Day 41 - May 20, 2006

Both entries are exactly the same today and there are no photos, well there's not really even much of an entry at all.. The reason for this is that I left here at 6am this morning to go to Cambridgeshire as I was exhibiting Drambuie at the Suffolk & Norfolk Cat Club show and I did not return home until 8pm. This means that prior to leaving, Lethal Weapon had to be syringe fed and then Graham was left with instructions on what to do for the babies. These litters are a bit different in the respect previous litters have all been on a feeding regime and were fed approximately the same times every day and evening. I don't know why, however the Mel's and the Condiment's get fed when they are awake and when they want to be fed. This means that Graham had to keep popping his heard around the corner to see who was and who wasn't awake. When I arrived back home, the babies were all doing just fine and obviously have been in very good hands all day which I knew they would be. I was really pleased to see them though and even though it had been a very long day, the results at the end were totally worth it :)

Day 40 - May 19, 2006

There really is very little in the way of photos today because by the time I finished all the floors and wanted to take photos, most of the babies were either asleep or feeding. It's also not really that long an entry today as I do have an awful lot to try and get through. So far the babies have obliged by remaining fairly quiet for once. Just before lunch, everyone except for Vinegar was all piled up on the office chair as they normally do and poor Vinegar woke up, looked around him on the kitten bed, saw that there was not a soul in sight and he started to cry. I went over to him and picked him up and put him with everyone else and his mum then gave him a bath and all was well with his little world again. I am glad that he is going to be sharing his new home with Pepper because like the majority of Siamese, he really does thrive on company. While Salt and Vinegar spent the morning sound asleep, Pepper was being very active and having the time of her life playing with Patriot and Lethal Weapon in the activity centre. You will notice that I've hardly got any photos of her and that is because she was too busy playing and have no interest in posing for the camera. On a bad note, Tia Lusso has come back into call again! This is her 2nd full call since the babies were born which does not bode well at all. As you can imagine she is quite loud, very restless and getting into everything that she shouldn't.

Day 39 - May 18, 2006

Vinegar really is a bit of a mummy's boy bless him. He is always looking to Tia Lusso for approval and for attention whenever he is wandering around the room. Just like his 2 sisters, he has the most kissable face and every time he goes up to his mum, she always gives him a bit of a lick and places her paw on him. I think that he is probably the only one of her 3 children that she can actually control now. Salt has absolutely no regard for either of the mothers and if Salt wants to play or be somewhere that she shouldn't, then despite the mum's futile attempts to put her back in the bed, she pays not the slightest bit of attention and as soon as she spies a chance of freedom, she is off again in a different corner of the room. Pepper now has an imaginary friend I think because she has spent the better part of the morning, not playing with the rest of the babies, but pouncing on her new "friend" who seems to live on the spare office chair. I really had to smile as I watched her jump about and stalk this non existent kitten. I do wish however that her imaginary friend had not climbed up to the top of the back of the office chair because sure enough Pepper followed and once she reached the top, she put out her paw, pushed her imaginary friend off the chair, looked down at the floor and smiled rather smugly. Of course she then realised that she could get straight from the top of the chair, either onto my chair or onto the work surface so rather than wait around for an accident to happen, I scooped her up and put her back onto the bed where she stayed for about oh.........................5 seconds!

Day 38 - May 17, 2006

The photos below, all of which were taken yesterday afternoon, will prove to you just how active our little babies are when they are awake and playing. I think though that yesterday was probably the first time that our 3 Condiments battled with each other only and didn't have any battles with the Mel's. You would think that Salt, who is our smallest girl, would not ever win any of the battles, but being a female, she is extremely determined and doesn't hesitate to get right in the thick of things. The time will soon come for our babies to be "set free" to explore the rest of the home and meet the other cats. I'm holding off doing this at the moment because I would like to see them more established with their eating first and as of yet, no one has been eating any of the kitten biscuits and this is another thing that I would like them to start doing. Of course we also still have the problem with Tia Lusso being so very over protective and it's possible that for the first few times that the babies are allowed to wander, Tia Lusso may have to be put in the kitten room for the safety of the other cats. Then, I think when the babies are used to the home and the other cats, Tia Lusso can rejoin them and hopefully she will see that our other adults are not interested in harming her babies. It's going to be very difficult and we've not ever had this problem before so we shall have to be very careful as to how we handle the situation.

Day 37 - May 16, 2006

As you can tell from the 4th photo in today's entries, Vinegar is finally getting the hang of litter training at long last. I do think moving the tray to this spot was the best thing I could have done as we have not had an accident in the bed since the tray was moved. Our Condiments are all doing very well and their weights are excellent. Salt is still our smallest baby, weighing in at 475 grams, whereas Pepper weighs 530 grams and Vinegar weighs 580 grams. They all enjoy their food although Salt is probably the fussiest eater out of the three of them. They are all very active babies and Salt and Pepper's favourite thing to do is climb all over the cat scratch and battle with each other on there. Vinegar much prefers swinging to and fro on the throws that lives on the chairs. Although the poor guy decided to climb up the throw today, got half way up the back of the chair, and then decided it was not really where he wanted to be, however, he didn't know how to get back down and need rescuing as a result.

Day 36 - May 15, 2006

I now know who is mainly responsible for the toilet accidents on the floor near the work surface! The culprit is Vinegar! Twice this morning, he went to go in the wrong place, and twice I picked him up and put him in the litter tray, twice he got back out, then when I had my back turned, he defied me and went did a little wee on the floor. Don't you just love litter training! So far today, everyone else has been going in the correct place which I'm rather pleased about. I am just getting absolutely nowhere with these diaries today and have a total mind blank so I'm just going to give up and upload what is here.

Day 35 - May 14, 2006

Not really much of an entry at all today as we've had visitors here. I also had to move the sleeping area back to the other side of the room due to litter training problems. Both the Mel's and the Condiments were of the opinion that they should go to the toilet on the floor underneath the work surface, near the filing cabinets. Unfortunately, this is also where their bed was hence the daily accidents we were having. Then, as a result, if the bed got wet overnight, the mum's and babies would all sleep on the office chairs. So what I did yesterday was move their kitten bedding to the other side of the room, where it was originally. I have put their small litter tray underneath the work surface where they were previously going to the toilet and now the babies are more inclined to use the tray. Of course this did confuse all the babies for a while so some of yesterday morning was spent with the babies going around and around in circles in the room. All of our babies had some lovely cuddles with "Uncle Dave" and "Aunty Jan" yesterday who came to spend the afternoon and we had a marvellous time. Dave and Jan were able to see Tia Lusso and Amarula in action when poor Cointreau actually snuck into the room and both mum's went into overprotective status and a rather nasty fight ensured. Fortunately, everyone was okay, other than my hands and arms! We are really going to have some problems when it comes to letting the babies have the run of the house, which should be in about a week's time.

At 5 weeks of age, all of our Condiments are doing very well in the weight and the eating department so I'm really happy with their current progress and development. The only problem I am having with them is there incessant desire to run into the kitchen whenever the door is opened. There is just no keeping them out at all. I'm at the stage now where if I'm trying to get in the kitchen and they keep sneaking in, that I actually just open the door and give up and let them come in. Let me assure you, it requires an awful lot of energy to try and keep them out because as soon while I am putting one on the other side of the door, another Condiment is sneaking past me. They are very quick babies.