Day 27 - May 6, 2006

These are not very long entries today and they are both the same really, as we have an afternoon full of kitten visitors which hopefully will go well as some of our one family has not been here before and they are considering having a baby from Cointreau's first ever litter. But at least I managed to take some photos, although they are not wonderful as the majority of them were taken late yesterday afternoon with the sun shining right into the room. I do not know if the words "Pitt Street in Sydney" mean anything to anyone other than me, but let me assure you that overnight, our back room is now like Pitt Street in Sydney. In other words traffic coming and going from all directions, road rage like you wouldn't believe, little accidents here and there........................this is a very apt description of the back room now. When the children are awake and not feeding, they are absolutely all over the place like you simply wouldn't believe. They all come and go in totally different directions, their mothers have the most tremendous "kitten freedom rage" that you could possibly imagine, and within the space of 3 minutes, there were to little "wee accidents" in different parts of the room. I know that I have been really looking forward to the time when our children were out and about and running around, however, I have rather quickly changed my mind I think. Absolutely nowhere is safe, not even the kitchen which is an "out of bounds" area for the cats and kittens in our home but obviously the Mel's and the Condiments are not yet aware of this house rule. The worst offender is Patriot which does not surprise me, followed by Braveheart, again no surprise, followed by Pepper (a bit of a surprise) and boy can these babies move. Such tiny little creatures but they are super fast zoomy babies!

Well Vinegar has really gotten the hang of this whole eating lark and is still quite impressed with the JW biscuits soaked in chicken stock. As you can see from the photo, he has really been tucking into them which is just fantastic. Of course what isn't so great is that I have rather stupidly been feeding them on the bed, as opposed to off the bed (I do it every time when I start weaning) so you can imagine the mess that the babies make. Salt and Pepper are still happy to eat the mixture of my fingers but so far are not keen at all to eat from the saucer. That's fine though, there is plenty of time and they aren't even past the 4 week old stage yet.

Day 26 - May 5, 2006

I'm pleased to say that Pepper and Vinegar have now had their first taste of real food and they totally loved it. James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits soaked in chicken stock. Both of them at quite a bit of it from my fingers. Salt on the other hand, being the little madam that she is, was not interested in food and was much more interested in trying to pounce on Patriot to play the limb biting games. I am wondering if Salt might be a bit of a handful when she starts to mature because she's a little bit stubborn and does not take no for an answer, she is also quite feisty, even when taking on her brother who is naturally larger than she is. To be honest, I've not really made much of a serious effort to wean the babies yet as they are not even 4 weeks old and they are all doing very well on their mum's milk so last night was really just a bit of a half hearted attempt to see if I could glean any interest from the babies. If you've read any of our previous diaries, you'll be aware that I always used to start weaning at 3 weeks of age which I now feel is too young and can cause more problems. It did take me a while but I now realise that when the babies are ready to eat, they will let me know. Pepper experienced something new yesterday when her extremely irresponsible mother picked her up and dumped her onto one of the office chairs in an attempt to stop her roaming about the room (this actually turned into quite a drama but that is in the Mel's diary entry for today). Tia Lusso really is way too protective of her children and she doesn't realise that not a single one of the Condiments pays any attention to her when she screams, growls and swears at them to get back in their bed. Each of them is so very single minded that they totally ignore their mother and just carry on in the direction that they are heading. Vinegar did make me laugh though because he walked over to one of the chairs, remembering that the feet on office chairs are quite low, so he stood in front of one of the feet, he put his front right paw on it, obviously thinking he should climb over it. He then took his paw off, ducked his head down and put it under the widest gap, however, he then wasn't sure that the rest of his fat little body would be able to follow so he stayed there for about 20 seconds with half his body on one side and half on the other. He then wriggled out backwards and came to the conclusion that climbing over it is what he really should have done in the first place. The only problem was that by the time he reached the decision on what to do, it was too late because his mother had scooped him up by his neck and took him over to the bed where she dumped him in the corner up the back. I shall now go and do litter trays again, and maybe by the time I have finished that, the babies will be awake and I can change their bedding, weigh them and take some photos.

Day 25 - May 4, 2006

I must start of today's entries by saying that I really do feel like I am the luckiest woman in the world. Today is my birthday, I am 136 years old (nope, it's not a misprint, it's how old I feel) and I have just spent some time playing with our beautiful babies who are now turning into proper little kittens right before my very eyes. They are such wonderful babies and could melt the hardest of hearts and make even the most sour person smile. Watching their wrestling matches is such tremendous fun. Both Tia Lusso and Amarula are going absolutely mental at the moment because their babies want to explore and they do not want that at all. Not only that, but every time I open the door to the back room if I am going out to get something, I have to be so very careful because Lusso flies out the door like a shot straight after Ice, or whoever else may be in the vicinity. There is no way this girl wants anyone in here to see her babies.

Well I can now confirm that Salt and Vinegar are definitely Blue Tabby Point Siamese kittens. Pepper's colouring is really throwing me at the moment and I do believe that she will turn out to be a Blue Point, despite the fact that her ears are slightly dark. Her coat has not shaded at all, whereas Mad Max who is a definite Seal Point has an extremely muddy coat. Also, Pepper's paw pads do not indicate that she will be Seal so it's looking like she will be a Blue however I am not going to make any definite decisions on her colour for another couple of weeks I think. The Condiment's have enjoyed some rather intense wrestling matches with each other today and Salt is a very determined little girl. Rightly or wrongly, she was going to pin her brother down and bite him relentlessly. Chances are she would still be doing it now, had Pepper not crept up behind her and bit her on the tail! Vinegar has rather large paws as you might be able to tell in one of the photos and it's possible he will end up a big boy like his dad :)

Day 24 - May 3, 2006

You will notice that I managed to take separate photos for today's entries. The photos were actually taken last night and as a result, I think they are darker than they should be.

All of our Condiments now walk off the bed and explore and it's so funny because each time a baby leaves the bed, Tia Lusso is up like a shot bringing the baby back. While her back is turned, 2 more are getting off the bed so she then has to retrieve those 2 babies. Her children are really not getting very far at this stage but the time will come when they will be too heavy for Tia Lusso to pick up and move. The Condiment's weights are still quite good and I'm really pleased with their progress. The next few weeks are going to be so much fun because they will start to become more independent and hopefully they will soon be running all around the room getting under my feet :)

Day 23 - May 2, 2006

Extremely quick entry today with no photos because my darling Guinness left me today and I've had the most wonderful time with Guinness' new owner, May of Mazpahs Siamese and Orientals. It was so lovely to spend time with May we both enjoyed our time together. I think May enjoyed watching the Condiments and the Mel's as they fed, wrestled with each other and the funniest thing was that each time a baby strayed from the bed (which they are starting to do more and more often now), Tia Lusso would go straight after them, pick them up and take them back to the bed where she would dump them rather unceremoniously. Amarula was content to watch the babies wander so long as she could see exactly where they were but Tia Lusso was having none of it. I really do not know what she'll do in a week or two's time when all the children are running about all over the place. I guess if nothing else, she will get plenty of exercise. All of our babies are doing very well, they are so very energetic when they're awake and their wrestling matches really do have me in fits of laughter as I watch them. Like all babies, they are real time wasters. I promise that tomorrow there will be photos in the diaries and I will do separate entries. I have a little bit of "breathing space" now as my previous children have all left me and I had been planning on putting the final entry in the Pints' diary today but I have run out of time so that will be done tomorrow.

Day 22 - May 1, 2006

Salt and Pepper had a very special day today because their new family, Caroline, Steve, and Sue came to visit them for the first time and to have some cuddles. Of course the only problem was that Tia Lusso is convinced that all visitors to the home are here to see her only and not the children so while our new family were having cuddles with their babies, Tia Lusso kept interfering so that she could have some attention as well. As you can tell by one of the photos below, Pepper is the first of our Condiments to come out of the bed and start to walk around the room. She didn't go particularly far but she was very brave and seemed to be enjoying herself as she started to explore her little world. What really surprised me was that Tia Lusso was happy just to follow along behind, or to sit and watch her daughter venture into the big wide world, yet she did not try to pick her up to take her back to bed. The reason this was a surprise is that up in the kitten room she was so incredibly protective of her children, yet down in the back room she is more than happy for them to start to explore, and also to be handled by visitors which is fantastic. It was really lovely to meet Caroline and Steve, as well as Caroline's sister, Sue and when the babies colours start to come through a little more, Caroline and Steve will decide whether they share their home with Salt and Vinegar, or Pepper and Vinegar.

Day 21 - April 30, 2006

Yet again, the entries are the same but we should resume normal entries tomorrow. Today has been so very busy because the morning was spent cleaning out the back room and bringing Tia Lusso, Amarula and their babies downstairs to the new home. The move went incredibly well and the babies, as well as the mum's are both really happy which is great. I have taken away their box now as it is cumbersome and when the kids move downstairs, they are much better off going straight onto bedding where they can move around, as and when they want to. Tia Lusso surprised me as I did think she would go nutty with her babies out of the box and in a different room but she settled perfectly well so that is just wonderful. One thing I forgot to mention is that you might remember me saying Tia Lusso was getting sick and tired of being cooped up in the kitten room and had been crying at the door? Well I got it totally wrong! She was not crying at the door because of loneliness and boredom, she was crying at the door because the little minx is in full call. She has been screaming her head off and making love with all the cat scratch posts for 3 days now. Way too early for her to be calling again and the biggest problem now will be to monitor the babies weights' closely and ensure that the calling is not having any effect on the milk or the babies. So far though it's all okay which is a big relief. There's just a couple of photos in today's entries, the first of which will show you their brand new home.