There's not many photos today as the camera batteries died after I took the Capitals' photos. At the time of starting this diary entry, on no less than 5 occasions so far, Liquorice has chosen to jump from the top of the activity/scratch centre, straight into the big bed below. The big bed, I might add, is actually a very large dog bed, although obviously I have put bedding in there for the babies, but being Liquorice, it didn't actually occur to her that she won't always land on the bedding, and that sometimes, she might land on the plastic sides of the bed first <sigh>. But does it phase her? Not at all. Do I still pick her up each time to check she's okay? Nope, not after the 4th time :)

Liquorice seems to think all her Christmases have come at once because now that there is a massive bed, as well as the kitten box in the room. She has so many more opportunities to weave in and out, and dive under and over beds and furniture much to the disgust of both Sambuca and Cointreau, neither of whom can catch her. It really is a comical scene when Liquorice is in one of her "Catch Me If You Can Moods". The little minx knows too well that there is no way her mum's can fit in, and under the places that she can. This morning, she had both mum's tearing all around the room after her and it went on for a good 20 minutes and Liquorice was having the time of her life. Her weights indicate at the moment that she is going to be quite a large girl although this isn't really any surprise as her dad is a fairly big young man at the moment.

Liquorice has been fooling me with regards to the eating because I fed the mum's this morning, left the room, came back in a few minutes later, only to discover Liquorice at mum's food tray chomping away as if she had been doing it all of her life! Of course if I needed further proof that she may have been doing this for a few days now, I just need to look in the small litter tray as there are some lovely firm nuggets in there which are way too small to be one of the mum's. So it would appear Liquorice is doing extremely well on the weaning/litter training front which is quite nice, particularly as I have not had to actually encourage her to do either. In the past 24 hours, only once have I found her in the posh box with Drambuie and The Capitals. I felt really sorry for her because as I lifted the lid to the box, she was desperately trying to get out but was struggling due to the height.

I'm starting to think that Cointreau no longer wants to look after her child! Yesterday, I went into the kitten room to do the 2pm feed for Edinburgh, and I noticed that Liquorice wasn't with the rest of the babies. I wasn't worried as she often is found running somewhere around the room, so I've gone to the posh box, removed the lid to I could get Edinburgh out and got the shock of my life to see Drambuie, the Capitals, AND Liquorice all in the box!!!!! Now I know full well that there is no way on earth Liquorice could have climbed into that box on her own. She may be my clever little superstar, but even she isn't capable of reaching the high opening. This led me to believe one of the other mum's, or maybe even Drambuie herself, had put Liquorice in the posh box. Needless to say I was not amused at all as Liquorice is massive and these Capitals are tiny and I had visions of her sitting on one of them and squashing them. I removed her straight away and I honestly think she was rather happy to be out of the box and back with everyone else. There was no way she could have actually climbed out of the box either once someone put her in there. She re-joined everyone else at the bed and started playing with the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson. Then......................it came time for the 4pm feed, so I traipsed back up to the kitten room, did the feed, came straight back down to prepare a meal for the 3 mum's. I was gone no longer than 2 minutes (yes I really do fly up and down those stairs), and as I have opened the kitten room door, I saw Cointreau standing right in front of the posh box, she turned around, looked at me with a sheepish look on her face, I put the plate of food down, I opened the lid of the box, and sure enough, Liquorice was back in there. At least I now know which mum was dumping Liquorice in the box and I had rather stern words with Cointreau as you can imagine. Now I know that poor darling Liquorice does not want to be in there because she loves her freedom to much and I am wondering how on earth Cointreau is able to pick her daughter up, and lift her high enough to drop her through the box opening because Liquorice is not a small girl. She weighs over 470 grams! This carried on throughout late afternoon/early evening, and I think I have spent the last 24 hours going into the kitten room every 20 minutes just to rescue Liquorice. I did finally figure it out in the end though......................Cointreau has "box envy" ;) In a moment of desperation last night, I grabbed the cardboard box from our bedroom, put it in the kitten room, put new bedding in there, both Liquorice and the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson in there, and would you believe, both mum's jumped straight into the box, and that is where everyone has been ever since. Of course I have put bedding in front of it so all the babies can climb in and out if they so desire. I'm just so relieved that I thought to put the box in there because it means Drambuie and her Capitals are undisturbed now and Cointreau is happy with a box of her own.

Liquorice is a little bugger! If you have read Drambuie's kitten diary this morning, you will be aware I am syringe feeding one of her babies, and Liquorice is making syringe feeding extremely difficult to say the least. I don't sit and syringe feed when it's just one baby, I stand, and as per usual, as soon as I enter the room, Liquorice comes running to me like a shot and wants a fuss. The poor girl can not understand why I am suddenly spending 5-10 minutes totally ignoring her, as I say motionless while I concentrate on getting milk into the baby. So what does the little minx do??????????? She has taken to biting my toes so I'm trying to feed Edinburgh, whilst going "Ouch, ouch, ouch, get off me you bugger" while I try to gently nudge Liquorice away from my feet. Liquorice has made some more progress in the last 24 hours which I'm thrilled about. No, she isn't eating yet, has absolutely no interest in food at all, but I'm not bothered as she is still so very young and is a good weight, so she will eat when she is ready, but she is drinking water which is really good news. Unlike the kitten biscuit bowls, at least she doesn't stand in the water. She is so funny because she has a drink, then she turns around, and rather than walk around the biscuit bowls and feeder, she actually walks on top of all the biscuits. That girl is a nutter :) The other update with Liquorice is litter training....................Late last night, she was running around and around the room, crying, as if she were looking for something but couldn't find it. Instantly I knew that she wanted to go to the toilet but didn't know where to go so I picked her up, put her in the hooded litter tray and she had a few scratches at the litter, then promptly squatted down and did what must be one of the longest wees in the history of mankind and oh boy did she look proud of herself afterwards, and I was extremely proud of her to. That's my girl. I then took her out of the hooded tray and made a mental note to myself that I must put a baby tray in there for her because even though she isn't a small girl, she will struggle to get in and out of the hooded tray.

Liquorice continues to create havoc throughout the room, and she has become a bit of a "whiner" bless her. When I'm in the kitten room, she still continues to come running up to me, but if I'm doing something else and don't bend down and pick her up or play with her, she sits at my feet and whines, most pitifully, until she gets the attention she is craving. I do think that part of the reason for this is that because she is older now, all she wants to do is play, but the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson still aren't quite up to "playing" stage yet, so she is relying on both her mum's, and myself, for games and attention. One of the favourite things that she loves is lying on her back when she is on the bed, and having her tummy tickled and her paws played with. She also loves have her chin, nose, and eyes, rubbed. She'll lay on her back for ages while I do this and when I finish (let's face it, I do have to do things around the house as well, I can't play with her all day long), she then rolls onto her side and stretches out and makes herself look incredibly long.

Both rather short entries start off exactly the same today. As you know, I was not here all day yesterday as I was at a cat show. It was a very long day as I was up at 5am and didn't arrive back home until approximately 7pm so all our babies were in Graham's capable hands, and all was fine. By the time evening came around, I was totally shattered and was planning on having an early night. Unfortunately, Drambuie had other ideas as she went into labour so I was up with her until 5am today. It is for this reason that there are no photos in today's entries, and also why the entries are so very short as I have mountains of washing and a brand new kitten diary to start.

Four weeks of age already and I do not know where the time is going. Liquorice is an absolute popped and I love the way she comes running up to me, and the way she paws at my feet until I pick her up for cuddles. She is just so adorable, apart from when she is running after me to try and escape out of the kitten room door that is. She still has absolutely no interest in eating any solid foods, not that I have been trying, it's just that she doesn't even bother with mum's plate at each meal time. I think though that at some point this week I will make a start on weaning her.