Today's entry is also starting out with news about Ned Kelly, just as yesterday's entry did as well. The reason for this is that he totally surprised me yesterday afternoon. I fed the babies another meal at about 3:30pm and this meal was their cooked chicken that they all love so much (at least one meal a day consists of chicken). Anyway, I put the plate down and all the babies gathered around, except Joe Byrne who hadn't fully woken up yet so I went to gently prod him to make him aware that chicken was being served. While I was with Joe, I could hear the most ferocious growling that I'd never heard before. I turned around and sure enough it was Ned Kelly. As he was eating, he was growling at the other babies, warning them not to touch his chicken. He even put both front paws on the plate and continued to growl as he ate. Joe Byrne took his place beside Ned and as soon as the poor guy went to have a mouthful, Ned Kelly turned around, growled at his brother and quite literally put his right front paw on Joe Byrne's face and physically pushed him away from the plate. This totally freaked Joe out and he ran to the other side of the room. I had to get a small saucer, put some of the chicken on it and feed Ned at the other end of the room, all by himself, where he STILL continued to growl! I then retrieved Joe Byrne from under the desk and put him back at the edge of the plate where he glanced around rather warily, was happy to see his brother was not in sight and he then joined the other babies for his chicken dinner. I do find it hard to understand his actions because he's never done it before, the chicken was not cooked any differently. The only thing that was different is that yesterday they did not get any cooked chicken at all (I had run out of chicken), so perhaps he felt that he had to keep it to himself on the off chance that his very bad human mummy misses a day of chicken. You should be able to tell by the first 4 photos that Joe Byrne settled himself for part of the day on my mouse mat which made it incredibly difficult to actually get any work done at all. I couldn't move him though as he looked so incredibly sweet sitting there. Fortunately, it's a wireless mouse/keyboard so I was able to work around him. I have no doubts at all that when he is living with Susie and Lee and that he will "help" them with any computer work they may be trying to do. He was in a bit of a funny mood this morning and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. He was walking around the room, sniffing everything and crying and he kept going to and from the back door. It eventually dawned on me that he was a bit upset because the door was closed (due to awful weather) which meant that he couldn't go out into the cat run which is something he has been doing a lot of lately. Once I opened the door, after the wind nearly blew him backwards, he took a few tentative steps out there, decided the wind was way too strong for him and he bolted back indoors to run and play upstairs.

Ned Kelly gave us such a scare this morning that we really could have done without. He and Guinness were sitting on top of the small fish tank that lives on a filing cabinet next to Graham's desk. Graham had called out to me to ask me how Guinness was doing as he had been watching her on the tank. So I turned my head, gave him a progress update on her and noticed Ned Kelly on top of the tank with who I thought to be Guinness. I asked Graham if it was Guinness up there with him as I couldn't see around the corner. Graham replied yes and as I was looking at Guinness and Ned Kelly playing up there, Guinness gave him a massive shove, right over the edge of the tank and onto the floor. I'm not sure who moved quicker, Graham or myself. I was convinced that he must have done some damage to himself because even though he landed on his feet (sort of), it's still quite a high fall in my opinion. He sat up, shook himself off, went for a little wander and 5 minutes later I went searching for him because I was still concerned there was damage that I couldn't yet see. I found him in one of his favourite spots near the CD tower and I picked him up and gave him to Graham as I wanted him monitored for any affects. Ned Kelly then eventually went to sleep which worried Graham but the other babies were also settling down to sleep as they had all had their morning play. An hour or two later, with both of us checking on him, he was up and running about with everyone and seemed to be just fine. He then tucked into a meal of turkey mince with some grated cheese on it so the fall does not appear to have affected his appetite. We have since put a cat bed on top of the fish tank as when the babies do play up there, which they shouldn't but invariably do, at least if one of them starts to fall they will have something to grip onto so they shouldn't have any accidents. Joe Byrne, as per usual, went running upstairs this morning straight after breakfast and he very kindly "helped" me mop and sweep the floors up there after I'd bleached the litter trays. It really is the sort of help I could do without though! As I'm trying to sweep, Joe Byrne is darting in and out, in front of the broom, trying to catch the bristles and naturally he is running straight through the mess I'm sweeping up. The mop fascinates him even more as he is determined to catch the cloth strips on the mop head and it makes no difference to him that it is wet, he still insists on helping me.

Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne are both doing very well. Joe's weights are just massive every single day now and I do not know why he is gaining as much as he does. Ned has had a great time this morning joining in the wrestling games with Guinness and XXXX on top of the dining table whereas Joe Byrne spent a good couple of hours upstairs today hanging out with the older cats. At this exact moment that I'm writing this however, Joe is currently on top of his brother and is strangling him. It's not a long entry again today as it's yet another hectic day and we have an awful lot to get through. It dawned on me this morning that I still haven't even sent out the "welcome" letters to our babies' new families so I'm going to make a start on those shortly.

The fact that there is even a diary entry going online at all today is a miracle as we have had an extremely busy and rather difficult start to the week. It's only Tuesday and both Graham and I are just absolutely shattered. We're hoping that from tomorrow onwards, things will start to quieten down a bit and we won't have all the rushing around to do that we have been doing so far. Joe Byrne has now a new record holder here at Schimmel. I forgot to mention it in yesterday's diary actually, however, when I weighed Joe Byrne yesterday morning, he had reached the weight of 1002 grams (just over a kilogram)! At 8 1/2 weeks of age, for an Oriental, this is an impressive weight and certainly he is the biggest Oriental boy we have ever bred. I do hope Lee and Susie have stocked up on food as I have horrific visions of him eating them out of house and home. Both he and Ned Kelly are just absolute treasures. When the time comes for these guys to go, I think we are really going to miss them an awful lot. Ned Kelly has stolen the heart of absolutely everyone who has ever met him and there is not a single person who has been to our home that has not wanted to take him out the door with them when he left. Joe Byrne on the other hand, has become a particularly favourite of mine because he is such a cuddly, energetic man who loves the rough and tumble, but is then still happy to curl up on your lap for cuddles and to go to sleep. I must admit though that I was not particularly enamoured of him this afternoon as I was going in and out of the kitten room, removing everything out of it so I could thoroughly clean it out as we have a guest staying tonight. The problem was that every time I opened the door to bring stuff out, Joe Byrne darted straight in there. After the 3rd time of him doing this, even though I was expecting it, there was just no way on earth I could catch him as he is way too quick. At first I know that he was going in there to "check it out" and explore. He obviously doesn't not remember that he spent the first 3 weeks of his life in that room. Yet by the 7th time of him running in there, the twinkle in his eye made it very apparent that to him, it had now become a game whereby he would see how far he would get before I scooped him up. The problem is you see, that each time I caught him, I gave him cuddle and way too many kisses before putting him on the other side of the door. I just hope our guest doesn't sleep in tomorrow morning because chances are, if he does, when he first opens the door to come out, he may well be bombarded with Joe Byrne!

Again, quite short entries as I will be popping in and out all day. It's only Monday but already it's turning into one of those weeks! Both our Bush Rangers are doing extremely well and I'm, more than happy with Ned Kelly's daily weight gains. There's no point even discussing Joe Byrne's gains because we all know how large that boy is! After a much longer snooze than normal this morning, Joe Byrne were raring to go and was tearing throughout the home, chasing everyone, chasing the older cats and wrestling with the other babies. Ned Kelly, on the other hand, took advantage of the fact that all the babies were so busy playing that he chose to have his mum and her milk bar all to himself. Joe Byrne has a particularly fondness for one of the mouse toys that Elaine brought over on Saturday, so much so that if anyone else goes near him when he is playing with it, he gets extremely possessive and growls at them.

As today is Mothers Day, I'm not going to write a lot in the entries but I have compensated for that by putting in more photos :)

I have come to the conclusion that when it is time for Ned Kelly to leave, I am going to have to make sure Graham is not at home that day. I was feeding the babies their scrambled eggs this morning, I had 4 heads around the plate which meant someone was missing. That someone was Ned Kelly. I went out to Graham to ask if Ned was under his desk or in that vicinity. Graham smiles and replies with "I haven't seen him" but the smile gave it away so Ned was obviously there somewhere. So I looked at Graham again and noticed that he had his jacket zipped up (now it's not that cold today), then I noticed an abnormal bulge under the jacket. I unzipped the jacket and who should I find but Ned Kelly sound asleep and perfectly content. Even as I was unzipping the jacket, Graham was still denying that he knew where Ned was. At 57 days of age, Joe Byrne has reached the rather large weight of 960 grams!!! At 11 days younger than the Pints, he is still bigger than Caffreys who is 910 grams, but I think I now know why he is growing so much. This morning, being Mothers Day, I had a bit of a sleep in so when I woke up, the house had already been opened up and the babies were roaming around everywhere. As I came out of the bedroom door, I discovered Joe Byrne, upstairs on the food table, merrily munching away on the James Wellbeloved Adult biscuits. So not only does he eat the kitten biscuits all night long, as well at the 5-6 home cooked meals every day, he is also helping himself to the adult food! Is it any wonder that he is becoming the size of a Panther!

The only photos in today's diary are of Joe Byrne because I had visitors yesterday, I didn't have the time to take any photos, however Lee and Susie very kindly sent me these photos that they took during their visit with Joe Byrne. It was so great to see Lee and Susie again because we get on so very well and they just love their new baby to bits. He is definitely going to be the most spoilt baby in the entire world I am sure. For the majority of the visit, Joe was not in the most of cuddliest moods as all he wanted to do was play and run around, showing just how energetic he really is. But I know he gave his new family a few laughs with his running around, his climbing and his wrestling matches with Caffreys. Lee and Susie had bought a great cat toy for him to play with during their visit. It's a mouse (again one that squeaks) on a wand but what they probably weren't reckoning on was the fact that Toussaint fell in love with it, before the babies even got a look in, so they very kindly decided they would leave the toy here. Towards the end of their visit, Joe had some great cuddles with Lee and I always think it is just so lovely to see our babies snuggled up and perfectly content in their new families' arms. Ned Kelly also had lots of extra attention today as Elaine, Aiden and Gary came to see him, (more about this in the Pints' diary). Ned was running about for the start of their visit, however, he very soon realised that it was much more fun to sleep on Elaine and then Aiden's lap and have a snooze. He was so relaxed and content when being cuddled by his new family which is really wonderful to see.