We are 12 weeks old today!

I must admit that I "cheated" for today's photos and the entries in both diaries are exactly the same but hey it's Sunday, a day of rest and all that :) As you can tell by the photos below, I have had nowhere at all to sit for most of the morning and have spent it either right on the edge of my chair, trying not to fall off, or I've been sitting on the smaller, uncomfortable chair. What doesn't help is the fact that the stairs are being sanded today which means the downstairs part of the house is all locked up as we don't want the workman letting the cats or babies out (yes it's happened before!). So instead of having the run of the house, all adults and babies only have the downstairs which isn't much fun for anyone really. One thing about the Planets though, is that they are not phased one bit by the noise from the sander and have just carried on with what they are doing which is great. Saturn has decided that since this morning, when he grows up, he is going to work in the computer department because all morning he has been all over my keyboard and chasing my cursor all over the screen. He's not done this before and I just hope that he doesn't encourage the others along the same path because it is difficult to work when there is a big black bum and tail right in front of the screen. When I closed the door to the cat run late last night, I managed to count all 5 Blacks in under 15 minutes which so far is a record time :)

Well I actually made the decision last night to leave the whole of the house opened up and not confine the babies overnight to the back room. They loved it, but it caused havoc for me! While we had our bedroom door open for "visiting time" for the pets, all of the babies spent that time running in and out of the room and all across the bed, which was fine. Saturn chose to sleep on the bed next to me and that was lovely as he is so very cuddly. Everyone was having a simply fantastic time. Then at 10:30pm I decided it was time to lock up the boys for the night and close the door to the cat run. This is when I learnt what a mistake it is to not confine the Planets to the back room because after I closed the door to the cat run, I then tried to do a kitten count to make sure all babies were inside and accounted for. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to try and count 5 Black babies, all of whom look alike, and none of whom are all in the same place at once? I managed to put 3 of them on a dining chair and counted them, then a Black ran past me from under the dining table so I followed that one upstairs shouting out "4", turned back around to discover that now there is only 1 Black on the chair, I spotted a tail disappearing behind the fish tank, and lost the other one altogether. Back to square one and being the count again. I was in fits of laughter as I went from room to room trying to find them all and it took a total of 25 minutes before I could be entirely sure that I definitely had 5 Black babies in the house and that I hadn't counted the same ones more twice...........or three times.............or four times.

I can honestly say that I am really pleased that it's finally the weekend. It's been such a hectic week and I am looking forward to a bit of relaxation :) Now I must tell you just how gross our Planets are! Drambuie, who still hasn't had her pregnancy confirmed (and won't until next week) is currently having morning sickness which started yesterday. This in itself is perfectly normal, what isn't normal is the fact that every single time Drambuie has been sick, the Planets have all come rushing over, to see what is going on, and as I've been cleaning up cat sick, they have been walking through it! These babies really do not have any etiquette whatsoever! Apart from this, the Planets are all doing quite well as usual. I do think though, that like most people here in the UK (except for us Aussie's), they will be pleased when the "heat wave" is over. Having said that, unlike some of our pregnant adults who do not like this heat at all, at least our darling Planets are keeping their wonderful temperaments. Their daily habit at the present time is to tear around and play games all morning, up until about 1pm and after that, they all just zonk out until about 7pm when they are fed their dinner and the fun and games start all over again. Tonight will be their last night where they are confined to the kitten room during the evening. Up until tonight, when it's about 10:30pm, the babies and their mum's are shut into the back room to spend the night and then first thing in the morning, when Graham gets up, which is usually early, the house is opened back up again.

At least I managed to get some photos today for a change. I had to giggle at the photo of Saturn eating because in comparison with the other Planets, he is quite a large boy! As you can see, none of the babies really care who they sleep with at all, so long as it's another warm feline body, they are perfectly happy. I was amazed to see Amarula sharing a sleeping space with the Planets though. The Planets haven't been quite as active today as they have the last few days but they've certainly been making the house "their own" because when they are resting, they sprawl out all over the place, on top of the fish tanks, on the dogs' beds, on the windowsill, you name it, there is bound to be a black baby there. We were amazed last night as we had the bedroom door open, as per usual, so our cats could visit us and Jupiter and Saturn both came into the room and jumped up on the bed! First time ever and it was really lovely to have cuddles with them and just relax.

As mentioned in the Musketeers diary, there aren't any entries today due to the lack of time and the catching up I've had to do because of yesterday. I will make sure though that we have photos in tomorrow's entry. I had to smile at Jupiter and Neptune today, both of whom were treated very meanly by Amarula. She was playing with one of the kittens' toys and Neptune and Jupiter so desperately wanted to join in however, Amarula was not having it at all. The girls were inching closer, bit by bit to the toy and as soon as they got too close, Amarula would smack them on the head and they would move back again. She really is like a spoilt child sometimes. In the end, I felt so sorry for Jupiter and Neptune that I moved Amarula away and let them have the toy instead. I am pleased though that our babies have now all gotten used to the older girls and even evil tortie Cacao, no longer scares them when she growls at them. They just give her a wide berth and carry on with whatever it is they were doing at the time. It's been so warm again today but the babies are coping with it extremely well. They have spent the majority of today, running about all over the place, both upstairs and downstairs, and have played lots of climbing and chasing games out in the cat run. All the humans in the house are being so very careful wherever we walk because they little ones do just dart out of nowhere and next thing you know, you're jumping and sidestepping to avoid standing on them as they get under your feet. It's one of the perils of giving the babies full house access but it's so much better for them being able to go wherever they please.

This is becoming a bit too frequent now, however both entries today are exactly the same and in actual fact, there really isn't an entry. By the time I came back from the dental clinic and the sedation wore off properly, it was way too late to do anything at all, let alone entries. I spent most of the day sitting on the lounge and did have the babies, off and on, for company which was really lovely. I don't think though that they could understand why their human mummy wasn't doing their litter trays or feeding them as this was naturally done by Graham today.

Today's photos are really appalling and the reason for this is that the Planets have spent all morning running around like lunatics. When I went out to the lounge room to try and take photos, they wouldn't stand still. Then Cacao came out in her typical evil tortie fashion, scared some of the Planets when she growled at them and poor Venus got smacked on the head by Cacao, so photos really were a lost cause! The main thing is though that the babies have been having lot of fun and games and all I've seen of them all morning is Black "blurs" running past me to and fro, very fast, as they have been chasing each other (and anyone else who gets in there way of course). They haven't really been affected by the heat as such, at least not in a huge way, although their appetites have decreased just slightly, but more so with their wet meals. They are still eating the dry kitten biscuits all day and all evening long. As they are now 11 weeks old, I have sent in their registration papers today and will just be hoping and praying they are back in time for the new owners when they collect their Planets. At this point in time I have no idea what tomorrow's entry will be like as I'm off to the sedation clinic again first thing in the morning to have more dental work done so chances are, an entry won't go online until much later tomorrow afternoon, depending on how "with it" I actually am.