Unlike yesterday, Ned Kelly has not had a bad morning so far and nothing in his life has gone wrong at all.........................yet! I was in touch with Lee today (Lee and Susie are going to be taking Joe Byrne home soon) and I can't believe that this time next week (well maybe not at the time I write this but definitely on Friday next week) Joe Byrne is going to be leaving me. I've enjoyed he and his brother so much and our home is going to be so incredibly quiet when they go. I think that most of the other babies will be leaving on Sunday. As I write this entry, which is the last one for the day as I have written the other 3, it is now 1047 although I have taken no photos at all so far and I must go and do that soon I guess, both Joe Byrne and Ned Kelly are upstairs playing in the bath tub. They are now both fascinated with the tub and of course, they always wait until after I have done the litter trays in the morning so that they can then leave paw prints all over the bath tub. They are very energetic children who bounce around all over the place and tear through the home like greyhounds although Ned Kelly will always stop playing if there is food being served whereas Joe Byrne has to always stop and think which is more important, games or food. He does eat quite a bit but he's if he is playing, then food doesn't really interest him as much as it does the other babies. Ned Kelly on the other hand truly believes that the sole purpose of being alive is to eat. He is still the first to the plate and the last to leave and I don't have to wonder where it all goes because his current weight is telling me exactly where the food is going.

Poor Ned Kelly is not having a very good day and I think the poor guy will be glad when it's over.............and it's only 1019 as I commence this entry. First of all, I came downstairs this morning, and the babies were all clambering around the kitchen door for breakfast. They managed to push the door open as I was preparing their mince, they all piled into the kitchen, winding themselves around my legs and screaming at the top of their voices. I quickly warmed up the mince, took it out to the back room, put it on a sheet of newspaper and 4 babies swarmed around the plate. Oh dear, if there's only 4 babies, someone is missing. So I went into the lounge room to search for Ned Kelly, who could not have been upstairs because the doors will still closed (remembering that the cats are segregated of an evening - non sprayers downstairs where the pc's are, and sprayers upstairs where there is no electrical equipment!), and after 5 minutes of searching, I still couldn't find him, yet he was there when I was preparing breakfast. Then it dawned on me that perhaps the little Red guy had been shut in the kitchen. I walked through the back room, glanced over at the plate to see half the food was already gone, went to open the kitchen door and could hear the most anxious cries coming from behind it. Sure enough, there was poor Ned Kelly, most upset that he was missing breakfast. The door had only been partially opened and he was stuffing his body past it and ran over to the plate, pushing his brother out of the way as he did so, and he stayed there eating for a good 10 minutes. I guess that will teach him not to go into the kitchen. Now if that wasn't bad enough, once the babies had been fed, the boys were opened up, the first load of washing was put on, it was then time to hoover and mop the house. So I took the hoover upstairs, did all the upstairs, mopped it and came back down. All the babies decided it was best to hide in the back room where the hoover monster couldn't get them. I did the downstairs and then commenced to do the back room which is always the worst as the babies are shut in this room during the night. I noticed loads of peacock feathers and stuff on the throw that is on my chair so I picked up the throw and shook it out onto the floor. As I did so, I thought to myself that it feels really heavy and with a sinking heart, I figured one of the evil ones probably wee'd on it, making it wet and heavy. You can obviously imagine my surprise when I carefully picked up the throw from the floor and a bright Red baby crawled out. I had to laugh because the look on Ned's face was simply priceless. He must have thought that if he hid inside the throw then the hoover couldn't get him. Now how was I supposed to know that he was in there? After his incredibly traumatic morning, he chose to run upstairs as fast as his little red legs would take him and he went and lay down on the ottoman, alongside his brother, to ponder on the day's strange events.

Today's photos (what few there are!) are incredibly boring as the babies are sleeping because I've not had the time, nor the energy to chase through the home after them as the play to try and get photos. Ned Kelly wouldn't even stir in his little cylinder, despite the flash going off so tomorrow, I'm going to make more of an effort to get some "action" photos if possible. They do look like such angels though when they are asleep and until you saw them running around leaving a trail of destruction behind them, you would think that they could not ever be responsible for any of the mess or noise in our home. Both boys have had a simply fantastic time with some peacock feathers that were very generously given to them by Aunty Lulu and Uncle Mike yesterday. At first I thought this was a lovely gesture. I now have feathers and things through the entire downstairs of the home as the babies have totally killed them and you can't even tell that they were once peacock feathers. I just hope that Mike and Lulu weren't expecting them to last much longer than a day or two in a home with 5 boisterous fur children.

I am cheating today sorry and Amaretto and Drambuie's diaries are both exactly the same. I've not had much time today to get the done and if I don't do it this way then chances are there won't be an entry at all! The babies had a really lovely visit today from their Uncle Mike and Aunty Lulu and it was so great to spend some time with them. It was a bit embarrassing that our Pints and Bush Rangers were far more interested in snoozing upstairs than they were in being downstairs at all, so much so that I had to actually carry the children downstairs just to prove that they did really exist! Joe Byrne in typical fashion was more than happy to show off in the cat run, playing games with Cointreau and showing just how energetic he actually is. So Uncle Mike and Aunty Lulu at least did get to see one baby in action. Guinness had been stolen by Graham and spent most of the time inside Graham's jacket with her head poking out (as you can tell by the photos below), and towards the end of their visit I had to physically take her from Graham just so I could show her off. They did also get to see the children eating a meal of their favourite cooked chicken so at least once during their visit they managed to see all 5 children in the one place at the one time. Caffreys was kind enough to spend a bit of time in the cat run playing with Joe Byrne, after I had brought him back down from upstairs so that wasn't too bad. XXXX was seen streaking past back upstairs as there was no way on earth she was prepared to show herself off when she could be up there with her mum snoozing her life away. Ned Kelly stayed downstairs for about 2 minutes, but that was more than long enough to show just how stunning he actually is. All in all though, I had a really fabulous day and the children and the adults did not embarrass me at all which was such a relief. Well apart that is from Toussaint, whom, as everyone knows, has been trained to jump up from the floor into my arms. Do you think that the little minx would do it for our visitors? How stupid did I look standing there assuring them she could, trying to get Toussaint to do it, only for Toussaint to want to roll about on the floor instead. However, just as Lulu and Mike were leaving, she finally remembered what it was all about and happily showed off her party trick thank goodness so I wasn't left feeling quite as foolish as I could have been :)

As you can tell by some of the photos below, Joe Byrne has been having a wonderful time in the cat run today. He really is the only one of our current 5 babies who absolutely loves going out there with the adult cats and with his best mate Cointreau. He plays the most wonderful stalking games, he chews on the grass and plays chase with Cointreau throughout the run. I always love seeing the babies out there getting lots of fresh air and sunshine. Ned Kelly has had no interest at all in being downstairs today as most of his time has been spent upstairs, either lounging around with the rest of the babies, or creating havoc by knocking off a full bowl of biscuits all over the floor. Of course, in typical "Ned" fashion, he couldn't have done this before I hoovered and mopped upstairs, he had to wait until everything was clean. There are times when I think that the only reason I exist is to feed and clean up after babies.

I am sure that Elaine will be delighted to hear that her boy has reached the 1 kilo mark. In fact, Ned Kelly currently weighs 1200 grams which is just brilliant. He has grown so much in these past 2 weeks and not only is he much heavier, he has filled out and he has become quite a lot longer as well. I know that Elaine will be visiting him in about a week's time to drop off a blanket for Ned and Caffreys and I am sure that she will be surprised at how much he has grown since her last visit. I also think he is getting better looking now as well, however I am extremely biased obviously. Joe Byrne has decided the time has come to prove his manhood by taking on Ice for games. I tell you that this boy is phased by absolutely nothing at all, not even an ex stud cat who believes he is still "The Man" and I had to giggle this morning when Joe Byrne was sitting underneath the clothes airer (yes we are still without a dryer however that will be sorted out when the new one is delivered on Wednesday!) and Ice was sitting in front of it, so Joe darted out from underneath it, smacked Ice in the face and ran back under, only to come out a few seconds later and do it all again. Ice was extremely bemused by the whole affair and then wanted to play chase games with Joe Byrne who was more than willing to oblige.

Eleven weeks of age today and both boys behave as if they are 16 weeks old. I popped Joe Byrne on the scales last night as I was curious to see just how much he weighed and couldn't quite believe that he is now 1 1/2 kilograms. Definitely his father's son as the saying goes. Unfortunately there's not any grea tphotos of Ned in today's entry because just like Guinness, Ned Kelly wanted to have a snooze where it was nice and warm and he had no interest in his brother's mad games at all. Ned has filled out so much now and is turning into quite a big boy although I very seriously doubt that he will ever be the size of his brother. I can't believe that we only have 2 weeks left with our Bush Rangers so I must make sure than I can get in as many cuddles as possible between now and then. Joe Byrne is fascinated by the "newcommer" to the home and has spent a lot of the last couple of days just watching him and checking him out. The newcomer is Ice, our ex-stud boy who is now neutered and living indoors with the rest of the family. Fortunately, I accepts the babies with no problems whatsoever and Joe is simply fascinated with this older, blue man who struts about as if he owns the place.