We are 4 weeks old now!

Day 27 - February 21, 2008

There are no photos today sorry because I had a kitten family visit us today and our next few days are incredibly busy with quite a lot going on, including more kitten families visiting but I am going to endeavour to get at least a short entry and a few photos online each day.

Jam and Treacle have spent quite a bit of their waking time today darting in and out from underneath the posh boxes. It actually got to the stage where I had to shut them in their posh box at 8am while I was hoovering and cleaning the room because they kept running where I was trying to hoover and I was having to stop every 2 minutes to pick them up and put them out of the way. This didn't stop Jam though because even with the ramp up on the box, she just scrambles straight up to the opening and out of the box. Weirdly enough, neither of our Tarts is bothered by the hoover but they are not totally sure about the mop. Go figure!

Day 26 - February 20, 2008

Jam is a very determined young lady as I happened to witness last night when I was spending time with the mum's and babies. Amaretto decided that it was time Jam had a turn in Sami's box, so she carried her over and plonked her in there. What she didn't count on was Jam being so stubborn. Now Jam is quite a small girl but she was not going to allow her size to stop her from scrambling up over the opening in the ramp and then dropping straight down onto the floor below. Once she fell onto the floor, she stood up, looked at the box in what could only be described as a defiant manner, and trotted off back to her own box. Four more times she was plonked in Sami's box and four more times she scrambled out and went back to her own box. I was rather relieved to see Amaretto give up after that.

Day 25 - February 19, 2008

All entries start off the same today..........................None of the mum's know who owns which baby any more and it is total and utter bedlam in the kitten room. This morning, I did away with the kitten pen and whilst there are still 3 posh boxes set up in the kitten room, the mothers and babies are choosing to use 2 of them only. Of the 3 boxes still set up, only 2 are being used and as for which baby is in which box at any given time is anyone's guess. Lucy is sharing Sambuca's box, but with other babies, whilst Cointreau, Nocello and Amaretto are still sharing their large box, with their babies and others. The biggest problem is that I have to keep a very close eye on Sami's children. They are only 15 days old and I can NOT let them be out of the box exploring or walking around as it is way too early for this to happen and we already had one little incident with Ritz this morning!

Nocello really is a happy little girl, as are her 2 children and I do derive such a huge amount of pleasure as I watch her with all the children. In personality, she reminds me so much of her own mother and we really are extremely proud of her and think she is being a wonderful first time mummy. Today, Jam decided it was definitely her turn to walk through the tray of food and she is a fast little child when she wants to be so I had no hope at all of actually reaching her before she had walked through the entire lot. She was funny afterwards though because she stopped in the middle of the floor, picked up her front right paw, studied it, wondering what the mess was, put it down, picked up her left front paw, studied that one, and then ran straight over to Nocello to make her clean again.

Day 24 - February 18, 2008

Jam and Treacle continue to go through life as happy, playful, outgoing little children although at times I do feel perhaps Jam is slightly overwhelmed by the antics of the Archangels. On the whole though, both girls are coping extremely well with having the older babies share their box and they are more than capable of holding their own during any kitten battles that are taking place. Treacle is going to be quite a long, elegant boy I think, like his father and I'm thrilled with how well both of our babies are doing. Nocello really has done an outstanding job with her children so far.

Day 23 - February 17, 2008

There were never going to be any photos today due to 2 kitten families supposedly visiting. One of whom turned up on time, the other did not turn up at all and of course we have dog training tonight with Jag as well.

I can not keep up with our Tarts and I'm afraid that when I am in the kitten room, I do not know where they are. Both Ritz and Claridge's have a habit of exploring the room at top speeds. In fact, they only know 2 speeds, super fast or stop and there is no middle ground such as ambling along. They just appear as if from nowhere, get right under my feet and there have been so many occasions today when I've been in the room and had to just stand perfectly still and not take a step as they have been darting in and out of my feet. I can always guarantee that if I think they are going to go in one direction and if I start to move the opposite way, they end up right on that place on the floor where I am about to put my foot down. As to how Nocello or the other mum's can manage to keep track of them is totally beyond me.

Day 22 - February 16 2008

It is just as well that I mentioned in the previous entry that I had limited time, although even I wasn't expecting to have a 3 day gap between diary entries. All 5 entries do start off the same today and to say that we have total and utter chaos in the kitten room is an understatement!

Yesterday, we actually were out for most of the day which is extremely unusual for us but we know that once weaning begins, any days out will not be possible so in a way, it was our last chance to be out of the home for any length of time. We really did have a lovely day but unfortunately, we came back to a total disaster in the kitten room. The first thing I did upon arriving home was go straight up to the kitten room to see how everyone was and the sight that greeted me was not a pretty one. Tia Lusso had moved herself, and her Archangels into Cointreau's kitten box. She had very obviously scared Cointreau into not going near her own babies, so much so, that poor Cointreau was sitting huddled up in Sambuca's pen with her babies. (Sambuca is Cointreau's mother). There was poo all over the place which is no surprise at all because stress levels between some of the mum's must have been tremendously high.

This left me with a massive problem in what should be done to sort this out and get Cointreau back with her own babies. If I were to have put Lucy and her Archangels back in the box, she would have just taken them all straight back to Cointreau's box and pushed her out and scared her yet again. The only option left to me was to put Lucy and her babies in Sambuca's pen (which we borrowed from Teen and Tone as we didn't have enough posh boxes). So now, for the first time ever, we have had to confine Lucy and her babies to a pen. Anyone who knows me is aware that I do not advocate the use of kitten pens at all as I do not believe in confining either mum, or the babies but I have now found that I don't really have a choice. I then spent the next 2 hours changing everyone's bedding, and moving everyone around. Sambuca and her babies went into Lucy's massive posh box, Lucy and her babies went into Sami's pen, Cointreau was put back into her box with her own babies, and the Tarts and Airports remained where they were. It took Lucy about 2 hours afterwards to realise that Lucy could no longer "get her" and it wasn't until about 11:30pm that Cointreau was comfortable enough to relax and lie down in her own box and feed her babies.

I do think it is going to take quite a bit of time for everything to settle back down in the kitten room and I am aiming to have Lucy and her children out of the pen as quickly as possible but for the next few days, they will remain in there. I'm really not sure what to do for the best but I think if I can get the Archangels weaned so that they are not quite as reliant on their mum's milk, wait until Sami's babies are a little bit older, I can then look at opening up all the posh boxes permanently, see who goes where, open the pen back up, and then let the mother's decided who they want to share with. It really has been a very stressful and worrying 18 hours or so and I am quite concerned but all I can do for the next couple of days is keep Lucy penned, make sure everyone's weights are going to get back on track and take it from there.

There are no photos today for obvious reason....................maybe tomorrow <sigh>.

Now I will get onto the individual entries in each diary......................................

Just like our Airports, the Tarts have now been given "room freedom". The little darlings are over the moon and are much more confident than the Airports when it comes to walking down the ramp and exploring the room. Of course, I know I am going to dread having given them freedom because even today, on their first day out of the box, each time I have been in the room, they have coming running over to me, getting under my feet and in the way. I would expect no less from any Nocello/Ashanti child and I know we will be in for fun and games for the next 11 weeks or so :)