In one way, I will be pleased when the Planets have grown a bit and have more distinctive features because it's so difficult to get a decent photo of them. As you can see from today's photos, they are nothing more than black blobs which is a shame because they are all such beautiful babies (yes I am biased) and the photos do not do them justice at all. Actually, in a lot of the photos, you can't even distinguish which head or limbs belong on which body! I've been trying desperately hard today to try and work out which baby is which by looking at them so I've spent quite a lot of time with them today. Sambuca and the Planets had a lovely visit today from Lily and Geoff who are having 2 of of the Planets and this was the first time that Sambuca has seen anyone other than just us so I was very interested to see how she would respond. Her mum, Cacao, when she had her 2 litters was incredibly protective of her babies and if anyone came to view them, she would watch them very closely and after a few minutes wanted her babies back. Sambuca was quite different which was nice, mind you she was feeding them at the time of Lily and Geoff's visit so she was more than content to lay there and be admired which was really nice. It's actually for reasons like this that I'm trying so hard to know the babies by sight because obviously it's rather embarrassing trying to point out babies to people and having to refer to weight charts to know who they are! I did have to smile when Geoff commented that they look like little "monkeys" because that is so true of Oriental babies at this age. I've always thought of them looking like monkeys as well so it's nice to know that I'm not the only one.

Today I am finding it difficult every time I enter the kitten room because I can't help but think I should be going up there armed with syringes and liquid as opposed to going up empty handed. I can't even get out of the habit of going up there every hour or so as I used to when I had my Pluto. Thank you to all those very kind people who have emailed me with regards to Pluto. I was amazed to see how many people are following my kitten diaries and people have been so very kind. Many thanks also to my husband and daughter for all their love and support when I lost Pluto as I would have struggled to cope without it. Everything is now packed back up in the kitten cupboard, syringes, mixtures, where it will not be needed for quite a few months as we have no litters planned until we mate Drambuie which won't be until June as she's only just had her 2nd proper call. One thing that has me slightly concerned about the Planets is how on earth, as they are growing up, will I be able to tell the 5 Oriental Blacks apart from each other. I've had enough trouble with the Herbs trying to tell the 2 Seal Point girls apart as they are so similar so goodness knows how I will manage with the Blacks. Sambuca has finally now caught on to the whole "motherhood" thing and this was proven to me last night when I went in to visit the Planets and the Three Musketeers and Sambuca was feeding 4 of her Blacks (remember that Tia has the other 2 Planets) and normally, if I enter the room, Sami climbs straight out of bed even if she is feeding but this time, she didn't move from the box. I opened the lid and she was lying there contentedly with all 4 babies suckling so stroked her and told her what a wonderful mummy she was. All 6 Planets are doing quite well, and I did consider giving Sami back her 2 babies that Tia has but to be honest, I really don't see the point, particularly as Sami has gone down the same road as her mum at the moment. This means that Sambuca is giving everything she has to the babies and is looking much thinner than I want to see so I don't want to put any more strain on her by giving her 2 more babies to feed. Chances are anyway that if I did, Tia Maria would just steal them back. Fortunately, both litters are being raised together and it will remain this way for the first 13 weeks of their lives so they will constantly be sharing mums as they grow up anyway.

Pluto and I will not be visiting the vet today as Pluto gave up the fight for life last night and left me to go to Rainbow Bridge. I had been in bed and was getting up to say goodnight to our daughter and as I passed the kitten room, something told me to go in there first before I went in to Mo's room. When I went in and checked in Sambuca's box, my darling little man was very still and very cold and he was just about to leave for the Rainbow Bridge journey. I called out to Graham to bring me a little box and I picked up my little man in my hands and kissed him and told him I loved him and it was after that kiss, at 9:26pm that he then took his last breath, and took a big part of me with him. Graham came in and we cried while I placed him in the box. I just held the box and leaned against the wall and cried because we had fought so hard, both he and Graham and I during the 10 days that he was with us. Late yesterday afternoon, both Graham and I had a feeling that he was starting to weaken and was losing the fight as when we fed him, he wasn't interested in drinking at all and when we put him in the kitten box, he just curled up and went to sleep and didn't even want to be near his mum or brothers and sisters. I am just so thankful that my instincts made me go into the room and that he died in my hands being kissed and loved. I cried myself to sleep and today, after Parsley and Sage have gone to their new homes, I'll be burying my little man. This loss has taken so much out of me because he was with me so much longer and we were together so often for feeding and cuddles throughout the 10 days of his life and having had to let him go is tearing me apart. I know, and indeed, some people are bound to tell me that at least I managed to save little Mars, but that just makes it worse because I was able to pull him through and he turned the corner at 8 days of age, so why not my little Pluto too?

As usual, all of our Planets are doing very well, except for Pluto who we are desperately worried about. He's lost a few more grams today, despite endless feeding, nutri drops and colostrum. I have booked him in tomorrow morning to be seen by my vet on the chance that Andy can do something for him that I can't. Or perhaps I've missed something that Andy will pick up on straight away. What I don't understand is that there are no outward signs at all that anything is wrong with Pluto, apart from his size. This could mean that something is not right internally, I really don't know. Between now and his appointment tomorrow, we'll continue with the feeding and everything else we're doing on the off chance we can turn him around as we did with Mars. Everyone's eyes are open now, apart from Pluto's and it's lovely to see their little eyes peering at me when I am talking to them or giving them cuddles. One thing which does surprise me is that our largest baby is one of the ones who is with Sambuca and not Tia Maria. I would have thought that the 2 Planets that Tia is feeding would be bigger than Sami's but surprisingly they aren't so Sambuca is obviously producing more than enough milk as the Planet's weights are quite good considering how many of them there are.

Well I am pleased to say that within the last 36 hours, our tiny Black has gained 12 grams which is amazing considering his track record. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about our Siamese tiny baby who yesterday afternoon I thought was making progress as he had gained 3 grams, however when I fed and weighed first thing this morning, he had lost 4 grams. This one is a really tough battle and at the moment I'm struggling to win this one however, the tiny Black suddenly turned the corner so there is always hope that my little Siamese will do the same. It is just so very scary to see him at 9 days of age with such very low weights. Sambuca is doing quite a good job with her babies now. The only problem I have with her is that whenever I enter the room, she is out of the box like a shot regardless of whether or not babies are feeding from her. She doesn't quite have the same motherly instincts that her own mum has, but she is young and it's her first litter and she's done an excellent job so far and she really does love her babies very much. You might be pleased to know that we have now named our babies, I have also made an attempt to sex them (but will no doubt be wrong) so Sambuca's babies will be called:

In order or weights from largest to smallest
Saturn	Oriental Black	Male	With Sambuca
Jupiter	Oriental Black	Female	With Tia Maria
Venus	Oriental Black	Female	With Sambuca
Mercury	Siamese	Female	With Tia Maria
Neptune	Oriental Black	Female	With Sambuca
Mars (our tiny baby)	Oriental Black	Male	With Sambuca
Pluto (our tiny baby)	Siamese	Male	With Sambuca

They will therefore collectively be known as "The Planets" :)

Progress at last with one of our tiny babies. For the first time ever since they were born, yesterday afternoon I finally managed to get our tiny Black latched on to his mum. I was absolutely stunned and you truly have no idea how relieved I am. With every 2 hourly feed we've given, I have constantly tried to latch these 2 babies on but neither of them would have it, they weren't interested, didn't want to know, and didn't have the strength to fight for nipples. Yesterday however, everyone else was asleep when I fed the 2 tinies at 2:30pm and after I fed the Black, I automatically put him/her right next to mum's nipple and to my surprise and delight, he/she started scrambling around to try and latch on. It did take him/her about 40 seconds to get the hang of it, but once that nipple was in his/her mouth, there was no stopping my tiny Black. Since then, I have made a point of constantly putting him/her back on mum after the feeds and so far the baby is still managing to latch on and drink. Even late last night, I fed the babies and the tiny Black then went straight to mum and fed and I went back in to check on them half an hour later and Sambuca had moved to the other end of the box and I was thrilled to see that the tiny Black had moved with her and was still latched on. By this morning our Black had gained about 6 grams which is wonderful because up until now he/she had gained nothing at all so this is hopefully a step in the right direction. Now if I could just do the same with the Siamese it would be wonderful. Everyone else, apart from our tiny Siamese is doing quite well and eyes are opened all nearly all the babies now, apart from our 2 tinies. I managed to take some very bad individual photos today but I swear the blacks just look like little Blobs so you really can't distinguish much at all unfortunately.

Our little ones have now reached 1 week of age and our 2 tinies are still hanging in there. Both of them are still quite a lot below their birth weights however neither of them are prepared to give up the fight. Both babies are still being hand feed 2 hourly throughout the day and up until about midnight. The rest of Sambuca's babies are all doing well and their weight gains are what I would expect in such a large litter. We still have not sexed or named these babies but will make it a priority to do that this week. Sambuca is much more friendlier now with Tia Maria again which is quite nice and she keeps sticking her head in Tia's box to see what is happening in there. A few of Sami's babies now have their eyes open and most of the cords have now fallen off as well so they are starting to progress quite nicely.