Day 48 - February 16, 2004

Well we're back to normal this morning and the Little Warriors were pleased that I didn't sleep in like yesterday. When I went to give the babies their lunch today, they were all sound asleep but as they had been awake all morning I'm not really surprised. Looks like they won't be getting lunch until much later in the afternoon when they wake up. It took me over an hour to get everything out of the wardrobe this morning and to then scrub the wardrobe inside from top to bottom. I'm happy to say though, that since blocking their access to it, we've had no messes whatsoever. Their weight gains are still good and you wouldn't think that Calisto had been born so much later than the rest of the Little Warriors as she isn't that far behind them at all. They all still eat like little piggies and they now eat the dry kitten food more than the wet food so I'm really pleased. They created havoc all morning today, tearing up and down the hallway, the stairs and in and out of the kitten room, as well as making a mess in the bathroom.

Day 47 - February 15, 2004

After a late start to the morning, the day went on as normal, however, the babies decided that today they wouldn't sleep at all in the morning. For the first time ever, they decided to play up until about 11.30am. I guess this was because they had such a late start. During the afternoon, Gabby met her new mum for the first time and it was love at first sight by both Gabby and Caryll. I am so pleased because Gabby had been looking forward to seeing her new mum and impressing her with her charm. It won't be long I am sure until Ray totally succumbs to Gabby's appealing nature although I don't think that Caryll will give him much choice in the matter. Just as well that he appears to be a very tolerant man. After I gave the babies their dinner that night, I discovered something that I wish I hadn't! Whilst cleaning out the kitten room, I noticed that a certain Little Warrior (who's name I won't mention as it will embarrass her) had been to the toilet in the wardrobe. I am presuming it was this one because I watched her go in there and prepared to "do something" so I quickly took her out, placed her in the litter tray where she promptly proceeded to go. After taking a closer look in the wardrobe, I found out that this wasn't the first time! Normally, this wouldn't have been a major problem as it would just be a case of cleaning up all the mess and using a disinfectant in the wardrobe, however..........all my evening wear, i.e. long dresses that need to be dry cleaned were in there. Fortunately, a lot of them are in clothes bags, however, the mess had gone on to the clothes bags and it's rather a nightmare. I then spent the next 10 minutes blocking off the wardrobe and I put a litter tray in front of the wardrobe which is now being used. I don't think any of the babies are happy at not being allowed access to the wardrobe but they will just have to live with it! Must admit that it's one of the first time I've ever been annoyed with something that the babies have done. Obviously, I gave the offending girl a cuddle and explained that while I understand she is still a very little baby, she needs to understand that she should only go to the toilet in the litter trays. It's been a fairly hectic weekend which is why there's been no photos for a couple of days however I will make sure I take some for tomorrow's entry.

Day 46 - February 14, 2004

Tia's and Cacao's diary entries are both exactly the same for today and I'm afraid there isn't a single photo. Hopefully I'll get back on track with the entries by tomorrow morning. I wasn't around today as I was showing one of our girls, Amaretto, at a cat show all day, so it was a case of getting up very early to feed the babies and clean up the kitten room, before rushing off to the show. I came back at about 11am to feed the babies again and clean up more mess, then went back to the show for the rest of the afternoon. It was really lovely to see Jacqueline (new owner of one of the Charmed Ones) and Caryll (new owner of Gabby) at the show. Even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them due to interruptions by other people, I hope they did enjoy themselves and I'm looking forward to seeing them later on this afternoon when Caryll will be seeing darling Gabby for the first time ever. I think it will be love at first sight. Arrived home approximately 5.15pm to feed the babies, clean up yet again more mess, spend some time with them before then unpacking show equipment, washing show blankets, etc. so I truly wasn't around a great deal at all which is why this entry has nothing in it :)

Day 45 - February 13, 2004

Let me start this by saying that tomorrow's diary will not go online until Sunday as I will be out for quite a lot of the day. Speaking of Sunday, Cayll will be coming round to see Gabby for the first time ever. Let's hope that Gabby makes a good impression and that Caryll doesn't change her mind. Calisto is currently up on my shoulder, her favourite place to be, chewing on my hair. The babies are doing really well at the moment with excellent weight gains. Xena is the only baby who occasionally has trouble with the stairs. I only know this because I watched her fall down 3 of them today much to her utter disgust. Gabby and I had to have a "dominance argument" this morning as Gabby has suddenly become very possessive about her beanie baby toys. When she gets hold of them she growls quite ferociously at anyone who looks like they are going near her toy. Now it's fine for her to do that with the other babies as some babies will always be more dominant than others, however, she's not allowed to do that with me. After about 20 minutes of taking Gabby's toy off her and then giving it back to her, she's now figured out that it's actually my toy, not hers and that she only has it because I gave it to her and as a result she doesn't growl if I go near the toy. Watching them at play last night I realised that whereas Xena, Gabby and Calisto will all go and jump on another baby to wrestle them, Hera sits back and waits until 2 are already wrestling and then she goes in and bites the kitten on the top. She never instigates a wrestling match herself. The Little Warriors have been awake since 7.30am today and it's currently 11.26am as I write this and they haven't slept once! I'm hoping they will settle down soon so I can have a bit of peace and get some housework done.

Day 44 - February 12, 2004

As I type this, I have Hera sitting on my shoulder. We had a bit of a problem yesterday afternoon concerning Phoebe, our dog and both mums but I won't go into that here as it didn't involved the Little Warriors. You can read about it though in Tia's Kitten Diary. The babies were given the run of the downstairs for a while yesterday with the dogs and none of the Ori babies were phased by the dogs at all. In particularly, Calisto was very fascinated with them. She kept going up to Sabre to sniff her and touch her fur while Sabre looked on with that bored expression she tends to get. The first thing that Gabby did when given her "freedom" was hop up onto the lounge and scale the curtains right to the top of the ceiling. Fortunately they are heavy curtains so she didn't do any damage. Removing the little sofa in the kitten room stopped any toileting in the wrong place by the Ori's so I'm really pleased. The Little Warriors have been making much use of the activity centre and really seem to enjoy it although they still love their cardboard boxes. I caught Hera tearing the toilet paper to shreds after she had pulled it off the holder. Calisto, in her usual fashion, spent 1/2 an hour sitting on my shoulders chewing my hair which normally I don't mind but when she bit me very hard on the ear I started to object!

Photos from yesterday afternoon

Day 43 - February 11, 2004

Just like the Charmed Ones, our Little Warriors have been incredibly naughty during the last 24 hours. I've had to rearrange the kitten room due to the fact that even though the girls use their litter trays, they still insist on going to the toilet on their little sofa bed. It had gotten to the stage where I was washing bed covering twice a day so I figured enough was enough. I've now removed their sofa bed from the kitten room altogether. The babies can now sleep on their chair, or in the cat carriers which sit on the ottoman, as well as on some bedding on top of the ottoman. They never make any mess in their crates or on their chair so common sense says to remove the objects they they do make a mess on. Obviously I should have done this yesterday, because this morning they had made a right mess of the sofa bed which had to be hand washed as only parts of the covers can be removed. Hera is very troublesome when it comes to opening doors as she moves so darn quick and as soon as I open a door, she comes running through. Even the thought of the dogs and other cats on the other side of the door doesn't deter her at all. I'm now learning to put my foot through the door first to gently push her back as I try an get in. Gabby has been chasing and terrorising every Siamese that she can find and I caught her this morning attacking the bathroom mat and chewing on it! Xena was really vile to poor Hera late last night as I was in the Kitten Room and Xena had Hera's ear in her mouth and was dragging her along by her ear while Hera was squealing the whole time. Calisto on the other hand, has been remarkably good (just for a change), apart from wrestling with Xena, she's been more interested in climbing up my legs for cuddles then destroying the house. She has gotten into the same habit as her mum which is to climb up my chair and then sit on top of the back of it, however unlike Cacao who just sits there, Calisto chew my hair. As you can tell by the photos below, I haven't been able to take a single decent photo today at all! I'll try again later this afternoon or this evening.

Day 42 - February 10, 2004 (6 weeks old today!)

3 of our babies had a new experience last night. During dinner, the babies had the run of the upstairs and part of the downstairs of the house and after dinner, as we opened the door to the stairs, both Calisto and Hera came running straight though so they could "explore" downstairs. It's the first time any of the babies have had the run of the downstairs as normally during they day they are in the back room here with me. Needless to say they both had a great time. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the babies or Amaretto, Ice and Kahlua who thought I had given them new toys to play with. Wherever the babies went to, the 3 adult cats followed them round, sniffing them and trying to play with them. After that, Gabriel was introduced to our 2 dogs, Sabre & Shelley. We were delighted to see that not only did our dogs not eat Gabby (just kidding, they wouldn't really), little Gabby was totally unphased by the dogs and wasn't scared of them at all. In another couple of weeks, we'll be giving the babies the run of the whole of the downstairs during the day. In the meantime, we will start to introduce to the downstairs, and our dogs, one at a time, so they get used to everything before they have the run of the place. The babies have a new toy today (photo below) which so far, they have shown no interest in at all! They still prefer their cardboard box with the holes cut out. I'm desperately hoping that this will change otherwise I've just bought a rather expensive ornament!

Photos taken yesterday afternoon