We are 10 weeks old now!

Day 69 - November 8, 2007

Today's kitten diaries for the Chefs and the Ray J's are exactly the same because I want to talk briefly about kitten registrations. We had been hoping to register these litters with TICA as opposed to the GCCF however even now, we are still only half way through registering our prefix with TICA. While we are hoping to have this completed this week, if we were to then register the babies with TICA after our prefix came through this would mean that the registration papers would not be ready for our new kitten families when they come to collect their children. Rather than leave it any longer, we have decided that we will have to register these 2 litters with the GCCF. As such, the registration paperwork was sent to the GCCF office today so hopefully it will be back in plenty of time for our babies to leave us. For any of our kitten families who, like ourselves, show with TICA, this will mean you will need to transfer your baby to TICA but this is very easy to do.

Day 68 - November 7, 2007

Today I did manage to get some photos of our Black children just for a change. Admittedly they are not great photos but at least it proves that they are still here in the home with us ;) Jamie is not featured in any of the photos today, mainly because I had no idea where she was during the photo session and as she is staying with us anyway it's not like her kitten family would be missing out on not seeing her in the kitten diary. This is a really short entry today, mainly because it took me forever to get the cleaning done this morning and then it took ages to sort through all the photos.

Day 67 - November 6, 2007

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get photos of our Chefs and Ray J's today because I did photos of the Indians first and then the camera batteries died. I put them on charge and if they are charged up in time, I will try to take a couple of photos to add to the entries.

Gordon had me in fits of laughter this morning, although I doubt that Ray could see the funny side of what happened. I had been in the kitten room emptying the litter trays for bleaching, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a little Black figure up on top of the ottoman. I turned to watch and Gordon, took a few steps backwards, ran at full force to the end of the ottoman, dive bombed off it, straight down on top of Ray's head. I was stunned with the height of the leap that Gordon took and the look of shock of Ray's face made me burst into giggles. She wasn't hurt which is a surprise as Gordon is a chunky young man, but oh what wonderful, athletic ability he displayed. It's times like that when I really should have the video camera with me.

Day 66 - November 5, 2007

I really must apologise to the kitten families who will be having our Black children because I can not tell you just how much I am struggling to take a decent photo of them. This is a problem I have always had when we have had Oriental Black kittens in the home, and this litter is no exception. Every single flippin' time I take a photo, you can barely see any distinguishing features at all. Today I even tried sitting them up on the ottoman and the chair to try and take individual photos of them, but before I could even press the button they had jumped off and ran away to play <sigh> Gordon and Antony were having a fabulous time today wrestling on top of the small scratch post, I took 11 photos of them, not one turned out! It's incredibly frustrating as you can imagine, for myself, as well as their new families. As for our babies, they are doing quite well although they have almost caused me an injury on numerous occasions today by getting under my feet as I go up and down the stairs. They are just deadly bless them and they certainly move much faster than I can :)

Day 65 - November 4, 2007

There are no photos today sorry and the entries are rather short as this day has not gone as planned at all. We also had the last of our older children leaving home today so with one thing and another I didn't get the chance to take any photos. I also have numerous diary entries to finish off for our older babies and still haven't had the time to do so.

I'm pleased to say that our Chefs finally forgave me for giving them such a late breakfast yesterday and they were pleased to see that today the feeding times resumed as per normal. It's just as well really or I think I would have had a riot on my hands! I look at our Chefs sometimes and think how very tiny they are but in actual fact, they are an average size. The problem is that I keep comparing them to the babies who have just left us and they are naturally an awful lot older so it is an unfair comparison. Both Gordon and Gary are going to be big boned and quite well built young boys, possibly James as well whereas Jamie, Antony & Heston are more than likely going to have their father's build so they are much more elegant and sleek.

Day 64 - November 3, 2007

Our poor Chefs are not speaking to me today and i can't blame them at all. The reason they don't like me is that their breakfast was many hours late but there was a very good reason for this. Today was the day that Macadamia was leaving us so I was up as per normal at 7am, and whereas I would normally feed the babies before I do anything else, I instead did the cleaning and litter trays because I did not want Macadamia to eat before going off on a 2 hour car journey. This meant that no one could have breakfast because I could not have fed everyone else and not Macadamia, that would have been cruel. So for the first hour and a half this morning, the Chefs sat on the bottom stairs, screaming abuse at me, calling to me, and glaring at me and there was not a darn thing I could do about it. I have to say it was so hard to ignore their cries, but fortunately, Macadamia left on time and the minute he went, I fed all the babies. They did have their bowls of kitten biscuits obviously which they are all eating, but according to them, breakfast should be served at the standard time every morning. So to make up for it, they also had some pilchards in tomato sauce mixed in with their breakfast which they seemed to appreciate. It is now 1431 and I can say that they still haven't quite forgiven me :)

Day 63 - November 2, 2007

Today's diary entries for the Chefs and the Ray J's are identical but today was their very important "1st vaccination" day. I have vaccinations, particularly the first one because not only does it require tactical precision to get all 9 babies in their respective carriers on time for the appointment, but also, you then have the worry of any possible side effects. I have to say all 9 babies were absolute angels when it came to traveling in the car to the vets. This surprised me because we also had Frangelico with us as her booster was due and she sang all the way there. (Jelly is not a great traveler). Then at the vets, every single baby behaved beautifully, they did not mind being examined by Jo, and only one baby flinched as the needle went in and that was James. But none of them fought, hissed, or were petrified. Our Ray J's were remarkable, they took it all in their stride and acted as if it were no big deal. Our Chefs are only 9 weeks old today and this is the first time in ages that we have vaccinated a litter at 9 weeks because lately we have been waiting until they are 10-12 weeks to do their first set of jabs. They looked so tiny, yet obviously they were more than old enough and strong enough to withstand their vaccination. The one thing I was really pleased about is that Heston was also vaccinated, and thoroughly examined, and she is perfectly fine. She has no problems, she is normal, and she is actually not that much smaller than Antony. I guess this means at some point we will start to look for a new home for her. Overall, vaccinations went well, Jo was happy with the babies, and they were all extremely subdued in the car on the way home bless them.