I am 3 weeks old now!

Both entries start off exactly the same today.................

Yesterday afternoon, we had to go to the vets with our old dog Sabre. She is 16 years old now and needed a check up and new medication for her arthritis. We also went to Tesco while we were out. Anyway, we came back, put the shopping away, made a coffee, fed all the feline family, I then went into the kitchen to prepare a meal for Drambuie and a meal for the 2 mum's. I took the meal up to the kitten room, opened the door, and stared in horror at the posh box which should have had Sami's babies in there, but it didn't, there was no one in there at all. Instantly I knew what had happened, so I turned around and sure enough, both Sambuca and Cointreau were coming out of Cointreau's box, and inside Cointreau's box was: Liquorice, Little Tuk, Ugly Ducking, Ice Maiden, and Snow Queen. Now fair enough, I knew at some point that the mum's would just join ranks and raise the babies together but they have at least had the gratitude to have all shared them in the posh box, rather than Cointreau's old cardboard box. What on earth I am going to say to Tone and Teen I do not know. Actually, I made the decision when I discovered all the babies together, that if they remained together until today, and there were no incidences, then I would move the cardboard box out of the room altogether, leaving just the posh box, then they will have no choice but to all use the posh box :) They do look funny together because Liquorice is so much bigger obviously than Sami's 2 Black children and I shall be watching carefully to ensure no one is trod on, squashed, and that everyone is still getting a nipple. Although 5 babies between 2 mums should have no problems at all finding a spare nipple! Oh, and on a totally different note, Caryll sent me an email yesterday telling me how to sort out the scales so that I wouldn't have to subtract the total weight from the container. All I had to do was put the container on the scales and then set them to "0". So yep, I'm feeling rather silly for not realising this before :) Now onto our individual entries...........

Today's news about Liquorice comes as a bit of a shock..................Last night, Graham and I went into the kitten room so he could meet the babies as he'd not really met them properly so I showed him who was who, we checked sexes, and erm I have to say that Liquorice has turned into a girl!!!!! As you know I sexed her not long after she was born, and because of her size and her length, I automatically went on presuming she was a he, and I have not ever once looked again from the day she was born, until last night that is! So you can imagine my shock. Then of course I was showing Graham how fantastic looking she is and showing him how long she is and straight away he was saying, "well we don't really need another Black do we." <sigh> So I'm guessing he could see where I was going when I was telling him how lovely she is and what I was thinking :). I have to say that I am really pleased that the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson are now living with Liquorice because even though they are younger than her and can't do what she can, it does mean that she won't be so lonely any more because she has "brothers" and "sisters" to play with and snuggle with and I am really thrilled about this. She is really enjoying having new playmates because every time I am in the kitten room, if she is asleep, she has her paws around one of the younger babies, hugging them as she sleeps which is so endearing.

You can probably tell by the photos below that Liquorice has now taken his first steps out of his kitten box. I was changing the bedding for the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson and I turned around and saw him tentatively putting one paw in and out of the box. Once I realised that he was determined he definitely climbing out one way or another, I put some soft bedding in front of the box because at least this way, if he starts to wander around the room, which I know he is going to do, he will be able to get back into his box without any problems. "Frogman" has now become "Sniffer Cat" by the way. I swear I have never seen a baby put so much emphasis on sniffing his surroundings. It's like last night when I was stroking him, I had to stop and keep my hand in front of him so that he could sniff it all over, and he even had a little nip of my fingers, then when I put the soft bedding in front of the box this morning, as you can see by photos number 4 and 5, prior to just stepping out, the bedding had to be sniffed. I can see a great career for this boy as a sniffer dog at airports or something like that :)

After typing the above text, I then did all the walls and skirting boards and went upstairs to weigh the babies. You can imagine my surprise as I entered the room because the first thing I saw was Liquorice, sitting on the base of the scratch post! He had walked back out of the box (I put him back in there when I finished taking photos this morning) and I watched him get off the scratch post and then start to happily explore the entire room! 19 days of age and he thinks he should be able to wander wherever he wants. I had a feeling that once he started, there would be no stopping him, but he could have at least waited another few days. I have already warned Graham that we now must be extremely careful when we open the door to the kitten room because there will be a very good chance that a Liquorice could be behind the door.

I'm afraid that today's photos of Liquorice are all rather boring because he totally refused to change position most of the time so a lot of the photos are very similar. But that's okay because he does have such an adorable little face anyway :) Liquorice isn't phased at all by the hoover and every morning he sits up as straight as he can in his box and watches me whiz around the room hoovering up all the mess that the 2 mum's are making. Actually, at the moment he isn't really phased by anything at all which I am really pleased about. He's got into the habit now of sniffing the bedding every time it is changed (minimum once a day) and I love it when the babies start doing this. I put in the new bedding, I put the baby back in the box, and the baby then crawls all around the box, nose firmly attached to the bedding, sniffing as much of the bedding as quickly as he can. He really is a happy little soul although I do sometimes think he is a bit lonely being the only baby and it will be nice when the babies are all out of their boxes and playing together.

It's interesting to note that Liquorice' "other family" also are of the opinion that he looks like a frog so goodness only knows just what he will grow up to be! I'm really pleased that there was no baby snatching overnight and that the Cointreau remained with Liquorice in her own kitten box. I still don't know how long this will last though but time will tell. He had yet more good weight gains last night and as it stands at the moment, I have no plans to wean him early and will probably wait until he is approximately 4 weeks old before trying him on any solid foods. One thing that is very apparent is that Liquorice is one of those babies who "thinks" a lot. Whenever I'm in the kitten room, it's not unusual to find him sitting up in his box, watching everything that is going on and you can see the look of concentration on his face as he ponders life around him.

Both entries start off exactly the same today..................

I took the "posh" kitten box into the kitten room and put the bedding inside so that I could transfer Sambuca and her children from our room to the kitten room.
Cointreau: "Ooooooohhh what's that box for?"
Me: "None of your business, get back into your box with your son"
Cointreau: "I was only asking, go on, let me in to have a look"
Me: "Bugger off!" I then turned the box around to face the wall to keep the nosy little cow out of it. I then brought Sambuca and one baby into the kitten room and put them in the posh kitten box.
Cointreau: "Hiya mum, what are you doing in here? Wow, do you have babies too? I have a baby"
Sambuca: "Grrrr, get away from me, my babies are missing. Where are my other 3 babies??????????????????? "
Me: "No they are not missing, I'm going to get them now"
I then went back into my room to scoop up the remaining babies and took them into the kitten room and put them in the box with Sami and the other baby.
Sambuca: "Okay, they all seem to be here now. Have we moved house again"
Me: "Yep, I'm afraid so, we need our bedroom back, your sister is going to have babies in a couple of weeks now"
Cointreau: "Humph! Well I think that box is a bit posh for you. What's wrong with a cardboard box? I was born in a cardboard box. Didn't do me any harm. S'pose you think you're special now do you mum. Well I don't care 'cause my baby is better looking than your babies anyway! I'm going back to my box now."
Sambuca flew out of her box and ran over to Cointreau's cardboard box and climbed in. "Oh no you're not young lady. I like your box and I am having this baby as well as my own." She then settled down to feed Liquorice, looked at her own babies and I could see her thinking how on earth she could get her babies into Cointreau's box without moving.
Me: "Oh no you don't Sambuca! You get out of there right now, leave your grandson alone and get back in your own posh box".
I picked Sami up, put her back in her box and she settled down to feed her babies. Cointreau then went into her box to feed Liquorice.
I waited, and I waited, and then 10 minutes later it started......................
Cointreau, singing from inside her own box: "My baby's better'n your babies."
Sambuca: "I have more babies than you"
Cointreau: "My baby's bigger'n yours"
Sambuca: "I have more babies than you"
Cointreau: "I was in this room first so there"
Sambuca: "I have more babies than you".
Me: "Will you ladies please be quiet, you are giving me a headache, I've had enough of both of you and I am now going downstairs to clean the rest of the house.
I then left the room, closed the door behind me, and as I walked down the stairs I could STILL hear them taunting each other.

Now as for Liquorice, well today, I have decided he looks like a frog. His back limbs are incredibly long and I'm rather anxious for him to grow a bit so I can see exactly just how odd looking this boy is going to be. I mean, really, I do honestly love him, but he definitely resembles a frog. His weight gains are still very good, although now he tries to sit up when he is on the scales whereas before he used to just "flop" on them and stay still so I do hope he isn't going to turn into a wriggler. I really MUST get some flat digital scales, the sooner the better I think. He didn't mind at all when his grandmother decided to pay him a visit and wasn't phased at all when she settled down with him to feed him.

Liquorice is doing extremely well and is coming along in leaps and bounds. His weight gains are definitely back on track now and I'm thrilled with how well he is doing. I guess though that being an only baby does have quite a lot to do with it, especially if I compare his weight gains to those of Sambuca's babies. For an Oriental Black, he is quite a "calm" baby, he is not a screamer, nor is he showing any signs of being particularly stubborn just yet. Mind you it is very early days and if he ends up anything like his dad then he will be a little bugger, albeit a loveable one :) This is Liquorice' last day and night of being a single baby in the kitten room because we spent some wonderful hours at Teen and Tone of Maroochydore Siamese and Orientals and we brought back our beautiful new kitten box that Tony very kindly made for us so tomorrow, Sambuca and her babies will be moving into the room with Cointreau and Liquorice. This could be fun and games all round so watch this space for the next few days............................

Our darling Liquorice is 2 weeks old today and fortunately, his mother has almost stopped calling and his weight gain in the last 24 hours is a big improvement over the previous days' weights. I must say though, having looked at today's photos of him, I am no longer convinced he is beautiful, instead, I think he is edging towards being funny looking. His body is very long, his limbs are quite long, and he does look rather odd bless him. Even so, he is still our gorgeous funny looking boy :) He is becoming bolder now and last night when I was changing the litter trays for the umpteenth time, I was surprised to see him sitting up at the front of the box, poking his head through the opening in the box and I just know that he was contemplating just how on earth it is possible to get from inside the box to outside the box.