In every single litter there just has to be one baby who is louder than the rest and between the Bush Rangers and the Pints, there is no contest as to which is the loudest baby, because Ned Kelly's squeals can be heard for miles around. That boy has a set of vocal chords on him like no other. I may have to go back and re-read Drambuie's 1st kitten diary, but I am positive that the 3 Reds in that litter were not as loud as Ned Kelly. That is not to say that Joe Byrne is quiet, although he only exerts his voice if he is being subjected to something that he does not like, such as being weighed, or being scooped up to get put back in the bed when he has wandered off too far. Even then though, he is nowhere near as loud as his brother. Both babies still have very good weight gains and are progressing very well. I can't believe that tomorrow they will be 3 weeks old already! The time is simply flying by and the thought of giving them full house access in a couple of week's time is rather scary. There are not any photos today as the flu has hit me quite badly and I've been in bed asleep since lunch time.

Today's entries shall be rather short as I have a rather horrific flu and am struggling to type anything that makes sense. Yet again last night, we had more entertainment with Ned Kelly running around the room squealing his head off while the mother's ran after him to put him back in the box. That boy really does need to calm down a bit or we are going to be in for a very rough ride during the next 10 1/2 weeks I think. Both our Bush Rangers are doing incredibly well although my one regret is that no matter how hard I try, I am unable to take a decent photo of poor Joe Byrne. He is such a beautiful baby, exquisite really, yet in every photograph the poor little guy just looks like a black blob which does not do him any justice whatsoever. He is such a relaxed, settled boy, so unlike his Red brother, however, I do not think this will last because all Blacks are renowned for that "special" temperament and personality that they have.

Yet another difficult day today because we drove back to Cherry Tree Pet Crematorium this afternoon to bring Kahlua back home. The last few days were made a bit easier by the compassionate staff at Cherry Tree. We will always be grateful to them for the respect shown to ourselves and to Kahlua, as well as their comforting and compassionate manner. He is now resting beside his beloved Tia Maria. We have now added a tribute to our beloved man in the Schimmel Rainbow Bridge.

It's been such an upsetting time and we have spent the last 2 days in tears off and on and the grief is so difficult to come to terms with. I truly did not think I would ever smile again but obviously I was not counting on Ned Kelly and his antics of last night. For some strange reason, Ned Kelly chose last night to come out of the box and explore which on it's own is amusing because he was just 17 days old and running around like one of the "big kids". The reason this was so funny though was because with every few steps he took, he would squeal in excitement about the top of his voice, alerting both mothers to the fact that he was out of the box. It was just so funny to watch him running around the room with both mum's in tow and whichever mum reached him first, picked him up and put him straight back in the box. Without a word of a lie, he must have got out at least 30 times, only to be picked up by the scruff of his neck and put back in. At one stage, Drambuie even sat on him to try and keep him in there but he had no problems wriggling and squirming his way out from under her and then he was out of the box and off again. At the very end, Amaretto got smart and lay right at the front opening of the box and as soon as he had climbed out, she stretched her head out, grabbed him and put him back in. While all this was going on, Joe Byrne was also exploring the room and having a great time, but because he was not squealing like his brother, he wasn't attracting the same attention from the mother's. This was the first time that both Bush Rangers have been out of the box properly and running around.

This is an bittersweet day for us today because this morning, our darling Kahlua is being cremated. We drove an hour and a half yesterday after spending the entire day online searching for the right place to take him to. The reason I said this day is bittersweet is because Kathrine of Vestol Cats, the breeder of our Sokoke girl Arusha, sent me an email this morning with the good news that Arusha delivered 6 babies on Saturday morning and all 6 babies and mum are doing extremely well.

As for our Bush Rangers, well any concerns that I ever had about their weights being compromised due to being in with the Pints have all proved fruitless as I noticed yesterday that Joe Byrne weighs just 25 grams less than Guinness who is 11 days older than him! Ned Kelly is currently 53 grams lighter than Joe Byrne however he is still an excellent weight for his age. Since coming downstairs, neither baby has shown any interest in coming out of the box, unlike the Pints. The one problem I have with the box now is that it is sitting under the work top, pushed back against the radiator however I am not able to open the lid to the box unless I pull it out to the front. So I am currently sticking my head in the opening constantly just to see the babies. As I write this entry, all 5 babies are either feeding, or sound asleep in the box and so are their mums. The Bush Rangers did get a nasty shock this morning when their mums were out of the box having a meal, Guinness was out of the box eating some food as well, and the door to the back room accidentally opened and Tia Lusso and Cointreau ran in. Cointreau didn't even notice the babies, all she saw was food so she helped herself to the mum's meal. Tia Lusso on the other hand ran straight to the box, stuck her head in, took one sniff and hissed at them all before running back out the door. I did try to explain to her that what she was seeing would be similar to what she herself would have at the start of April but she was not impressed at all.

Today is a heartbreaking day for us and today both diary entries are exactly the same. We lost our beloved Kahlua and the pain is immense. Lua was our Seal Point neuter boy that we bought a few months after we got married. Kahlua was the inspiration behind my breeding and he was the inspiration for the Siamese and Oriental Cats Online Club. Our lives will never be the same without him and his loss is more than we can bear at the moment.

As you know the Pints and the Bush Rangers are moving house downstairs today into the back room which first must be thoroughly cleaned. This is quite a large job and one that I am about to undertake very shortly as I so desperately need to keep busy because neither myself, nor Graham know how to deal with our grief at the moment. The rest of my day will be spent online looking for the right place to take our boy to where he can be cremated and that is going to be a very difficult and upsetting thing to do.

Would you believe I was actually half way through this diary entry today when I happened to glance at the date/day above and it dawned on me that our Bush Rangers are 2 weeks old today! I do not know how I missed this event, especially when you consider I weighed them this morning and noted their weights on the Day 14 section on my charts and still it didn't occur to me that they were 2 weeks old now. Our Bush Rangers are certainly showing a lot more interest in life outside of the box and I am sure that this is because they are of the opinion that if the Pints are doing something, they should be doing it too. Obviously at this age though, they are not as agile, nor as fast as the Pints, however I am sure it won't be long before they too are running around outside of the box. Their weights were good again today and it was fascinating to watch Ned Kelly's little eyes as they gazed in wonder at the 3 Pints eating food from my fingers. Mind you, if he is of the opinion that he is going to try the food as well, he can darn well think again! At this age, the babies really only need their mum's milk and to encourage them to eat proper food would do more harm than good. Either tomorrow or Monday, the Bush Rangers, along with the Pints, will be moving house again. This time they will be making the journey from upstairs, to down here in the back room with me where I can be with them all day long. I was going to wait until Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne were 3 weeks of age however the Pints are exploring in their kitten room more and more each day and the Bush Rangers are progressing very well so I do not think it will do any harm at all to bring them down a bit earlier than normal.