Yet again, I'm at a loss as to where to begin with this one so I guess I'll start from Drambuie's last litter. When Drambuie had the "Capitals", Graham and I had a chat about her, and decided once her babies left home we would have her spayed. The reason for this is that Drambuie tends to bloat when she calls, this is not normal, she is also a prolific caller, and whilst she is without a doubt, one of, if not, the best queen we have, we felt spaying her would be the right thing to do. However, like a couple of our other "unplanned" litters, we forgot to take Ashanti into account. When the Capitals were in the home, Drambuie continued to call every few weeks, without fail, even while she was nursing her babies. We were incredibly careful not to allow Ashanti upstairs at all, at least we thought we were.

After the Capitals had left home, we noticed Drambuie was looking quite large, again it was that same "bloated" look we were used to seeing on her. The difference this time is that she remained bloated, in fact, she was getting bigger and eating an awful lot. We took her into our vets for an ultrasound, just to make sure she was okay and there were no internal problems. We already had 2 girls booked in for spaying, Drambuie was supposed to be the 3rd girl, unfortunately, the ultrasound confirmed that there were definitely babies on the way. This created a problem in that we had no idea when or how the mating had occurred which means for the first time since we started breeding, we were in the position of not knowing when the babies would be due. All Jo could ascertain from the ultrasound was that the babies were well formed and she felt Buie was around 6 weeks pregnant. The ultrasound was done on October 3, and I did say to Graham a few days afterwards that in my own opinion, Buie was much further gone than 6 weeks.

We spent the next week or so monitoring her closely, making sure she was getting plenty to eat and then she started becoming restless. I has already evicted our current babies (the Chefs and the Ray J's) from the 2nd kitten room, and I put the posh box in there and set the room up for Drambuie. She moved in on October 10 and was over the moon because she had her posh box which she was busy nesting in, she had peace and quiet, and was preparing herself for the event at hand.

On October 16, we had our very good mates, Caryll, Ray, and Jacqui visit, well actually, they were doing us a tremendous favour at the time as we have had one disaster after another (not cat related) and after they left, Graham put the dinner on, I did all the litter trays again, did another tidy up, and went upstairs to feed the older babies and to feed Drambuie. Within seconds of opening the door to the 2nd kitten room, I knew straight away we were in labour. This was very evident by the fact that 2 Brown Spotted Oriental Tabby kittens were in the box, one dry, the other soaking wet. I called downstairs to Graham to turn the dinner down as we were in labour. I then flew downstairs, grabbed a pen and paper, the scales, and went back upstairs with Drambuie. Now I had been in Drambuie's room at around 1630 to check on her, and at that stage, there was no evident sign that labour was imminent so you can imagine I was a bit shocked to discover just over an hour later we had 2 new babies. It was far from over though as Drambuie was huge and extremely uncomfortable. I examined both babies, both were fine, they weighed in okay, and they were already trying to latch on to Drambuie so this was a very good sign.

Then at 1844, Drambuie started pushing again, but this time, after 10 minutes of constant pushing and straining, there was no baby, just an awful lot of fluid, blood and other fluids, very similar to that of the colour of placenta's. I left it another 5 minutes, grabbed the mobile and phoned Teen. I told her exactly what had happened, and the times etc. and we had a chat, at least Teen chatted, I was a nervous wreck, she told me to leave it 10 more minutes and if there were still no baby to then phone the vet. I hung up, watched, waited and prayed, and after a massive push and tremendously loud grown, at 1928, a Black Tortie was born, along with 2 placenta's. One belonged to the new baby, the other belonged to the previous baby. I will say that it is so important that you are present for the births because you have to ensure there is a placenta for each single baby. I was not in the room for the first 2 births so I had no idea whether or not the placenta's had been delivered, apparently, one of them hadn't but it was sure as heck out now! The fluid I had been seeing during the contractions was very obviously the fluid from the retained placenta. Despite being so very tired, Drambuie cleaned her baby, but did not deliver the placenta so while she was contracting, I firmly held the cord with one hand, and then with the other, I gently pulled the placenta out. The baby was normal, the weight was okay, so I gave her back to mum.

I then phoned Teen back and quite literally burst into tears, probably tears of relief. It is so very unlike me to panic during a birth as I am the sort of person who is quite calm, has a cup of coffee, a book, the camera, and a few other bits and pieces, so for me to react like this was totally out of the ordinary. Teen and I chatted again, she really was an angel and I am so grateful. Drambuie then went to sleep, she had delivered the babies from one side, meaning of course there was still another side. So Teen and I said good bye, I promised to call her back after it was over, and I then took a load of washing downstairs. I went back into the kitten room, that Black Tortie was a real little fighter in the respect that she found a nipple straight away, latched straight on and was suckling away for all she was worth. When the male Brown Spotted Tabby who was much bigger than her, went over to push her off the nipple, she told him in no uncertain terms where to go and she clung to that nipple and ferociously fought off her brother and sister, both of whom eventually found on of their own :)

Drambuie was just totally exhausted, sound asleep, but very content, so Graham and I quickly ate dinner and I then went back upstairs. Drambuie was still asleep, so I sat with her and then at 2218 the sign of another sac appeared, at 1021, a Cinnamon baby was born and I now realised why the other placenta had been retained. Drambuie had decided that rather than deliver the placenta's, she would actually chew the cord while the placenta was still inside. She started doing this with the Cinnamon baby so again, I delivered the placenta. This baby was again normal, all was fine, and as I was weighing the baby, Drambuie was pushing again. At 2042 a Havana baby was born, much to my delight as it's been ages since we had Havana's. Again, Drambuie cleaned her baby and started chewing the cord so I delivered that placenta, which Drambuie promptly ate. While she was doing that I dried off the Havana baby, weighed him/her and gave him back to mum. I then changed all the bedding again, but did not get a chance to properly feel Drambuie as she just wanted to lie down, hold her babies and feed them. So I waited, and I waited, hoping that was it.

I phoned Teen at about 2340 to tell her we had 5 babies and all looked well and it was possible that there were no more. So after we had a chat, I got off the phone, and we waited some more. At 2408, after an awful lot of contractions, hard pushing, and a few screams, Drambuie delivered another Cinnamon baby. I could not believe she was still going, she must have been so incredibly shattered but she still looked after that baby, while continuing to feed her other children. Drambuie is one of those mum's who wants her children with her during birth which is fair enough. I honestly did not even get a chance to pick this baby up to dry her off because much to my astonishment, at 0106, another Black Tortie had just slid out. The only warning that another was on the way, was a low grunt by Drambuie and I swear this little girl came out as quickly as if she were a child on one of those slippery slides. She quite literally just shot straight out. While Drambuie dealt with her, I dealt with the newly born Cinnamon baby.

When both new children were weighed and were okay, I was almost certain there were no more having felt Drambuie. She was fed again, I then changed the bedding again, and waited a bit more. It was definitely over thank goodness and I can't believe that a one off mating produced 7 children, although it shouldn't come as any surprise as Ashanti's previous "one off's" have also produced big litters.

So, it had been a very long night/morning, today has been just as long as I have copious amounts of washing and work to get through, to say nothing of looking after our current other babies, but I was determined to get this darn kitten diary online. Having now done that, we would like to introduce you to the "Indians", named after the Cleveland Indians. Graham is a staunch Indians supporter and watches most of their games (usually at some ridiculous hour of morning) and it just so happened they were playing again in the early hours of the morning and they won :) So please meet.....................

The photos for this entry are absolutely horrendous, possibly some of the worst "birth" photos I've ever taken, so goodness only knows why there are so darn many of them. As for the sexes, well, you know what I'm like so don't be surprised if some of our boys turn into girls and vice versa :) Having just gone up and looked at these babies again, to be honest with you, I really do have no idea what our possible Cinnamon babies are. This morning, I wondered if they were Reds, as Buie has often given us Reds in the past, yet the colouring (despite how it appears in the photos below), just is not typical of a Red from Drambuie. It is almost like an extremely vivid bright red/brown colour, making me think Cinnamon. But what is confusing me now is that I don't think they are Selfs in the respect that they have "white" faces, and almost definite scarabs on the foreheads and the faintest of rings on the tail and bars on the legs, meaning what? Cinnamon tabbies? Cinnamon Torties whose tortie colouring is not through yet? I'm actually quite frustrated at not knowing exactly what they are, actually never mind! I have now just looked at Drambuie's 1st ever kitten diary and I know that our 2 babies are in fact, Oriental Reds. The colouring/markings between her first 3 Red babies, and these 2 babies is extremely similar.