We are 7 weeks old now!

Day 48 - August 17, 2007

Our Nuts have been in an incredibly feisty mood today. I don't know if it's because they suddenly have 2 new playmates who are joining in their games, or if it's just something in the air but each time I have been in the kitten room there have been wrestling matches going on. The Nuts aren't fussy who they fight with and it makes no difference whether it is with themselves, the Detectives, or even the little Water Babies. They really are typical little boys and goodness only knows what Elaine and Stuart will think if the see the below photos where Pecan is trying really hard to take chunks out of Cashew! If I had to pick a "gentle soul" in this litter of four, it would be Macadamia. Whilst he does love to play, he is nowhere near as rough as his other 3 brothers.

Day 47 - August 16, 2007

I do think that our Nuts were very aptly named because there are some days, when I swear blind that all 4 Nuts are sharing the same brain cell. Take today for example............Cashew and Pistachio were playing on the ramp of the Water Babies' posh box, right next to the water bowl. Now that bowl has been there long enough for both babies to know about it, so why on earth did both babies walk straight down the ramp, and straight into the bowl that was right there in front of them? Cashew escaped getting a bath, but unfortunately, Pistachio chose to just keep walking straight into the bowl <sigh>. So Pistachio was soaking wet and Cashew was sitting up looking a tad dazed, wondering why the water bowl smacked him in the head. Pecan, bless him, decided that right or wrong, he would definitely be able to fit under his own posh box, and he spent a good 15 minutes, stuffing various body parts (his own) underneath the box, wondering just why he couldn't fit. I will add here that his posh box is lower to the ground than the other posh box. This brings me to Macadamia...................today was his turn to have the shared brain cell as he was perfectly normal today :)

Day 46 - August 15, 2007

Our Nuts decided this morning that it would be fun to wait until one of them was in the litter tray, going about their business, and that would be the time to pounce on the poor baby in the tray. At one point this morning we had all 4 Nuts in the same tray, playing games and no matter how many times I tried to tell them that litter trays are not places to play in, they wouldn't listen at all which is no surprise really. You'll notice in some of the photos below that Pecan is trying to show his mummy, Marcelle, that he will have a lovely long body just the same as his dad and he has spent an awful lot of time trying to stretch and reach as far as he possibly could. Just like the Detectives, the Nuts are thrilled to have 2 new playmates and they didn't hesitate to go into the Water Babies' box to introduce themselves and to try and entice them to play. Pistachio and Macadamia couldn't quite understand that Thames and Ock were not as active as they are yet and despite pouncing on both of them, they had very little reaction from the Water Babies.

Day 45 - August 14, 2007

All entries are the same today...........

Actually, there aren't really any entries at all today. Last night, I had said to my mate Teen on the phone, that ever since the Nuts were born, I have spent so much time just trying to keep these babies alive, that I had gotten very little pleasure out of the babies at all. All my energy and time had been consumed with syringe feeding and 24 hour monitoring, and I think I had forgotten how to actually just enjoy the babies. So today, I spent some time doing exactly that. I was in the kitten room, sitting on the floor with the kids, just chatting with them and playing, and it was then that it hit me that THIS is what breeding is about and this is what I had missed with these babies because these litters have been bloody hard work, they have been exhausting, so I am now making up for lost time and am simply just going to have fun with our babies :)

Day 44 - August 13, 2007

To explain today's photos..................well I entered the kitten room, armed with the camera and the hoover, and Tia Lusso decided that was the time to herd all 9 children into the corner underneath the shelf unit. None of them would come out so I just took photos (bad ones!) of them where they were.

Our Nuts have become escapees! Every single time I open the kitten room door, they are waiting on the other side and they run straight out. There's nothing I can do to stop them so what I am doing is closing the door once I've gone in, I then put down whatever it is I may have in my hands, whether it's food or bedding, I then go back out the door and play "Hunt the Kitten". More often than not, the escaped Nuts have gone straight back into the 2nd kitten room where they spent the first few weeks of their lives. What amazes me is that no matter which Nut it is that escapes, they are not phased at all that they are suddenly surrounded by other babies and adult cats, they just happily greet them all and continue wherever it is that they are going. They really are such endearing little children, so full of life and fun.

Day 43 - August 12, 2007

When I went into the kitten room this morning with my arms piled high with plates, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The Nuts had well and truly made themselves at home in the room and they were on top of the work surface, on top of the wooden shelf unit, up in the top of the scratch post, everywhere they shouldn't be in fact. I know that I definitely made the right decision to move them all into the room because they are having such a great time in there and they are getting a lot of exercise with all the climbing that they are doing. I am very pleased that we've had now little toilet accidents since the room move (at least not where the Nuts are concerned) and all 4 of the babies go straight into the litter trays, despite them being so much further away from the bed in this room, than they were in the other room.

Day 42 - August 11, 2007

Our Nuts are totally thrilled with being moved to the much larger kitten room and within 10 minutes of being placed in the room, instead of looking a bit tense, or scared, they were already exploring and trying to climb up the large scratch post. They have their own posh box back now although Tia Lusso insists that all the babies must sleep underneath the wooden shelf unit and feed under there, rather than use their box <sigh>. I don't know what it is about Lucy and keeping them all in the smallest place possible but it is definitely what she prefers for some odd reason. Each time I've been in the kitten room, when the babies aren't sleeping they are tearing around the room, trying to climb on absolutely everything that they can. I am really pleased by this because I do love to see active little babies at this age, having lots of fun. It was a special day for Cashew today because his new mum and dad, Elaine and her husband (many apologies as for the life of me, I can not think of his name) came to visit him. So far he has not had any visitors (bit like poor Pistachio really as no one seems to want him, well that's a lie as we've had inquiries but none of them suitable so far) and fortunately, Cashew was quite sleepy while his new mum and dad were here, whereas Miss Marple put on a lovely show for them. Lucy also showed herself off well by demanding attention the entire time our kitten visitors were here. It was really lovely to meet Elaine and her husband and I have no doubts at all that Cashew will have a fantastic home with them, and the rest of their fur family.