We are 5 weeks old now!

I am starting to see evidence of little "nuggets" in the litter trays now, both the small tray and the hooded tray, so litter training is obviously working well for some. I am also, however, finding nuggets in corners on the carpet in the kitten room but fortunately, they are nice and firm therefore they are easy to pick up and put straight into one of the little trays. We have now passed the stage where the babies were pooing on the bed and then rolling in it as they slept which is a huge relief! I have made a decision that next week, starting with Monday, will be the start of the babies' integration with the downstairs part of the home so I guess I really must mention this to Graham so that he doesn't have a shock when 6 Siamese babies and Lucy suddenly appear in his room! I didn't get a chance to take any photos today as Tina and Tony of Maroochydore Siamese and Orientals visited us today. We had a fantastic visit as we always do with Teen and Tone and Tina and I had a very good look at the babies again and we have now both agreed that the baby with the most "potential" that should go to Ian and Mary is Sea Biscuit. As you know Red Rum is the baby I have my eye on and she is a very, very nice looking girl, but for the past week, I have seen something in Sea Biscuit that really appeals to me, and I have been watching her very closely. Her ears are not quite as big as Red Rum's, but she holds them better, in a "bonnet" style and her top of her has more width to it than Red Rum. She also has a longer tail and there is just something about her that truly appeals to me with regards to type. So once Ian and Mary visit us and meet the Racers, it will be a case of whether or not they will be happy with Sea Biscuit. The only thing Teen and I didn't quite agree on were colours with regards to our 3 Tabby Point girls :)

At last Julie of Lorimnailie Siamese has posted weights of her Motorers who are just 5 days behind our Racers. I have been waiting for Julie to this so I can do a weight comparison and I have to say I am really relieved because I was thinking her babies would be twice the size of mine, but they aren't so I'm quite happy now :) I had a bit of scare when I took breakfast into the kitten room this morning because on the bed there were only 5 babies. I counted again and still only counted 5. Shergar was missing! I looked on the chair, on the scratch centre and still couldn't find him. I looked under the wooden unit, I pulled the wall unit away form the wall and still nothing. Starting to panic, I then spotted him sleeping in the book case on one of my books. He was very happy there, and incredibly comfortable although I do not know how sleeping on a hard book can by comfy but he obviously felt it was. Yes, I did take him out of the book case and put him back on the bed with everyone else. Yesterday afternoon, and today, the Racers got their first taste of cooked white fish. Remember me saying that I hadn't cooked anything for them other than chicken due to being so ill? Well I got some fish portions from Tesco's, cooked them with a bit of butter, added some natural yoghurt and the babies loved it. I am really pleased about this because white fish is very high in protein and if I can get them eating some fish on a daily basis, it will be so very good for them. Today's fish had a Hi Life kitten pouch mixed in with it because it's still important that the babies eat a very good quality commercial food as well. Lucy also loves the fish and it will be an excellent source of protein for her. At the moment I still think she is looking much thinner than she should, but with 6 Racers all feeding from her, it is no surprise. The babies are really due to come downstairs into Graham's room now and the only reason I haven't done so yet, is laziness really I think. It is a lot of work to bring them downstairs due to the cleaning and the fact that everyone else then has to be kicked out of Graham's room because for the first week or so, none of our other cats will be allowed to mix with the Racers. We want the Racers to feel comfortable with being downstairs prior to letting the mob converge on them. They will be able to see, smell, and hear our other cats though as we have a mesh wire door separating Graham's room from the rest of the home. There's not a great deal in the way of photos today as we have had the cat run to sort out as well as a visit to the tip with a heck of a lot of rubbish.

It's not a very long entry today because it took me forever to sort out the individual photos today. You will have noticed that not only did I manage to put the Racers' weights in today's entry, I also managed to do individual photos for the week. This now means I can relax a little because I won't be doing any more individual photos until next week's session now :) Despite the Racers' weights appearing a tad on the small side, I'm actually very happy with these weights for this stage of our babies' lives. Each of our Racers continues to gain weight on a daily basis and they are all thriving. There isn't a week goes by that I don't worry about them or wonder if something will go wrong, but I can honestly say they are all doing extremely well and none of the Racers are giving me any cause for concern at all :)

Name	Sex	Weight
Red Rum	Female	429g
Kingston Town	Female	416g
Shergar	Male	470g
Sea Biscuit	Female	446g
Desert Orchid	Female	400g
Phar Lap	Male	476g

The scrambled eggs has proved to be relatively popular with the majority of the babies tucking into it last night and then at lunch time today there was further interest. The only problem was that when I was in Tesco yesterday, I grabbed what I thought was a tin of pilchards in tomato sauce, got home, put it in the cupboard, and when I opened it last night to mix with the scrambled eggs, I realised it was pilchards in brine! Serves me right for rushing around the supermarket and not stopping to actually read the labels. The babies enjoyed it anyway :) All the Racers are doing quite well and Red Rum, much to my horror, is now able to climb all the way to the top of the scratch post. I caught her doing it this morning while I was changing the babies' bedding and I moved rather swiftly to take her down from where she was dangling at the top and put her back on the floor. It is quite a large scratch post and I do have visions of her falling from the top and harming herself. I have had plans all week to get a number of things done, one of which included sorting out some stuff in the kitten room. I have actually done some of that and it definitely looks tidier now but there is still a lot to do. I also have to lay the decking tiles in the outside cat run and that was going to be today's job but I am severely running out of energy again so maybe tomorrow.

Still no individual photos but I did manage to name the babies who are pictured in the photos below so I guess that is better than nothing. Our Racers are coming along in leaps and bounds now and as each day passes, they are trying something new, such as using mum's litter tray, and drinking from the water bowl. Kingston Town got out of the room last night when I was going in and out of the room doing the litter trays. She snuck out and as I opened the door again, here she was merrily trotting along heading towards the bathroom. The Racers are also becoming more interested in the food that is on mum's plate and most of them are not averse to giving it a try now although it's definitely time they had a more varied diet. Since becoming ill again, the only food I have cooked for the babies is fresh chicken is something I cook every day as standard for our own cats but I really need to get the babies started on some fish as well as scrambled eggs. I'll be off to Tesco's later today to get some white fish and some goats' milk yoghurt, as well as more eggs. If the babies like the fish and eggs I am going to start mashing up some boiled JW kitten biscuits to mix in as this will help give them a taste of the dry biscuits which they obviously aren't eating yet as this stage of their lives. Apart from that, everything seems to be going perfectly normally although to be honest, I would like the babies to be bigger, however, I say that with every single litter and they all end up being rather large babies as they mature.

I had full intentions of taking individual photos of our Racers today, however, while I was in the kitten room, my thoughts turned to a small job I had been meaning to do in there for over a month now and once I started, I refused to stop until I'd finished, and by the time it was done, I realised I had been in the room for an hour and half and still hadn't even weighed the Racers! So now, I'm afraid you have ended up with general photos which have all been titled "The Racers" to save some time as it's already 1530 as I type this. When I looked at the Racers this afternoon, my first thought was how tiny they looked, even Shergar and this sent me into a slight panic thinking everyone had suddenly lost loads of weight however when they were all weighed, each of the babies had gained weight and they are doing fine so it's obviously just me being paranoid! You can probably tell by some of the images below that the Racers are becoming much more daring and are continuing to explore everything they can find in the room, much to their mother's disgust. Lucy is happy for them to wander around but she still is not happy for them to climb on anything, no doubt thinking they will fall off but of course at this age, the babies don't really have any intention of ceasing their climbing just because their mother says so. I do feel that when they reach the 6 weeks of age mark, they are going to be quite a handful.

Prior to saying anything else, we would like to congratulate Pr Schimmel Scheming Sage and Pr Chinasea Aria for outstanding show results at the Bristol & District Cat Club show held on February 17, 2007.

As you will have noticed, 2 diary entries were skipped. The first one was Friday and the reason for that was because I had my doctors appointment in the afternoon, and by the time that was dealt with and prescriptions were collected etc. I was just exhausted and a diary entry was the furthest thing on my mind. The very brief upshot of the appointment was that the urinary infection has returned only this time has spread to the kidneys, hence why it's worse this time around etc. etc. I am going to try a natural product that was recommended to me by Desert Orchid's lovely owner, Sarah, and I'm desperately hoping this will make a difference because despite having been on the anti biotics since Friday now, there is very little difference with regards to pain and all the rest of it so we shall see what happens. As for Saturday's entry, well that was impossible because we spent Saturday at a cat club show exhibiting Sage and Cacao so we left at 7am and didn't return until around 6:30pm. The babies seemed to do quite well on their plates of chicken and food that was left out for them. This now brings us to today's entry..........

There are no photos today as yesterday's show has taken so much out of me and I am just physically exhausted and in a bit of pain, but the babies are enough to make anyone smile. They are doing to incredibly well and for a number of days now, every time I enter the kitten room and sit on the floor, instead of running over to sniff me and see what I have to say, they all climb up into my lap, pushing each other off to see who can get the best position and they enjoy lots of cuddles and strokes until they fall asleep. It is so wonderful to just be able to sit on the floor with all the Racers and enjoy their company. The Racers truly are an absolute delight. On a weaning front, things are progressing, with quite a few babies sneaking meals of chicken or Hi Life/Natures Menu when I am not looking. I only know this because I have opened the door to find various babies at various plates nibbling away so this is lovely to see. The only downside to all this eating is poo's! Our babies have started leaving me some rather lovely little nuggets in various places bless them, so I keep picking them up and placing them in the small litter tray hoping to encourage the babies into the tray itself. Tia Lusso is not so enamoured of her children being so active now and there have been so many times when I have had to laugh because her children have been climbing the large scratch post/centre in the kitten room and before they even get an eighth of the way up, she has them by the scruff of the neck and has taken them off it. She is more than happy for her children to explore the room but must feel that the scratch post should still be out of bounds to them. Tomorrow, I am hoping to get up very early and can get a normal entry online including photos.