Up until now, I've not really been that bothered about weaning the Dancers. Normally I start weaning on Day 21 of the babies' lives but because they were doing so well on Drambuie's milk, I wasn't in any rush to be honest. Also, having had my hands full with the Chocolate Bars and the T's, it was nice not to have to worry about feeding the Dancers. However, we now have a bit of a problem (see the Chocolate Bar's diary entry for today) and I think it's time to try and wean the babies, just to take pressure of Drambuie. Drambuie, bless her, is being so very patient and will happily feed anyone who is hungry but I am not prepared to risk Buie's own condition or strength going downhill because she's trying to feed 12 of them. Unfortunately, I can't not have the Dancers downstairs because socialising is such an important part of breeding (socialising the babies that is, not the humans!) and babies who spend their lives in a bedroom or kitten room are not well socialised babies which means they don't settle with their new owners. Due to the fact that the babies, nor Drambuie would use the box at all yesterday, the box is now gone and there's one giant bed where all babies sleep together. Drambuie is tearing her hair out, trying to feed that many so what she's been doing is sneaking into the tiny blue cat pyramid, while babies trail along behind her, stuff themselves in with her and feed from her in there. Of course, it's the same ones all the time so other babies are missing out. It's because of all this that I that this morning, I gave the Dancers a "Crash Course in Weaning" and no doubt you'll be horrified at what I did but needs must and the quicker they are eating, the better because at least then if they are not getting as much from "mum", they are getting it from the plate. I made up a kitten food mixture, put it on 2 plates, put the plates down and everyone came running over as usual. The Chocolate Bars and the T's started to eat, whilst the Dancers just walked through it, not knowing what to do but they were obviously interested enough to come running over with everyone else. So basically, one by one, I stood a Dancer at the edge of the plate, dipped their nose into the mixture and straight away, they caught on so now quite a few of our Dancers are also eating from the plate thank goodness. I'm going to keep doing this throughout the day as it seems to have done the trick and the more I can get them eating from a plate, the better it will be for them all. As usual, photos are all really the same today due to lack of energy and being run ragged by 12 babies.

Well the big move has now happened and even I was stunned at just how much hard work it was. Up until now, I've only ever moved one set of babies to the downstairs room, or 2 sets who were born within days of each other. Moving a much young set of babies into a room with older babies is not easy and obviously not without it's problems. The Dancers are possibly the only people who coped really well with the move and were not phased at all. They were running all around the room, walking straight through dry food bowls, climbing over anything that got in their way. They actually remind me of those "monster trucks" that you see on TV because they don't ever go around anything, if something is in front of them, they just go straight up over it and down the other side. Within the first half hour of moving them downstairs I was concerned that Drambuie wouldn't feed them because all she wanted to do was walk around the room and go out into the cat run, totally ignoring the babies. The Dancers on the other hand have decided that they don't want to live in a box now that they are "Big Kids", so instead, they have been sleeping on the bedding in front of the box. Every time Buie tries to go into the box, they scream at her so she has to stand on the bedding also and feed the babies there. I will need to watch them today to see if they go back into the box and if not, I will have to replace the box with just bedding only. Ahhhhhhhhh just had to stop writing as hubby and I have just seen Sheridans, one of our future stud boys, trying to mate Amarula!!!!! Up until now, he's not shown any interest in women at all and we were actually starting to wonder if he was the other way inclined but here he was on the dining room table of all places starting to practice!! Anyone who thinks breeders lead dull lives should spend a day in our house. Back to the diary anyway, when I just moved then to look at the situation with Sheridans, Drambuie decided it was time to stop feeding the babies so she got up, they all screamed and started running about the room again. Then of course, that woke up the Chocolate Bars and the T's and they all came over to the Dancers bed <sigh>. At this point in time I really think I should stop this entry before it ends up turning into a saga and I might go and clean out the upstairs kitten room in preparation for Sambuca, and then sort out some household chores as well. During all of that, I shall also grow an extra pair of eyes at the back of my head to ensure that Sheridans doesn't do anything that he isn't supposed to!

All diary entries really are the same today, and with no photos also. The reason for this is that I've been out for the majority of the day and have had very little time and am now way behind. This really was my last opportunity to leave the house as Sambuca is now due in 3 days time so I am housebound whilst I wait for babies to be born. As you know, I was supposed to be moving Drambuie and the Dancers downstairs yesterday however, when I wrote yesterday's entry, I had totally forgotten that I would be out for most of today so I had to put off their "house move" until tomorrow. One of the first things I did when I returned home today was feed Drambuie (after I had fed the Chocolate Bars and the T's) and within seconds of opening the door, before I could even put the plate of food down, the Dancers were all running out of the box crying at me and shouting abuse because I'd gone out and left them on their own.

I always know that it's time to move the babies downstairs when I open up the kitten room door and the Dancers all come running out of the kitten room into the hallway. To me, this is a very good indication that they've had enough of being confined to one room so it looks as if tomorrow will be "Moving Day". I just hope it goes well! I wasn't able to get many photos of the babies running about the room today because I changed the bedding in their box and every time the bedding is changed, the Dancers all pile in there and spend ages sniffing the bedding, thinking they are in some new environment I am sure. They are all doing really, really well and I hope when they move downstairs that this will continue. I've got to be honest and say I am worried about the move, mainly because I do not know what Drambuie will think of the Chocolate Bars and the T's, and I'm a little concerned that she may go and feed those babies instead of her own. The Dancers have just been a dream of a litter from the moment they were born and I don't want this to change when they move downstairs.

I'm afraid that all entries are virtually the same today and there are no photos at all. The reason for this is that for the first time in over a month, something had to take priority over the babies and that something was the "Jungle". I can not remember the last time I mowed our back yard and we have quite a large yard. I've only now just come back inside from mowing and the front still has to be done. This is why entries are so late and there's virtually nothing in them. The babies had some lovely cuddles this morning from our neighbour who had popped in to see them. June had never seen an Oriental Red baby before and she thought they were absolutely delightful. Mind you, she also thought our Black babies were gorgeous, which they are (and no, of course I am not biased at all). Whenever I go upstairs in the kitten room now, more often than not, once Drambuie is eating, the babies all come running out of the box and running all across the floor. They are starting to become extremely active and I guess at some point during this week, I will have to move them downstairs into the back room.