Day 62 - july 4, 2007

All entries are short today with no photos as I've not had the time to get proper entries online.

When I went upstairs with the babies' breakfast first thing this morning, our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson were all over the place in the kitten room. All the other babies were on the stairs waiting for me to take their food up, but these 4 babies were having too much fun to worry about breakfast. Ice Maiden was up on top of the fridge. Snow Queen was on the standing shelf unit amongst all the bags of James Wellbeloved biscuits. Ugly Duckling was up on the windowsill, staring out across the fields and no doubt wondering how he could escape. Little Tuk was trying unsuccessfully to stuff her head underneath the ottoman and was totally oblivious to the fact that breakfast was being served. At best, all I can guess is that she pushed one of their little toys under there, who knows. I actually had to pick up each of our babies one by one to put them in front of the tray to remind them that there was food there because they were not leaving their various positions in the room, not even for breakfast. Of course after breakfast, they did their level best to trip me up as I tried to do the litter trays, and tidy the mess in the kitten room that had occurred overnight. No matter which way I turned there was a Tail of Hans Christian Anderson at my feet, or trying to "help" me.

Day 61 - july 3, 2007

At long last Ice Maiden decided to join the rest of her family and check out the downstairs. I've been waiting for this moment and I actually thought that when she first ventured out, as she was the last to do so, she would be rather cautious, but she surprised me and was exactly the same as her sister, Snow Queen. It didn't matter that she was being closely followed by a few of our adult cats, she happily walked around, sniffing everything, and enjoying the newfound freedom. I know I have mentioned this before in the past, but in my own personal experience, the Siamese Cat is defintely not as forward, or outgoing as the Oriental cat. These 2 breeds are not identical when it comes to personality characteristics despite what people think. So yes, I was definitely expecting our Siamese girls to be a bit more cautious but chances are, they have been hanging out with the Orientals for too long and some of it has started rubbing off on them :) In some ways, I do feel so incredibly blessed to be able to share our home with the Tails of Hans Christian Anderson. They have been such an easygoing, happy litter who are a joy to live with. Some litters, like the Trotters were, do make life difficult, but not these four. They are such a delight to spend time with, even when they do get under my feet as Snow Queen did this morning when I was trying to get up the stairs balancing a tray of food for the babies, and a milk mixture so I could syringe feed one of our new babies, and Snow Queen insisted on dashing in between my feet, doing her level best to trip me up, bless her. And at this point it is now time to put another load of washing in, feed the 3 older litters, do another 2 hourly feed, take some photos for today's diary entries and make a much needed, extremely strong, cup of coffee :)

Day 60 - july 2, 2007

Our kitten diaries start off the same again today and all 3 are not very long due to the fact that I had to take our new mummy and babies to the vets today so by the time I had finished the cleaning, did a few loads of washing, cooked all the fish for the mum's, babies, and adult cats, it was time to pack up Amarula and shoot off to the vets. As a result, there are not many photos but hey.......................at least some photos are better than none ;) Our babies are not particularly impressed with me today because we had someone here working on the spare room to try and sort out the problem and for the duration of his visit, the babies had to remain in their own room with the door firmly shut. For added protection, a wedge was placed under the door because Drambuie decided to help herself and everyone else out of the room yet again <sigh> Once the work had been finished, the babies' door was opened again and they were given full house access as per normal.

Snow Queen finally ventured downstairs at long last. She decided to be brave and join the rest of her siblings yesterday and she had a marvellous time exploring everything. Just like everyone else, even when she was surrounded by our adult cats, she merrily continued along her way and didn't care that there were noses firmly attached to her bottom the entire time she explored. It's just Ice Maiden now who I am waiting to come downstairs and start to explore. The Orientals, I find, are so much more outgoing than the Siamese in all aspects and again this has been proven by the fact that Little Tuk and Ugly Duckling were the first of our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson to appear downstairs and it took their Siamese sisters a bit longer before deciding to venture down. I know though that in a couple of weeks' time I will be regretting wanting them to all come down but once they decide that the downstairs is a "fun" part of the home to be in, I will get no peace at all. Still, I really can't complain because it is lovely to see the babies running around and having a great time.

Day 59 - july 1, 2007

Well this should have been Little Tuk's special day, but it didn't start off quite as planned due to a kitten mix up with Washington! Fortunately, before the end of Coral's visit, it dawned on us that she did in fact have one of the wrong babies so she and Little Tuk had some lovely cuddles together and it was great to see how relaxed Little Tuk was with her new mummy. Despite everything, we did have a lovely visit with Coral and Jill, although most of the older babies were too busy sleeping to care about the fact we were having visitors. In fact, Snow Queen and Ice Maiden didn't move at all, not even when another baby sat on them! It wasn't until right at the very end of the visit that Snow Queen decided to get out of bed. To be fair to the babies though, they had only recently just finished their lunch so they had full tummies, they were tired from having created havoc all morning and it was their time for a cat nap. Little Tuk (and London as well) are both going to have a brilliant home with Coral and so long as their Aunty Jill doesn't make them go bald they should do very well :)

Day 58 - June 30, 2007

All 3 kitten diaries are extremely short today with no photos at all. The reason for this is that at 2:30am one of our ladies was rushed to the vets for an emergency C-Section. It has been an extremely long night, with no sleep and it has been a very long day.

Snow Queen had a special day today because she had a visit from her lovely new mum, Viv, and also from Viv's friend, Carol (many apologies if I have spelt this incorrectly). It was so great to see Viv again, and both she and Carol were looking a heck of a lot better than I certainly was :) Snow Queen wasn't really sure whether or not she wanted cuddles, or wanted to run and play, and she certainly seemed enamoured with Carol and was more than happy to have cuddles with her while Viv took some photos which will probably turn out much better than the photos I ever seem to take! We did have a lovely visit and although the majority of the babies were sleeping (they had been running around like lunatics prior to Viv arriving), some of them did wake up enough to be admired. We discussed the colouring of both our Siamese girls and compared them to each other because in the photos I take, the colouring does tend to appear darker than what it is in real life. Snow Queen is going to have a wonderful life with Viv, I know this for certain, and we do feel incredibly lucky to have found such a fantastic new kitten family for our baby girl. I think she will be a big girl when she matures, and there may well be times when Viv will despair of her, because despite her innocent, sweet look, Snow Queen can certainly "trouble" when she feels like it :)

Day 57 - June 29, 2007

I'm afraid to say that our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson totally and utterly despise me today :( I am probably the most unpopular person in their world at the moment and I honestly don't blame them at all. Today was Worming Day. Those two words are enough to make any breeder cringe. Why? Because the thought of trying to squirt Panacur 10% liquid down a baby's throat who doesn't want to have it always sends shudders down your spine. You know full well that by the time the babies are wormed, there will be as much paste on you and your clothes, as there is in the baby. You will have little claw marks on both hands, there will be worming paste all over the flippin' carpet, you'll forget to cross off one baby's name as you worm them, meaning someone might get wormed twice by mistake, and you know that the whole process will take no less that 30 minutes. Now the babies are normally wormed at 8 weeks and 11 weeks of age. The reason for this is that vaccinations are usually done at 9 weeks and 12 weeks, so the worming is done of the non vaccination week so that the babies aren't getting too many chemicals in their bodies all in the one week. Of course though, our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson, just like Liquorice, are having vaccinations put back a few weeks while we wait for the Capitals to reach 9 weeks of age then everyone will be done together. I did think about holding off the worming as well but what made me decide that was a bad option was the thought of having to worm 10 babies all at once! Now as to how the worming went? Please, just do not ask! I am going to have nightmare for days on end as a result of the worming experience! You would think that those furry little buggers would be grateful that mummy was trying to keep them healthy, but oh, no, appreciation is not something that goes through the mind of a child when worming paste is being forced down their throat. I tell you, I didn't even know that our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson knew such strong swear words. I don't know where they learnt them from either! So, rather than recount the entire tale, suffice to say that all 4 babies have now been wormed and I don't have to do it again now for another 3 weeks!

Day 56 - June 28, 2007

Our Tails of Hans Christian Anderson have now reached the 8 weeks of age mark and it's very easy to believe as I watch them play and see how independent they have suddenly become. They are turning into proper, grown up kittens now and I'm delighted with their progress. All 4 babies have very good appetites and are incredibly active. Like all young babies though, they still continue to sleep quite a bit and it's during these nap times that they look so incredibly adorable. They are also very pretty babies, yes I know I'm bias, but I am sure if you look at the photos below, you would have to agree with me :) When they are awake and running around now, they are starting to spend more time sitting at the bottom of the stairs, watching everything that goes on through the barrier, so at some point in time next week, once their mother has finished calling, I will open up the little kitten door so that the babies can start to come and go as they please throughout the home.