We are 6 weeks old now!

Day 41 - June 13, 2007

Diary entries are not very long today because of lack of motivation. Actually, after spending what seemed like hours trying to take individual photos of our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, I have lost the will to live quite frankly! Would it have killed them to just sit there and smile and look pretty for the camera? Obviously that was too much too ask. While I'm trying to get them to stay still on top of the ottoman, they wanted to explore, while they were trying to explore, the mothers were jumping up on the ottoman getting in the way of the camera and trying to see what was going on. I was feeling rather exhausted by the time I'd finished and for the first time ever I couldn't wait to leave the kitten room. So on that note, I fully expect each of our new kitten families to appreciate the effort that has gone into producing these "not so great" photos of your fur children :)

Day 40 - June 12, 2007

Chaos, total, utter chaos! That is what our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson are creating in the kitten room at the present time. Bless them, they are full of energy, growing at a rapid rate, eating extremely well, and they are constantly under my feet when I'm in the kitten room. I have totally given up on trying to keep Snow Queen off the work surface, it is a futile effort because as soon as I put her on the floor, she jumps straight back up onto the chair and then onto the surface. I have told her if she goes anywhere near that fridge then I'll be very cross with her and so far, she has stayed away from it thank goodness. I do think now that (well sometimes!) that Ugly Duckling and Little Tuk are starting to look different at long last. I can look at them now and generally know which one is which as their facial features are changing every day. Unfortunately, Ice Maiden and Snow Queen are starting to look a little bit more alike and when I have glanced at them quickly, I have made a mistake and called them by the wrong name. I am planning to take individual photos of our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson tomorrow although whether or not they will oblige me by staying still will be another matter.

Day 39 - June 11, 2007

Due to our devastating loss of Edinburgh during the early hours of the morning, there will be no diary entry today.

Day 38 - June 10, 2007

These are quite short entries today with no photos but hopefully tomorrow, things will resume as per normal.

Our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson have been rather active today and have spent a good part of their waking hours playing chase, pouncing on each other, seeing who can chew off the most limbs belonging to litter mates, and climbing where they shouldn't! I was not impressed to see Snow Queen on top of the work surface exploring as that is where the fridge is and even though I do have rolled up bedding placed just under the front of the fridge, I worry that a baby will get in under it where the motor is. I did remove her quite swiftly. Litter training isn't going to badly at all. We do still have little accidents but again, this isn't a major drama and it's still very early days. The fact that they are going in and out of the trays and are getting it right about 80% of the time is excellent progress. I'm not bothered about their feeding at all as all 4 babies still continue to eat from the tray alongside their mum's and they will happily tuck into whatever is being offered.

Day 37 - June 9, 2007

There isn't an entry for today as I had quite a few things to get done around the home, chores that I had been putting off that really needed to be taken care of.

Day 36 - June 8, 2007

Snow Queen had a lovely visit last night from her new mum, Viv, and her "other" new mum, Nikki. I had the great pleasure of seeing Digger, who shares his home with Nikki, and who is brother to our own Tuaca, and it was fantastic to see him again and he looks so great. He is such a pretty boy (yes boys can be pretty), although he was not particularly keen on me bless him and he has grown an awful lot since he left us. It is very evident that he is rather a spoilt young man which is exactly how it should be. I also saw the lovely Heli who shares her home with Viv and she is yet another extremely pretty cat. Snow Queen was happy to have cuddles with her new mum, and Ice Maiden was happy to cuddle with Nikki. The only problem was that when it was time to put the babies back on the floor, they did not want to let go and were hanging on for grim death in that way only babies can. It really was lovely to see Nikki and Viv again and I know full well that Snow Bear will be equally as loved and spoilt as Heli and Digger are. I couldn't ask for any more for one of our babies :) Today I had to laugh at Ice Maiden, as did "L" who was here visiting Liquorice. We were having a chat, and Liquorice and the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson were all running around having fun and games. I suddenly noticed Ice Maiden had half a poo hanging from her bottom. Yes, you read that right. But instead of going into the litter tray, she decided to ignore the poo, figuring it would drop out when ready, and kept running around. I scooped her up and put her in the litter tray. She scratched at the litter for a bit, poked her head out of the tray, saw her litter mates still running around having fun and climbed straight back out to join them. The poo was still attached! She made it all the way from the litter tray to the scratch post, she stopped at the base of the scratch post, decided to disperse with the poo once and for all, which she did, and she then continued to play. "L" and I couldn't stop laughing and the very fortunate thing is that it was a lovely firm little nugget, therefore easy to pick up and put in the litter tray where it should have been deposited in the first place :)

Day 35 - June 7, 2007

This 5 week of age mark has really crept up on me and I had already typed the entry before I realised that I should actually be starting a new week. Where is the time going? It dawned on me last night that I hadn't even mentioned litter training with regards to our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson so I'd best do that now. I am really pleased to say that all 4 babies happily go in and out of the litter tray and do their business. We have had no "wee" accidents, and only twice have I found little nuggets on the floor outside the litter trays so I am delighted at how quickly the babies have picked this up. They really are such clever little children. Also, all of them will eat from the plate without any problems at all. At the moment their favourite meal is roast chicken. I have actually stopped cooking the chicken in the stock pot and have started roasting it instead. As I type this entry I have 2 chickens in the oven :) The reason I started roasting them was purely to save time because it means there is very little cleaning up to do afterwards whereas with the stock pot I have a lot of washing up to do. With 3 litters in the home, and 2 girls pregnant, anything I can do to save a bit of time is a bonus. As I didn't get the opportunity to put weight details in last week's entry for the babies, I have done so today so you can see how they are all progressing.

Baby	Sex	current weight	Week 5 Gain
Little Tuk	Female	510g	37 grams
Ugly Duckling	Male	594g	84 grams
Ice Maiden	Female	528g	73 grams
Snow Queen	Female	453g	54 grams

They are varying weekly gains as you can see but this is to be expected now that weaning has begun and the babies are start to develop into little kittens.