patients at all. So I'll give them a call later and re book another appointment. Fortunately, the Prednicare is making a huge difference with Amarula and I'm hoping it will only be another couple of days and she can be out of the pen altogether. She's no longer "leaking" from the back end, her stools are much better formed and can actually be scooped out of the litter tray. I can't tell you how relieved I am because despite looking so very thin still, Amarula is so much more comfortable now and that is all that matters. She is still on the prescription Hills i/d diet and will be for quite some time, although, to try and get some weight back on her, I have now started mixing the Hills a/d with the i/d. The a/d is extremely rich, full of fat and will put weight on her, however, while her digestive system was so upset, she had to be on the i/d which is designed for cats with vomiting or diarrhoea problems however the i/d is not designed to put weight on. I was a bit concerned that mixing the a/d and i/d might start off her diarrhoea again but I'm delighted to say that it hasn't. It will be a while before we can get our baby girl back to her beautiful self, and back in condition but once she is back up to her normal weight, we will be booking her in to be spayed so I guess the Nuts are Amarula's final litter. Having said that, she is out at the moment having a wander around Graham's room and she is certainly enjoying the freedom so she can stay out for a while. Our Nuts are not doing too badly at all considering they are 3 weeks old today and have had so many changes during the first 3 weeks of their lives. Weaning is still progressing extremely slowly but any progress is better than none at all. I still feel it will be at least a week before any of our Nuts are eating from the plate, but so long as they continue to eat from my fingers and make an effort with the food, then I'm quite pleased with that. It was a special day today for Pecan as his mum and dad, and Caryll visited him today. It was great to see Marcelle and Jim whom I hadn't seen for a while now and it was lovely to be able to introduce their new boy to them. Pecan will have the time of his life in his new home, playing with Bailey (his grand father), and Moog, an adorable Persian girl. It will be interesting to see as time passes, whether or not Pecan grows up to be as big as his father and grand father. Of course it was lovely to see Caryll again as well, and we managed to have a great chat, albeit short, but I know we'll be seeing each other quite soon again anyway. Tia Lusso didn't hesitate to let poor Marcelle know she had been holding her babies for too long because Lucy walked up to Marcelle, and grabbed Pistachio out of her lap and carted him back to the box. Then a while later, she attempted to grab Pecan from Marcelle's hands and take him back to the box. I'm actually surprised she let them be handled as much as they were.