We are 10 week old now!

There are no diary entries for the above days because Friday was an incredibly hectic day, on Saturday we were showing at the KKNCC show in Reading, so we were in and out all day as we went to the show in the morning, came back to feed, and then went back to the show. Sunday was spent cleaning up the house as we weren't here on Saturday, and doing copious amounts of washing. Diary entries should resume as per normal on Monday, July 30, 2007.

Many apologies for not getting any photos today of the Capitals or the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, however, the camera batteries died halfway through doing the Nuts and Detectives photo's.

Throughout this kitten diary, you have all read how much I adore our Capitals and how wonderful they are, despite the fact that they are such very naughty children. I've also been mentioning that I don't think Julie really knows what is going to hit her when Canberra moves in with her. Well, I watched Canberra yesterday, for quite a while (the Capitals are very entertaining) and I have to say that I am incredibly relieved we chose Dublin and not Canberra because in all honesty, I don't think I could have her in the home at all. This girl is way too much like her mother in personality and whilst Dublin is very, very naughty, she's a happy, "smiley" child along with it. The same can't be said for Canberra, like her mother, she takes that Tortie streak just a little too far. Having lived with Drambuie now for 3 years and 7 months, and having put up with the fact that Drambuie broke my foot, with me ending up in plaster for 7 weeks, and "other stuff", well I tell you, I couldn't live with another one of her. Not now, not in a million years. Don't get me wrong, Canberra is equally as loving as her mum and her grandmother when she wants to be, and she adores cuddles, but she is just over the top I'm afraid. She actually the total opposite to Port-of-Spain because Port-of-Spain has a couple of naughty moments, but she is just so incredibly loving, you only have to pick her up and she starts purring straight away and I have never, ever, seen Port-of-Spain have that same attitude problem that Canberra has (which I'm sure Diane will be pleased to hear). I do love the torties, I would never be without them in our home, but they really do try your patience at times. London and Washington are just to totally, totally different. They are both mischievous, Washington of course is still a whingey bum but one thing I will say is that as he is maturing, it's not so much as a whinge now, it's more of a pleading cry. Bless him, he looks up at me and gives a half hearted little bleat just asking to be picked up and cuddled, or picked up and put in front of the food tray. Both he and London are such darlings and they don't really cause me any trouble at all, unlike their Tortie sisters <sigh>.

After breakfast this morning, I was a bit surprised to see that the Capitals hadn't come running down the stairs, through their little kitten door, to play down here and in the cat run. This was unusual because they are normally the first children creating chaos. I went upstairs to see what was keeping them so occupied and I really wished I hadn't bothered. All 5 of our Capitals were playing, in the bathroom, with a roll of toilet paper, or, what USED to be a roll of toilet paper <sigh> By the time I had discovered what they were up to, it was too late to even try and save any of the roll. They had totally destroyed it, leaving a trail of paper in their wake throughout the entire bathroom. They even managed to get some of it up on the windowsill and in the hand basin and bath. Yes, I know they are responsible because I caught them in the act. Between them, and the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, I have a feeling it is going to be one of those days! They were all unimpressed with me when I took their fun away, however, I did leave them with the empty roll which delighted them. Despite having little toy mice and balls and the like, the babies still prefer an empty cardboard roll, or screwed up bits of paper. Well, all of them except for London that is, who, within the last few days, has decided that one of the toy mice is hers and hers alone. She spends an awful lot of time walking around with it in her mouth, growling at anyone who dares come near her. For such a tiny little being, she can be quite scary when the need arises :)

I'm always amazed at how our Capitals manage to all squeeze into the same bed, along with the other babies, especially now that they are starting to get bigger. None of them ever seem to care whose head they are sitting on, and even the baby at the bottom of the pile is perfectly content to be totally squashed. I know they derive a great deal of body warmth from their siblings but our Capitals tend to take this to the extreme sometimes. They continue to be little terror children and so far this week we have had 2 "cobweb" babies. By this I mean that both Canberra, and Washington, have found managed to get into the kitchen, behind the washing machine and cupboards, and 5 minutes later, they have both emerged with loads of cobwebs/dust all over the heads, making them almost unrecognisable. As you can tell, our "Not in the Kitchen" rule still means absolute nothing to the Capitals.

Urgent Notice Regarding Vaccinations - Would all new kitten families of Liquorice, the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, and the Capitals, please note that all babies will be remaining with us a further couple of weeks. We had a telephone call from our vet surgery this morning and the flood damage to the surgery has been immense. As such, we obviously could not have the babies vaccinated today, and although we have been given the first available appointment to have the kittens' vaccinated, this will not be until August 3rd. This should give you an indication as to the extent of damage, and devastation that our vet surgery has suffered during the floods. This now means that their 2nd, and final vaccination will not be until approximately August 24th, meaning that the babies will not be able to leave home until August 30th. Obviously this will be a disappointment for our kitten families, but disasters like this are not something that any of us can predict. Our only other alternative would have been to possibly try and find a different vet in our area who hasn't become victim to the flood, but we are not prepared to do this because our babies get the best of care with the staff at Brook Veterinary Surgery and we trust them implicitly and we are not prepared to take our babies to a practice with vets we do not know, and vets who do not know our darling fur children.

There are no photos, and no diary entries today, because as of early this morning, we have brand new children in the home and it's an extremely busy day with lots of cleaning up and washing to do.

A note for all our kitten families..................as you know, our babies are booked in for the first set of vaccinations tomorrow morning. Now as it stands at the moment, I have no idea whether or not this will still go ahead. If you had read the Nuts' kitten diary yesterday you will be aware that our vet was flooded out, so I shall phone them tomorrow morning to see whether or not they will actually be open (they have forecast more flooding today/tonight in our area) so I really don't know what is going to happen with regards to the vaccinations. If the vaccinations have to be put back due to the surgery still being closed, then this will mean that our babies will not be able to leave on the day you have all been previously told. I will know for definite tomorrow after I speak with them, so I'll let you know via tomorrow's kitten diary what the situation is.

It was a very special day for Port-of-Spain and Washington today because their new mum Diane, and their Aunty Del came to visit them today and Port-of-Spain was happy to show off what a lovely purry little baby she is. Washington, was far more interested in playing games and pouncing, and jumping, and the occasional whining. It was lovely to see Diane and Del again and Del proved to be a real hit with some of the babies and towards the end of the visit there were 3 children all curled up in her lap, perfectly content and prepared to stay there for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, Dublin was in one of her wicked Tortie moods and was more than happy to show Diane just why she has the name that she does by proceeding to bite Diane's finger...........over and over again. Washington had really changed since Diane's last visit and he suddenly seems to be turning into a proper little man now and he was having the time of his life playing with Del and showing off his leaping abilities. Both ladies had the pleasure of putting up with Cointreau screaming her head off, as well as Cointreau deciding to become a hairdresser and I will guarantee that the journey home for the girls will be much quieter than it was at our home while they were visiting :) I thoroughly enjoyed Diane and Del's visit today and we could not be happier with the home that our 2 beautiful babies are going to.