Ned Kelly is still refusing to open his eyes although when I had a very close look at him prior to weighing him, I could see the beginning of these tiny slits opening up which makes me think that within the next couple of days he will be able to view the world. Joe Byrne will probably appreciate this because Ned Kelly insists on walking and clambering all over him at every given opportunity. Which brings me to wonder actually, why is it, when their eyes are open and they can obviously see everything, do they still insist on running into their littermates? Joe Byrne can see perfectly well yet when he is strolling around in the box, he does tend to head butt his brother on a very regular basis. Now as he can see that his brother is there, why does he still run straight into him? I have two theories here. The first theory is that his limbs are still developing, as is his brain, so perhaps the signals from his brain to his limbs are not working fully yet and even though he wants to go somewhere in particular, possibly his legs are getting the wrong signals and they go in the opposite direction. My second theory is that it's entirely possible he is fully aware that his brother is there and is actually ramming him on purpose because it's fun. Then I was thinking about it a bit more and now I'm also wondering, do the babies whose eyes are fully open then tell the babies whose eyes are shut, all about what they can see and what the world is like? If so, you would think that would make the babies whose eyes are closed want to get them open even faster wouldn't you. I have no doubts that some of you are thinking I either have too much time on my hands or I have lost the plot yet again :)

I know, diaries are incredibly late going online yet again due to living in an absolutely manic household where I'm trying to do ten million things all at the same time, however, better late than never. When I woke up this morning, one of my first thoughts was "What on earth am I going to say in today's kitten diary for the Bush Rangers". The problem with the children when they are this age is that they really do not do very much at all. Now whilst I could happily sit in the kitten room for hours just watching them feed and sleep, I can't really convey that into words to make it interesting for anyone who is bored enough to be reading this diary. So imagine how delighted I was when I went into the room this morning to give the mum's their breakfast and some cuddles only to pick up Joe Byrne to weigh him and I discovered that his eyes were fully open! He has the most beautiful little eyes I've ever seen (apart from all the other babies we have also bred). Even last night when I checked on them all before going to sleep, there was no indication that he was about to even start the "eye opening" process so I did get a bit of a surprise. Ned Kelly is obviously not that keen to view the world yet because his eyes are still closed and not showing any signs of opening just yet.

Today's photos are rather appalling, but they are ten times better than all the ones I discarded! I do not know what happened this morning but it was a real struggle to get any sort of decent photo which did surprise me as I have found that Oriental Reds seem to photograph so much better than any other colour babies (Blacks are always the worst). Anyway, as I said in the Pints kitten diary, it's been a hectic day so far and I am very behind on everything. As well as work and appointments, I've also been supervising a honeymoon since yesterday between Amarula and Sheridans so it's rather manic in our home at the moment to say the least. Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne both made excellent weight gains during the last 24 hours and are going to be big, strapping lads just like their father I think. They are proving to be very well behaved babies at this stage of their lives however, as we all know, that will soon change and they will become little terrors. At this stage, Drambuie still has no interest in sharing her babies with Amaretto and vice versa and I did think that might have happened by now but she is just very content in her own box and her own children whom she totally adores. I still think they will be the cleanest babies in the world because she continues to groom them every waking minute of the day. In fact, she is obsessed with keeping them immaculate. Within a few days hopefully, their little eyes will start to open and our Bush Rangers will be able to gaze with wonder at their little world.

Our babies made yet more fantastic weight gains during the last 24 hours so I'm really pleased with their progress at the moment. Drambuie seems very settled with them in the kitten room although she still comes running out of the box to greet me whenever I enter the room, often leaving her poor children in mid feed. Now that our babies are 3 days of age and appear to be doing well, it really is time that I gave them a name I suppose. Our Red baby is obviously a boy, and after some investigation yesterday, it would also appear that our Black baby is a boy. Now, prior to the babies being born, I had names in mind because Drambuie was due one day before Australia Day which is on January 26th. As she had her babies on the 28th which is only 2 days after Australia Day, I decided to stick with my Australian theme. I'd actually been waiting for a litter to be born around this time for quite some time because I have been really keen on naming some babies after our most famous Australian Bushrangers, and in a lot of people's minds, Australian heroes :) . I guess really that I've been waiting for a little Ned Kelly to be born for quite some time and now I have him. Of course, for those of you who are also Aussies like myself, you will be aware that you can't have Ned Kelly without Joe Byrne (I did think about Dan Kelly who was Ned's brother) but I have a personal interest in Joe Byrne. So we now have:

Name	Colour	Sex
Ned Kelly	Oriental Red	Male
Joe Byrne	Oriental Black	Male

Collectively, they will be known as "The Bushrangers" :)

Our babies' first night in the new room appears to have had very little effect on them which I'm rather relieved about. When I went into the kitten room this morning to feed the mum's their breakfast and to weigh the babies, both mum's were still in their own boxes with their own children so that had been no "kitten napping" by either mum. I was delighted to see that our Red and our Black baby had both made very good weight gains during the night which also indicates that Drambuie spent most of the evening in her box with her children. Both cords have now fallen off the babies and when they are awake, if their mum is not in the box, they scramble all around it at a rather rapid pace. So far, everything seems to be going very well with the babies however it is still early days and as per usual, I am monitoring them quite closely to make sure that everything is going as smoothly as it should be.

This may well end up being a long entry so for those of you who just want to look at the photos then feel free to skip over my ramblings :) First of all, I am really pleased to say that both our babies made very good weight gains overnight. This does surprise me a little though as Drambuie was far more interested in sharing the bed with me last night, on my head and on my throat, than she was in being with her own babies. That is not to say that she ignored them all night because whenever they made a noise, she was straight in the box like a shot to make sure they were okay. She is being a very good mum as per usual and she adores her little children. Despite waiting with Drambuie all day yesterday, it did appear that we were mistaken and that there were only 2 babies however she does still seem to be bigger than she should. Mind you, with what she eaten since giving birth I am surprised she does not look like a balloon! I am thrilled to bits that we have a Red and a Black from her again and I know even now that it will be difficult not to keep them both here myself. What is amazing me about these 2 children is that they seem so incredibly advanced. Even if you look at yesterday's photos the babies were trying to stand up and sit up. Not only that but whenever Drambuie left the box when they were still awake, they were actually crawling all around the box at tremendous speeds and our Black was actually standing up against the side of the box on more than one occasion which totally astounded me. These babies should not be capable of this for at least 4/5 more days. Obviously, they were overdue by 3 days as their due date was the 25th, and from memory I haven't had any go over that long so I don't know if this is what normally happens in these circumstances. I spent quite a lot of time this morning moving Drambuie and her children out of our bedroom and into the kitten room where Amaretto and the Pints are. This way, Drambuie will spend much more time with her babies of an evening and I might actually get a decent nights' sleep. What I did was take 2 plates of food up to the kitten room, one for Retto and one for Buie, then while both girls were eating, I brought in the kitten box with our Red and Black babies. Quite naturally, both mums' stopped eating simultaneously and came straight over to the box to see who the newcomers were. One smell from Drambuie and she knew straight away. Amaretto on the other hand, heard one of them cry as I was changing the bedding and tried to get in the box to comfort them. Drambuie really wasn't sure what to make this sudden change of environment and reacted in typical fashion by half walking in her box, grabbing the poor Black baby and promptly proceeded to cart him/her around the room. Goodness only knows where she though she was taking the baby who was protesting most loudly at his mother. I took the Black out of her mouth and put him/her back in the box and then put Drambuie in after him. Amaretto jumped up on top of the box and walked all over it, wondering whether or not she should be in that box or her own. So I put her back in her own box and after counting her 3 babies and making sure they were all there she then settled down with them. Once Drambuie realised that I was not impressed with her moving the babies, she decided to give each baby a very thorough bath and let me assure you, neither baby was particularly happy about this, and nor would I have been because to say she was extremely vigorous and thorough was an understatement. She actually rolled poor Black baby from one end of the box to the other with her over zealous grooming. If nothing else, they will be the cleanest babies in history! Anyway, by 10:30am, I left them to it, both mums were in their own boxes, the babies were feeding and it was a good time for me to make an exit. I came downstairs to make a start on the diaries and check my emails and sat here worrying like mad that when I went back up Drambuie would have put her babies in bizarre places. I left it as long as I humanly could and went back up there at 11:25, opened the door to find that the mum's and babies were still in their own houses and were perfectly content. As soon as Drambuie saw me come into the room she was straight out of the box like a shot wanting attention which naturally she did get. There is always a possibility that at some point in the new few days, the mum's and children will all end up in one box, but I am hoping they don't do that until the Black and Red babies are a bit older, although with 2 mums and only 5 children there are more than enough nipples to go around. The telling point will be tomorrow morning when I weigh them because I'll know by their gains whether or not Buie is settling in her new home. If the babies haven't gained at all, I may need to reconsider and possibly move Amaretto and the Pints downstairs to the back room where I work and leave Drambuie and her children in the kitten room but I would rather not do this as it will upset other things in the house. Still, for the time being, everybody seems happy, relaxed and calm so let's see what tomorrow brings.

As I type this entry I am so very, very tired. I'm also not supposed to even be here today as I had entered one of my cats in a cat show, however, Drambuie had other ideas! I have had no sleep because Drambuie was showing all the classic signs of going into labour yet, despite staying awake all night, by 2am, still nothing was happening, she wasn't even pushing. Then between 3am & 4am, she very quickly and easily delivered 2 beautiful, huge babies. She did everything herself, cords, sacs, the lot, there was minimal mess. By 4:30am both babies were latched on and suckling. At 5:40am I went downstairs and got her a plate of food which she flew out of the box to eat. She really was amazing because she was not even showing any signs of tiredness, nor was she showing any signs of having just given birth. She was jumping up on the bed for cuddles, getting back in the box to check her babies were okay, coming back out for more cuddles and another meal and we were just amazed at how energetic she was. Mind you, right up until last night, she was still extremely active, despite the huge weight she was carrying. Anyway, at about 6:10am, we discussed the show and what we should do about it. We talked about Graham staying with her and me going to the show as the first two babies were delivered so easily, but neither of us felt right about it. There were definitely more babies in there as we could feel them however Drambuie was showing no signs whatsoever of delivering them. Graham is more than capable of delivering any babies, but if he or Drambuie had needed me, it would have taken me an hour and half to get back home to her and I just couldn't live with myself if something had gone wrong and I wasn't there. I'll be totally honest, I am so incredibly disappointed about the show because it would have been my first show since June of last year and I have been looking forward to it for months. However, there will always be more cat shows (indeed there is one every weekend), but there is only one Drambuie and a show is way down on the list of priorities when it comes to one of our girls giving birth. By 1022 she had eaten another huge plate of food but still had done absolutely nothing with regards to delivering any more babies. To be honest I was wondering whether both Graham and I had imagined that there was at least another one or two inside!

It's now 1327 and we still have nothing else from Drambuie despite that fact that it appears she has at least one or two more babies, so rather than wait any longer, I'm going to put this entry online now and if anything else happens, I will be adding to this entry. I will add that it was a wonderful day for another Red Buie baby to be born because today, Schimmel Sun Chaser, an Oriental Red kitten from Drambuie's 1st litter, was exhibited for the first time at the Southern Counties Cat Club show.