We are 1 week old now!

Day 6 - May 9, 2007

Okay, it is possible that the Sex Change Fairy has paid us a visit as I do believe Little Tuk is in fact, female and not male as originally thought. I still believe that Ugly Duckling is definitely male so I think I'm right with that one. The jury is still out on Snow Queen and Ice Maiden at the moment but don't be surprised if a "name change" happens ;) Ugly Duckling has his eyes fully open now which is really lovely, and Little Tuk has her right eye fully open and the left eye is almost there. Our 2 Siamese babies are totally refusing to open their eyes at all so I'll monitor them closely just to ensure there is not underlying infection or bacteria but I'm not worried at the moment. I am pleased that the house move doesn't appear to have affected the babies' weights because all 4 continued to make a gain within the last 24 hours. The smallest gain was 10 grams and I am more than happy with that. A couple of the babies didn't want to be weighed this morning and their rather loud protests were enough to make Cointreau come tearing up onto the work surface to try and take the babies from the scales and I couldn't explain to her that they aren't her babies to worry about.

Day 5 - May 8, 2007

Both entries start off exactly the same today..................

I took the "posh" kitten box into the kitten room and put the bedding inside so that I could transfer Sambuca and her children from our room to the kitten room.
Cointreau: "Ooooooohhh what's that box for?"
Me: "None of your business, get back into your box with your son"
Cointreau: "I was only asking, go on, let me in to have a look"
Me: "Bugger off!" I then turned the box around to face the wall to keep the nosy little cow out of it. I then brought Sambuca and one baby into the kitten room and put them in the posh kitten box.
Cointreau: "Hiya mum, what are you doing in here? Wow, do you have babies too? I have a baby"
Sambuca: "Grrrr, get away from me, my babies are missing. Where are my other 3 babies??????????????????? "
Me: "No they are not missing, I'm going to get them now"
I then went back into my room to scoop up the remaining babies and took them into the kitten room and put them in the box with Sami and the other baby.
Sambuca: "Okay, they all seem to be here now. Have we moved house again"
Me: "Yep, I'm afraid so, we need our bedroom back, your sister is going to have babies in a couple of weeks now"
Cointreau: "Humph! Well I think that box is a bit posh for you. What's wrong with a cardboard box? I was born in a cardboard box. Didn't do me any harm. S'pose you think you're special now do you mum. Well I don't care 'cause my baby is better looking than your babies anyway! I'm going back to my box now."
Sambuca flew out of her box and ran over to Cointreau's cardboard box and climbed in. "Oh no you're not young lady. I like your box and I am having this baby as well as my own." She then settled down to feed Liquorice, looked at her own babies and I could see her thinking how on earth she could get her babies into Cointreau's box without moving.
Me: "Oh no you don't Sambuca! You get out of there right now, leave your grandson alone and get back in your own posh box".
I picked Sami up, put her back in her box and she settled down to feed her babies. Cointreau then went into her box to feed Liquorice.
I waited, and I waited, and then 10 minutes later it started......................
Cointreau, singing from inside her own box: "My baby's better'n your babies."
Sambuca: "I have more babies than you"
Cointreau: "My baby's bigger'n yours"
Sambuca: "I have more babies than you"
Cointreau: "I was in this room first so there"
Sambuca: "I have more babies than you".
Me: "Will you ladies please be quiet, you are giving me a headache, I've had enough of both of you and I am now going downstairs to clean the rest of the house.
I then left the room, closed the door behind me, and as I walked down the stairs I could STILL hear them taunting each other.

Our weight gains for the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson were excellent today. I'm really very happy with their progress at the moment. Colour is starting to come through now and I am wondering if our Siamese will end up Chocolates as I'm not yet seeing the dark seal edging around the ears that I would normally see if a baby was a Seal Point. Guess I'll know soon enough as they start to mature. I'm hoping that the "house move" won't affect their feeding routine although each time I've been up in the kitten room I have been relieved to see that Sami is in the box feeding her babies and seems perfectly relaxed. I won't be surprised though if, in a few days' time, I find both mum's and all the babies in the same box, but I am hoping that won't do that as Liquorice is quite a bit bigger than Sami's babies.

Day 4 - May 7, 2007

I seem to have an awful lot to type about in today's entry which surprises me because whenever we lose a baby I do tend to retreat into myself and my own grief and I struggle for the next day or two to write anything in the kitten diary. So I guess let's start with our recent loss. It is so difficult to keep going in to check on the babies and to change their bedding because each time I look at them, instead of feeling thrilled to see fat little babies feeding from mum and fighting with each other over the best nipple, all I feel is a huge sense of loss because it should be 5 babies, not 4. I know from experience that as time passes, I'll be happy to enter which ever room the babies are in and will gaze at them with "happy thoughts" but that does take a little while. People do say to "take comfort in the remaining 4 babies that are thriving" and that's all well and good, but unless you have personally brought a little one into the world, and fed her, and fought for her, and loved her, only to lose her, I guess only then will you fully understand that it is actually quite difficult to take comfort in the remaining children. I am sure they are all sweet and lovely babies, but today, right at this moment, so long as they are gaining weight, then that will do. I can't look at them at the moment and see what wonderful children they probably are, nor can I look to see if any of our Siamese are developing colours yet, in fact, I can barely look at them at all today. As I said though, this will change, when I come to terms with my own grief, then I will be able to appreciate them for what they are but just not today. Actually, we spent some time out of the house today, we went to visit our wonderful mates, Teen and Tone of Maroochydore Siamese and Orientals. I had spoken with Teen yesterday on the phone to tell her about Little Match Girl, and I will never, ever, be able to express just how much Teen's words of comfort mean to me. Both she and Tone, are one in a million and they are very special people. Tone has built me a gorgeous, fantastic, permanent kitten box (hope he knows I want at least one or two more!), it is perfect and tomorrow , Sambuca and her children will move into the kitten room, in their brand new box, and I must say I'm feeling rather "posh" with such a great kitten box now. We had such a wonderful time at Teen and Tone's, we always do, the Maroochydore cats really are something else to say the least. It was also fantastic to see "Dingo" (sister to our own Nocello), and "Sheep" (sister to our own Ashanti). Getting out of the house to spend hours with some great mates and fantastic cats, well, there's just nothing better :) It's going to be an interesting 24 hours onwards tomorrow to see whether or not Cointreau will appreciate having her mother in the kitten room, as well as her half brothers and half sisters (remembering of course that Cointreau is Sambuca's daughter), so the next couple of diary entries could be interesting to say the least. This does bring me on to something else though........................after we lost our beloved Little Match Girl yesterday, and after I finished sobbing, Graham and I started chatting about the fact that there is a definite pattern in that Sambuca struggles with this Siamese gene in a big way. If you are regular kitten diary readers, you will be aware that in Sambuca's 1st litter, I lost my angels, Pluto, and Mercury, both Siamese, there was another struggling baby at the time that I battled tooth and nail for, and that was my darling Mars, but she was an Ori Black, and not a Siamese, and she, like our own Nocello, fought the odds and grew into a big, healthy, adult. In that same 1st litter, Sami also had a stillborn Siamese, so out of that litter of 8, I lost 3 Siamese. In her 2nd litter, there were just 2 babies, an Ori Black who is now an adult in her new home, and our own special Cointreau. In Sami's 3rd litter, there were no losses at all. In this litter, which was using a totally different stud cat to the 1st litter, with totally different lines, we have now lost yet another Siamese. It's now, that I'm wondering if a pattern is emerging, it's also now that I am extremely grateful that we have no more Siamese stud boys in the home, we only have Oriental stud cats which means any possible future babies Sami has will be Orientals. Obviously there is always a minute chance she can produce a Siamese baby from an Oriental X Oriental mating, as both our Ori boys carry Siamese, as does Sambuca, but they are minute possibilities I hope. Sami herself is from 2 Oriental parents, yet she still carries the Siamese gene, whereas her sister, our Drambuie who is currently pregnant, most definitely does not carry the Siamese gene, so possibly you can see where my thoughts are going with this? Before I end this entry, I would also like to say a very special thank you to my husband, Graham, for his support and his love during the past 48 hours, and also to my mate Caryll, and the rest of the Blue Paws for their email which I received last night but haven't replied to yet. We always hope to make new friends with our kitten families, but the friendship given by Caryll and her family is well beyond that of a "kitten family", and it is one which we treasure. And a thank you also to Maureen for her kindness, her email, and her post on the board. It is truly appreciated.

Day 3 Update - 5:59pm - May 6, 2007

Our beautiful Little Match Girl lost her battle for life and crossed over Rainbow Bridge at 1759 when she breathed her last breath. Right up until the very end, Sambuca was still grooming her dying chid. When our angel left us, she took a piece of my own heart and soul with her, and not ever will I understand why such a innocent life is snatched away so cruelly. She will not ever be forgotten and will remain with me always in my own heart. Little Match Girl did pass peacefully, surrounded by the love and warmth of her mum, her brothers and sisters, gentle kisses from me and hopefully she will know just how special her very short little life was, and that she couldn't have been loved any more than she was. I know she is at peace now and is not suffering, but at the moment, I find that a very small consolation.

Day 3 - May 6, 2007

This is going to be a very difficult day because Little Match Girl will not make it through the day. Despite Nutri Drops and 2 hourly syringe feeding for the past 24 hours, instead of gaining, she is losing weight and is becoming weaker. She is quite literally fading away rather rapidly before my eyes which is so heartbreaking to watch when I know there is nothing more I can do but pray and leave her in God's hands. Sometimes, Mother Nature chooses to take our little angels away from us, giving no reason and no explanation at all. To see our little girl like this is not only devastating for me, but also for Sambuca because she also knows what is about to happen. The only good thing about this entry is that our remaining 4 children all made very good weight gains during the past 24 hours and so far, seem to be thriving.

Day 2 - May 5, 2007

Our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson are now 2 days of age and I am quite worried about The Little Match Girl as she has lost more weight in the last 24 hours and is now down to 75 grams (she started out at 91 grams) so today, as soon as the last of our kitten visitors leave I will be going straight to Tesco to get some evap. milk and will start topping up. This is the first time I have ever been caught with no evap. milk in the home. It's something I normally always keep on hand for topping up. Our other 4 babies did all make small gains so for those 4 children, things are definitely going in the right direction. At 7am today, Sambuca woke me up, by walking on me and calling to me quite loudly, and at the same time, I also heard the babies crying. She then ran straight back into the wardrobe, but 2 minutes later was back on top of me again trying to get my attention. It was at this stage that I realised something wasn't right so I went straight to the wardrobe, turned on the bedside light, and there was poor Snow Queen, tangled up in the bedding, goodness knows how, but Sami couldn't get her back out, so I rescued her and put her back with the rest of the babies and Sami then promptly lay down with them all, content that everything was right again. As 2 of our babies left us today I didn't really have the time to take any photos so I will make sure there are some in tomorrow's entry.

Day 1 - May 4, 2007

Well our 5 Tails of Hans Christian Anderson made it through the first 24 hours of their life for which I am extremely relieved. The first few days are quite often the scariest and with 5 babies, they are being monitored extremely closely as you can imagine and I am paranoid about the weights. We had 2 babies who lost weight, and 3 babies who gained, so they will be remaining in our bedroom until all 5 are making gains. I did hazard a guess at the sexes today but it honestly is nothing more than a guess. I didn't look at sexes yesterday as they were being born because a) it happened far too quickly, and b) I didn't really care. All that mattered at the time is that they had all the limbs intact, they all looked normal, and they were all lively enough to try and feed. I have put below what I think at the moment but it is fairly common knowledge that the Sex Change Fairy loves to visit our home so it will be interesting to see in a few weeks' time. Having said that though, I was spot on with the Racers sexes and I still think Liquorice is a boy but time will tell :) Although I really don't think I have got these sexes right at all, so when the sexes change, so will some of the names. We had already chosen a theme for this litter.....................I wanted a Hans Christen Anderson theme. I have a book, from my childhood, full of Hans Christian Anderson stories, which still fascinates me, even now as an adult. I was lying in bed the other night, and said to Graham that I have a theme for Sami's forthcoming litter, and surprisingly enough, he liked it :) So we would like to introduce you to the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson.............................................

Baby	Colour	Sex
Little Tuk	Black	Male
The Little Match Girl	Siamese	Female
Ugly Duckling	Black	Male
Ice Maiden	Siamese	Female
Snow Queen	Siamese	Female

 

Birth - May 3, 2007