We are 13 weeks old now!

I must apologise to Julie as Ice Maiden totally missed out on today's photo session unfortunately. I went upstairs with the hoover and the camera, as per normal, and after about 1/2 of taking photos, I realised that Ice Maiden was missing. I peered out the window and discovered her out in the cat run and then by the time I had taken the photos and started the cleaning, it was then time to feed again. One thing led to another and the poor little girl totally missed out on having her photo taken. I can say however, that she was having a very relaxing time sunning herself on one of the shelves in the cat run. You can probably tell by the photos below that our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson are all doing extremely well, they are thriving in fact and I'm really pleased with their progress. They are about to reach the 13 week stage now, well tomorrow actually, and when they do, like Liquorice' kitten diary, whilst it will still remain open, there will be no further entries until special days such as vaccinations, or visits from kitten families. Then when the babies do leave us, the final entries will be done and the diary will be closed off.

I did have intentions of taking photos today, however, the Water Babies have been moved into the 2nd kitten room, along with Lucy, the Nuts and the Detectives, and this means that I am up at every single sound, just waiting for a war to break out. So I am getting nothing done at all today as I've not been able to spend more than 10 minutes on any one thing as I am up and down constantly.

Our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson have been delightful children today. Not once have they tried to trip me as I go up and down the stairs, and not once has Little Tuk given me dirty looks so all is well at the moment with the babies. When I watch them playing, I suddenly realise that our babies aren't actually babies any more. In fact, they are grown up kittens who are very quickly just becoming part of the family. This always surprises me because I still think of them as being dependent little children and I really to have to face the fact that they are grown up now. But they are not so grown up that they don't love lots and lots of cuddles which is something I'm so pleased about. All 4 of them have some really fantastic purrs, and they are more than happy to curl up on a lap. The only thing that they still continue to do, which I totally hate, is walk along the top of the stair banister. Now that they are so much bigger, there is no way on earth I can stop them from doing this but so far, none of them have had any mishaps thank goodness but I still get such a scare every time I see one of them up there.

I did actually take photos today, despite our devastating loss of Frost last night, but I think I feel the need to do "something" so that I am not thinking about him and we do have other babies in the home, all of whom need me, and there are diaries to be done, I think I'm just trying to have some pretence of normality in a very surreal world at the moment.

Little Tuk refused to look at the camera today, no matter how many times I turned her head around, she wasn't having it so I don't think that her mum, Coral, will be best pleased. Ice Maiden was pretty much the same, in fact both girls were far more interested in sleeping than looking pretty for the camera. To be fair though, they had just eaten and were settling down for a cat nap prior to getting up and creating havoc. Our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson are doing quite well, they have massive appetites, but then they do an awful lot of running around and playing.

There are no diary entries for the above days because Friday was an incredibly hectic day, on Saturday we were showing at the KKNCC show in Reading, so we were in and out all day as we went to the show in the morning, came back to feed, and then went back to the show. Sunday was spent cleaning up the house as we weren't here on Saturday, and doing copious amounts of washing. Diary entries should resume as per normal on Monday, July 30, 2007.

Many apologies for not getting any photos today of the Capitals or the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, however, the camera batteries died halfway through doing the Nuts and Detectives photo's.

If looks could kill, I'd be dead! There is only one Oriental Black kitten in our home at the moment who is even capable of reproducing that exact same vile look that Sambuca, and that our own Nocello sometimes display. That Black fur child is Little Tuk. Yesterday afternoon, I had opened the cupboard on my desk (it remains permanently locked to keep cats/kittens out) as I wanted to re-check something in a show schedule. I hadn't fully closed the cupboard door properly as I had the schedule in front of me and was going to put it straight back in and lock the cupboard as soon as I'd finished. Little Tuk decided this would be a good time to "explore" my cupboard. She had one paw, and half her head in there, and I realised what was happening and I said "Don't you dare!" in that tone of voice that is reserved for mothers only. Now if I had used this same tone of voice with any of our adults, they would all, apart from Ashanti, back off straight away. Not Little Tuk, oh no, she obviously hasn't lived here long enough to realise that when mother means business then you don't answer back. Well, I couldn't believe my eyes when the vile, evil little child stepped back, turned her head around, and gave me a look that would stop even the most ferocious lion in it's tracks. To tell you the truth, I was rather taken aback. I tell you, this young lady needs to learn some manners, and learn them fast! It is common knowledge that I do let the kittens get away with pretty much anything and tend to spoil them, but once in a blue moon, there are times when they really are not allowed to do something, such as enter that cupboard. My entire "cat life" is in that cupboard, I have schedules in there for shows we've entered, kitten registrations, neutering certificates still waiting to be filed, photos that our kitten families had sent us, schedules with entry forms for shows filled in and ready to send off, transfer slips, you name it, my cupboard is full of it and it is imperative that none of the cats and babies go in there. When she looked back at me with that evil glare, it was like looking at our Nocello, or a miniature version of Sambuca. So I picked her up, I held her up in front of me, looked her straight in the eye and said "Don't you ever look at me like that again young lady!", I then put her straight on the floor, got up out of my seat, and totally ignored her. In the exact same way a cat/kitten would turn their back on me if I had told them off for something. Coral is really going to have her hands full with this child and it is just as well that as of yet, Coral's other child, London, is an absolute angel with not a single evil bone in her little body. The rest of our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson have had an extremely busy and playful day today as all 4 of them have been downstairs, "killing" the scratch centre, and playing out in the cat run having a wonderful time. They don't mind that it is a bit chilly out there and I guess all their running around stops them from being cold.