Day 62 - June 10, 2006

Many apologies for not getting an entry online until the following day. The reason for this is that we were exhibiting Cacao at the London Cat Club show yesterday, as were the owners of other Schimmel cats. It was an extremely long and tiring day however the results made it all worthwhile. Our Mel's and Condiments were left in the hands of Graham and on Friday night, I made up all their meals for the day and put them in separate, labeled containers in the fridge so Graham just had to heat them up. The babies apparently ate extremely well in my absence, particularly when it came to the fish meals which they are still incredibly hooked on. As I wasn't here for the day, we had decided beforehand that we would not have the house opened up, instead, the babies had their back room as well as the cat run to play in all day. Apparently the rest of the family were most annoyed at this because in such warm weather, they all like to go out in the cat run. When I came home early evening, I did open the door up so that the babies could wander through the house and the adults could go into the run.

Day 61 - June 9, 2006

These are really super quick entries today as it's been one of those days where I've had a lot to do and there just is not enough time in the day. Already it's 1346 and I am only making a start on the diaries now. The babies all had their first meal of fish today (plaice) and up until now, they have not had fish before and to be honest, I did have my doubts that would actually like it but I was certainly in for a shock. The moment I put the plate down, they all went tearing over to the plate, and were so enthusiastic about the fish that they were putting the paws on "their own pieces" and growling at each other. I was taken aback to say the least. There is no need to guess what I am about to do after the diary is uploaded....................I'm off to buy lots of fish. Everyone has made gains today except for Patriot who is still causing an awful lot of worry. All of the kids have spent more time in the cat run today than anywhere else as there is a lovely cool breeze out there. Although having said that, every single baby has been spotted upstairs at one point or another during the day.

Day 60 - June 8, 2006

Today's entries start off the same, but only because one or two things apply to all 7 babies. The mum's have been away from them now for a few days as you are all aware and I was saying to Linda (owner of Patriot, Braveheart and Salt) just yesterday afternoon what a difference there is in the babies now. This could well because the mum's are no longer within the vicinity, or it could be that the babies are just at that age now where suddenly "everything changes". For example, as most of you know yourselves, when you were here last the babies were still not particularly confident and they were not really going too far, even though the house is opened up now. However for the past couple of days, the change has just been amazing in the respect that the babies not only have been tearing through the whole house and exploring it, they also now even venture upstairs which I did not discover until yesterday afternoon and I must admit that it was a bit of a shock because up until a few days ago, the kids only really tore around in the back room and the cat run. This is such a massive difference to see them making use of the whole home and another than has changed is their confidence level. Almost as if it has happened overnight, they have become fearless babies who are not bothered at all now when the older cats growl at them (as indeed some of them still do). They approach all of the older cats, and they play with Cointreau as well. Of course we still have the occasional arched back and bushy tail if an adult growls at them when they don't expect it but that is normal really. It's just so wonderful to see them going where ever they want and making full use of the home. Of course there is one drawback in this with regards to the fact that at feeding time, I never know where the darn babies are so while some are being fed, I'm searching high and low throughout the house to find the missing children. It's exhausting let me assure you. One thing Linda said to me yesterday was that I must be pleased when our babies all go to their new homes. In a way, she is right in the fact that I am just so tired from all the work that has gone into raising these kids, however, the problem is that the more time and effort you put into the "problem children", the more of a bond you form with them and the harder it is when they actually leave me. By now, all of our new owners should have received an email from me explaining that the babies will probably be here an extra week (instead of being able to leave on the 7th) because they can not have their first set of jabs until Patriot has more weight on her. The risk to her with vaccinations at this size is quite tremendous and I am not prepared to put her through it (nor is my vet). So thank you to all of our new kitten families for being so understanding about the situation.

I'm delighted to say that our Condiments (like the Mel's) have all made gains today and they are gains that I am very happy with. Their appetites are very good which is a relief although with the amount of running around that they are doing, it is absolutely no surprise whatsoever that they appear to be eating quite a lot. Salt and Vinegar think it's a really fun game to "run away from mum" whenever I want to collect the babies to put them in the back room. What happens is that I see them running about the house, I go after them as just as I put my hands around either of them, the wriggle out and run just that bit further. They then wait until I am close enough to pick them up and again, my hand goes to scoop them up and they are off again. To them this is a wonderful game and you can see the glint of mischief in their eyes as they leave it until the very last second to try and get away from me. Pepper is so very different in the respect that she knows full well if I am coming after her, it is for one of 2 reasons, either she is about to be fed, or she is going to get some cuddles (or course it could always mean that I want to pop her on the scales) so she is more than happy to be scooped up whenever I deem it necessary. On the other hand, she may just be taking pity on me having seen how much her sister and brother give me the run around and perhaps she is just being kind. One thing I am not going to miss when these babies leave me is the darn scales and the weighing charts which live on my desk permanently.

Day 59 - June 7, 2006

Day 58 - June 6, 2006

During the last 24 hours, some babies gained whilst other lost. The majority of their weights are fluctuating at the moment. They are eating well though with respect that whenever they are hungry, they tell me, and I feed them. I am sure that half this "crap" they are eating is not really doing much with regards to getting weight on them. The problem is that at the moment they only want to eat certain things and if I don't feed them what they want, then they totally refuse to eat so I need to figure out a way around this problem. As you can see, I did manage a few photographs in today's entry. These were taken while the babies were having fun and games outside in the cat run.

Not a great deal has changed much at all with our Condiments. Pepper continues to just get on with life and do what she wants without worrying about what the rest of the world are doing. And she is such a cuddly baby who adores people and adores being picked up. Salt and Vinegar on the other hand are extremely similar in temperament and they often spend their waking times pouncing on each other or the other babies. Vinegar is still missing his mummies an awful lot and I will be pleased when they can re-join their babies, although I do not know whether or not they will "take to them" as sometimes when mum's are removed from the kids, they tend to then want nothing to do with them. I don't think this will be the case though as both mum's are going ballistic up in the kitten room, howling and wanting to get out. I feel so very sorry for them but until they have finished calling, they won't be able to come out. I must finish these entries here now for the day as my Ori Blue boy who weighs a ton has just jumped on my lap for some cuddles.

Day 57 - June 5, 2006

Before going any further, I must say Best of Luck to our daughter as her GCSE's commenced today and I hope that she does very well and will cope with the stress over the next week or so. I am so tired as I type this entry due to the feeding and I'm also running behind with everything today as I took 3 of my adults to the vets for their vaccinations and I was there quite a while. The kids are now booked in for the first set of vaccinations which will happen on Monday morning (12th). As for our babies, well I am still quite concerned about them and weights on a couple of them are not particularly good at all. Out of 7 babies, 5 had gained when I weighed them this morning but 2 had lost, Salt and Vinegar. Up until this morning, my biggest concern has been Patriot (as per usual) and Mad Max, both of whom looked extremely thin and had been losing. However, they both made gains in the last 24 hours, Mad Max made very good gains and Patriot gained just 2 grams, however, considering she had been losing again, this is very good news. Thanks so much to the Blue Paw clan for their support and prayers. Their diet at the moment consists of scrambled eggs mixed in with a/d and a bit of salmon, they will also happily eat Sheba as well as a "pate" type food. I am not happy at all about the commercial foods however the only thing that matters right now is that the babies are eating, regardless of what it is. Remember how I went out to get Iams kitten biscuits yesterday in a moment of desperation? Well the kids were not impressed at all. Then at 7pm last night I had a brainwave and I opened up a tin of salmon, poured the juice over the biscuits that were in the bowl on the off chance it might tempt them to eat them. I then went up to the bedroom to put the ironing away only to be told by our daughter that "Patriot is eating biscuits from the bowl". My reply was "Which one?", her reply was "Patriot....................the brown one". At which point I looked at her in disbelief and said "Mo, I know which baby Patriot is, for goodness sake I do know my own babies, I meant which BOWL was she eating from!" The reason I asked was that I have 3 bowls of kitten biscuits down for them, one of JW, one of Iams, and another one of Iams with the salmon juice on it. Sure enough it was the one with the salmon juice. Then as the night progressed, more and more babies were eating the biscuits as well thank goodness. I must admit that at the 11pm feed, I took the "Holy Oil" downstairs as well and put some on each baby as I said a prayer because if anything is going to make a difference, that certainly will. I did learn that one really should not feed babies when one is so very tired because at 11:30pm last night, I came downstairs for another feed (the babies not me) and the babies were asleep so they needed to be woken up. Naturally, babies are more inclined to eat when they have been expending energy so I figured the best way to get them running about was to start up a game of paper football which I did, using 3 screwed up paper balls. It worked straight away and within seconds the kids were having the time of their lives playing football while I sat on the floor flicking the balls to them. I guess that it was just very unfortunate that I was tired and I flicked one of the paper balls straight into Pepper's face. Okay fair enough my aim is not great at the best of times, but when I am tired, it's even worse. Poor Pepper was not impressed at all and I can't say that I blame her. After about 10 minutes the babies were all wide awake and ready to eat and when I put the plate of food down, they all tucked into it. The meal at 1:30am went roughly the same way. As I type this entry it is now 11:46am and the babies are sound asleep and not due to be fed again until 1pm so I am using this time to try and get an entry online. Of course if any of the babies wake up in between, they get fed straight away as well. Like just now for instance, Salt poked her head out from underneath the throw on the chair so she is now eating a plate of food. The majority of my time is spent going in and out of the kitchen preparing meals. She has now been joined by Braveheart who, even in her sleep, can obviously smell a plate of food! And now Patriot has joined them! You wouldn't think these babies were only fed at 11am when I got home from the vets. Still, the more they eat, the happier I am, and hopefully, the bigger they will become. I am sure that our new families must be rather sick of seeing the same entries in the diaries, but please do bear with me because at the moment, I really need to concentrate all my energy on the babies, rather than the diaries.

Day 56 - June 4, 2006

Here we go again, feeding and supplementing and yes, there is a sigh in my voice as I type this. I reckon by now I could feed these babies with my eyes closed as it seems that is all I have done with these litters off and on. I am just hoping and praying that when Sambuca gives birth in July it will not be a repeat of what I have just been through with our current kids. I'm not happy with some of the babies' weights, although everyone is still over 500 grams. Pepper being at the other end of the scale weighing in over 800 grams. No surprise there! I am sure with her weights she really is a boy in disguise! Again I have been doing weight comparisons this morning with lots of previous litters and I have had worse at this age, all of whom went on to be happy, health adult cats so that is slightly reassuring. It is no surprise having had some losses due to the milk from the mum's upsetting the babies, and also I feel that perhaps stress associated with the loss of their mum's has been an influence in the losses. So now I shall battle on again until I have weights that I am happy with and once the babies achieve this, hopefully, without the mum's there will be no more problems. Indeed, since the mum's were removed, there has been no vomiting at all and the meals that I am feeding the babies are being kept down with no problems at all. Today I am going out to buy some (and for me this is a dreaded word!) Iams kitten biscuits! I hate them, absolutely hate them, however the babies are not eating any of the JW kitten biscuits yet, so I am going to try with another brand. They are actually the first babies I've ever had that won't eat the JW although a few weeks' ago, a couple of them were happy to nibble on the biscuits when they saw their mum's doing it. The upset tummies put a stop to that initially so I don't think it was the brand of biscuits. Once they start eating another brand, I will start mixing the JW with it and that should do the trick. Today's photos are just a couple of "sleepy" photos as I have quite a lot to still do today including 2 hourly feeding.

It's hard to believe that our Condiments are 8 weeks old today and that in just over 5 weeks' time they will be leaving me :( Vinegar is probably finding the loss of the mum's harder to bear than the other children because he has always been close to the mum's and has always been a real mummy's boy. As a result he now sees our adult cats as a bit of a threat and he keeps doing Basil Brush impressions at any adult who dares approach him, or the other babies. Pepper is incredibly laid back and not phased by a single thing. Not our other cats, not strangers, nothing at all whereas Salt switches from one to the other. They are definitely getting much more used to the hoover now which I am really pleased about.