Just to bore you even further, we are still on the subject of weaning, except this time the results with the boys are a bit better. Joe Byrne does actually like his food, and once you encourage him by practically sticking it up his nose, he realise's that he should be eating in and really does tuck into it. The only problem is that for the whole of yesterday afternoon, the little monster would only eat from the saucer if I placed it, and him, on my lap. You have absolutely no idea just how much mess Hills A/D can make when babies are weaning and this is why babies generally learn to wean when they are on the floor, not on my lap. I was getting rather desperate though because with the problems I'm having with Guinness, I want to try and get the babies eating as much "real" food as possible because while ever everyone else is all gaining weight and doing well, I can concentrate fully on Guinness. Anyway, by this morning, thank goodness, Joe Byrne progressed to happily eating off the plate, so long as he was on my work surface. I would much rather have a messy work surface that I can wipe down as opposed to being covered in kitten food which is how I spent most of yesterday. As for Ned Kelly, well he is a bit slower than Joe Byrne is picking up this whole eating lark, however he has made great progress because now, he will happily sit (on my lap naturally!) for 10 minutes eating the A/D from my fingers, which I have to keep dipping into the saucer. After those 10 minutes are up, he will then eat from the saucer for a further 5 minutes so this is really wonderful news. My only concern is that as they are starting to eat so well, will give this give them even more energy so that they run around even more than they already do now. Graham insists that Ned Kelly loves him already because every time he comes into the back room, Ned Kelly comes running over to him and Graham thinks he is happy to see him. Try as I might, I could not dispel this notion by explaining to Graham, that Ned Kelly does this whenever ANYONE enters the back room. In actual fact, he does it when there is no one here because he simply loves getting out of bed and running around. Then of course, after he had cuddles with Ned Kelly, he is now convinced that we need a Red boy in the home!!! Now while I love the reds and would dearly love to keep one myself, there is absolutely no way I can run another boy here at all. I explained to him that I could try and breed him a red girl with the right mating so he could have a red girl which would be much more preferable to another future stud cat. So don't be surprised if in a year or two's time, we have our own Oriental Red cat here somewhere.

As you can tell by the photos below, I went totally overboard with the camera again. I did cheat a little though as these photos were actually taken late yesterday afternoon rather than being taken today.

Unlike the Pints, our Bush Rangers are not affected at all with the milk problem that is going on. To watch them play and explore, I seriously doubt that anything would ever actually affect these two little terrors. Ned Kelly decided this morning that if it was good enough for the mum's to eat off a plate on the floor, then it was good enough for him, so he put his head down to have some nibbles of his mum's breakfast. However, when I tried to entice him with the mashed up JW kitten biscuits it was a totally different story and he flat out refused to even have a sniff which is just typical really. Joe Byrne has gone off the rabbit mince again now so I am back to square one with weaning. This is always the difficult part because some babies like some foods, whereas others like something totally different. This means that for each meal, a whole menu of different foods has to be prepared in the hopes that the babies will like at least some of what is being offered to them. Fortunately, both Bush Rangers are doing just fine in the weight department so even if they don't start eating properly for another week or so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Amaretto has finally had enough of Ned Kelly's running around and screaming and she made her point quite strongly by abandoning him this morning. I fed the mum's their breakfast, tried to feed the Pints who just didn't want to know and flat out refused to eat, then I went into the kitchen to sort out the day's washing. While I was in there, I heard Ned singing at the top of his voice, but it wasn't his usual singing, it sounded rather frantic so I opened the door and walked into the room to see what had upset him so much. The problem was that I couldn't find him, I could hear him, but he was nowhere in sight. I checked behind everything he could possibly go behind him and then I spotted him, on the office chair!!! Now there is no way on earth he got up there of his own accord because even the Pints can't reach the chairs yet and as Amaretto was hovering around below the chair, I knew straight away that she was the culprit. The best I can figure is that Ned's screaming finally made something snap in Amaretto and so she has picked him up and plonked him on the chair and the left him there. In a way, I can't really blame her I guess because in all reality, Ned Kelly gives all of us a headache. He doesn't do as he is told, the mother's are constantly running after him to drag him back to the bed. It's not his fault though, he just wants to explore absolutely everything he sees, even the dining room and lounge room when he decided to walk out the door with me last night. Even now, as I just turned around to look at the babies, who are all sound asleep, except for Ned Kelly who is sitting up in the bed, avidly watching Amaretto eat, and his little mind is thinking, "Do I join the others or escape while she's not watching me". In comparison, Joe Byrne is an absolute angel although having said that, I was not particularly pleased to see him walk into the kitchen after me this morning, knowing full well that house rules are "No furries in the kitchen." Twice I put him out and twice the little terror came straight back in. One of these days I will just shut the door like I should do and then it won't be a problem.

You may notice that the majority of photos in today's entry are of my darling Joe Byrne and this is because last night, he did an amazing, astounding thing. Up until now, I have not tried to wean either Joe Byrne or Ned Kelly because they are only just 3 weeks of age and there hasn't been any need however, last night, both mum's and Guiness were tucking into some raw rabbit mince and Joe wandered over to see what was going on. Even though I didn't expect him to even do anything, I put some of the mince on my fingers and held them up to his mouth, and within a few seconds, my finger was clean and he was actually biting my finger looking for more food. I was absolutely stunned because it's the first time he's ever seen "real" food. I offered him some more from my finger which again he ate within seconds. After that, I held the plate up to him, and he started eating from it straight away. As he was eating, bit by bit I lowered the plate until it was on the bed where he continued to eat. I called out for Graham and our daughter to witness this phenomenon although I don't think either of them truly understood my excitement. I then grabbed the camera, of course, and started taking photos. Even now I am still amazed at just how much he ate! Ned Kelly was offered some as well and while he had a few licks from my finger, that was about as far as it went but at least he had some which is great. Of course my biggest mistake was feeding Joe Byrne on the bed because we then ended up with rabbit mince throughout the bedding which had to be changed.

Joe Byrne has today decided that he is going to emulate his brother and create some havoc of his own for a change. His first attempt at creating a mess was when he chose to walk straight through his mum's dry food bowl which currently has Iams kitten biscuits in it (I know it should be James Wellbeloved but I'm still waiting for an order to be delivered). Anyway, not content with just walking over the bowl to get to the other side, he then decided that these biscuits really are in fact kitten toys that he could play with. He promptly proceeded to sit in the bowl, trying to pick them up with his paws and I swear at one stage he was flicking them out of the bowl aiming directly at his brother's head! As for Ned Kelly, well nothing ever really changes with him, although it is now a game to try and escape from the mum's when they have their backs to him. I reckon that if the poor guy makes it to week 13 with his head still attached to his body it will be a miracle the way the mum's are constantly picking him up and dragging him back to bed.

I can't believe that our Bush Rangers are 3 weeks old already and yet, when I watch them, they act as if they are the same age as the Pints sometimes. They are definitely growing up way too fast for my liking! Ned Kelly is showing an awful lot of interest in the PInts when they are eating from the plate and it's really difficult trying to keep him away from the weaning process. He knows full well that something nice is happening because his little nose twitches and he can smell something good. However, because his limbs work faster than his brain (supposing of course that is does have a brain!), he doesn't stop when he reaches the plate but instead just keeps on running, straight across the plate and managing to get all 4 paws and the rest of himself covered in A/D. This then means a little trip into the kitchen with some paper towel to clean him up which he thoroughly detests. It's times like this that I really cherish Joe Byrne who is such a "good" baby in comparison. Joe is much more serious and certainly not as flighty as Ned. Having said that though, on one of his evening jaunts last night, he managed to squeeze himself in behind the kitten box, then got lost and had no idea how to get back out, and had to be rescued as his mothers were becoming frantic because they couldn't get to him. Drambuie herself was an extremely mischievous child and this carried on throughout her adult life so I guess it is poetic justice if she ends up with babies as difficult to manage as she was herself.