Day 34 - August 3, 2007

Our Nuts are doing extremely well in the litter training department in that I am finding quite a few firm little nuggets in the tray now on a very regular basis which I am pleased about as you can imagine. They are all doing incredibly well and Pecan has now overtaken Pistachio in the weight department which surprises me a little because up until this point, Pistachio was always the largest of all 4 boys, so for Pecan to suddenly overtake Pistachio with regards to weight was something I hadn't been expecting. Cashew is still one of the most mischievous babies in the litter, mainly because to him, life is just one big game and should not be taken seriously at all. Macadamia is still the smallest baby in the litter but that is no surprise whatsoever. As they are a bit older now, well they will be 5 weeks old tomorrow, they are turning into proper little kittens who have suddenly learnt the art of pouncing and stalking. All was going extremely well for Pecan as he was about to spring out from under Toussaint's kitten box so he could pounce on his brother, Pistachio, and I guess it was just unfortunate that he misjudged how low down he should crouch and ended up whacking his head on the bottom of the box :)

Day 33 - August 2, 2007

There are no entries for today sorry as we have had quite a bit going on and things seem to be all over the place at the moment.

Day 32 - August 1, 2007

Our Nuts all do seem to be thriving, but they really do get in my way whenever I'm in the kitten room trying to do something. Pecan is not in my good books as the little bugger bit me on the bum today while I was feeding Sherlock! At the time, I just assumed it was an accident, however, when I was then feeding Morse, he climbed up my leg and proceeded to bite me on the leg. Then on top of that, I have all of the Nuts wanting to run out the door every time I leave the room, and what is worse, they are encouraging the Detectives to follow suit so by the time I reach the door, I have an entire little Army of babies all behind me at my heels ready to come out the door with me. I do love them really but they are going to be such trouble when they are a little older, the signs have been there for a couple of weeks now.

Day 31 - July 31, 2007

I did have intentions of taking photos today, however, the Water Babies have been moved into the 2nd kitten room, along with Lucy, the Nuts and the Detectives, and this means that I am up at every single sound, just waiting for a war to break out. So I am getting nothing done at all today as I've not been able to spend more than 10 minutes on any one thing as I am up and down constantly.

I don't know what to say about these Nuts. They are such a handful, you really have no idea. All 4 of them are incredibly people orientated and they are ripping my legs to pieces at the moment. In the last 2 days though, they seem to have been making much better weaning progress. I was in the kitten room waiting for World War 3 to break out (don't ask!) and while I was there, standing very still, ignoring the babies totally, I was able to witness Macadamia chomping away on James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits which totally surprised me. I was also able to witness Cashew, Pistachio, and Pecan, all go to the little kitten plate which has the mashed up JW biscuits and evaporated milk, and at various times they just walked straight over and were eating. So on one hand, I can relax a little now about the Nuts and their weaning. They are still so very young so in reality, to even have this much progress where they help themselves to the plates is quite a breakthrough. I am not topping up any of the Nuts, which I was previously had been doing, so the next week is going to be the telling point where weights are concerned. They are also extremely playful babies and there are an awful lot of wrestling matches going on nowadays and I have to say that Pecan is the worst when it comes to starting trouble. He sneaks up on the other babies, bites them on the bum, and then jumps on top of them, pinning them down while he chews their ears.

Day 30 - July 30, 2007

I did actually take photos today, despite our devastating loss of Frost last night, but I think I feel the need to do "something" so that I am not thinking about him and we do have other babies in the home, all of whom need me, and there are diaries to be done, I think I'm just trying to have some pretence of normality in a very surreal world at the moment.

It's very difficult to do this diary entry because the Nuts and the Detectives share the same room and when I think about the Nuts, I also think about our loss so I really do not know what to say. Weaning has been an extremely slow process with Cashew and Macadamia. Pecan and Pistachio are fine. I simply pick them up, put them in front of the plate, and they eat. Both of them will also go to the plate of their own accord. Today, for the first time ever, Macadamia went to the plate, had a sniff, and started eating. Prior to this point, he has shown no interest at all. It will be interesting to see whether or not he actually continues to do this. Cashew is one of a kind, he is more concerned about climbing up my leg than he is about food. Within 30 seconds of me being in the kitten room and feeding Sherlock/Morse, Cashew is halfway up my leg and there's nothing I can do because my hands are full with the babies I am syringe feeding. You can imagine the looks of pain on my face as he digs his claws in. It isn't just him though as all 4 Nuts delight in climbing up my legs and it's not unusual to have 4 babies hanging off my trousers as I wander around the room. All 4 of them are such characters, they are very special babies and there are countless things I could tell you about them but right now, I am just feeling too numb.