Sea Biscuit had some special attention today as her new mum and dad, Ian and Mary, came to visit her. It was really lovely to see Ian and Mary again. For those of you who aren't aware, they have Phoebe who is from our first ever litter. I have no idea what Phoebe is going to make of Sea Biscuit, to say nothing of Ian and Mary's other fur children, but I am sure that in time, Sea Biscuit will be accepted by the whole household. She wasn't too sure of her new mum and dad at first and did a little bit of hissing and made it perfectly clear that she wasn't too sure about this whole "visitors" thing. Having said that, by the time the visit came to an end, Sea Biscuits was curled up on her new mummy's lap, perfectly relaxed and very interested in what Mary was saying to her. Ian and Mary agree with me that Shergar and Sea Biscuit just look so darn identical now, and you do really have to study them to know who is who. Obviously though, the one big difference is that one is male and one is female :) By the same token, KT and Red Rum are getting more alike as time passes as well. Phar Lap is going to be a bugger when he is grown up, he is already showing signs of being a mischievous baby so I really do pity Pauline because when Phar Lap and Rodney get together, I reckon Pauline will have her hands full :) On the whole, the Racers are doing quite well and they are eating well. As per usual though, I would like to get more weight on them, but I am satisfied that they are fine. Tia Lusso is still calling and it is her calling that was the main contributory factor to the Racers going downhill and I'm just hoping that the calling will soon stop. Tomorrow, or Monday, the Racers will definitely be moving downstairs. The time has come for them to enter the big wide world so it's going to be fun and games during the next week. There's not many photos today but may tomorrow, if time permits, I will manage to take some individual photos which are long overdue! Our feline family also want to express their gratitude to Ian and Mary for their lovely present of squeaky mice. Myself, on the other hand, is now suspecting that Ian and Mary have a sadistic streak because the cats love the squeaky mice and have been playing with them since Ian and Mary left. As a result, my head is starting to pound from all the darn squeaking :) I thoroughly enjoyed Ian and Mary's visit today and I know that Sea Biscuit is going to have a super fantastic home and I will ensure that she takes a squeaky mouse back with her when it's time for her to leave us.

It's not much of an entry today and I'm afraid there are no photos because we left home at about 11am to go and see Crufts. We have 2 dogs who share our home and today is the Working/Pastoral dog day which is what interests us so we decided a few days ago that we would go and see Crufts for ourselves as we have not ever been before. This meant that the babies were left to their own devices until later afternoon. As always with babies in the home, in order to go out anywhere, even for a few hours, careful planning has to be done. We got up early, fed the babies their breakfast of Hi Life, Natures Menu, and cooked fish, then just before we left, they were given a huge plate of chicken. Then the first thing I did when I walked in the door was take another meal up to them. Our Racers are really into their fish at the moment which pleases me because white fish is an excellent source of protein for them and they really do love it. So they are getting fish in 2 of their meals each day at the moment.

We're getting there with our Racers I think. There is still a little bit of vomiting up of mum's milk, not a huge amount, but having smelt it, to me it's quite apparent that the milk is going sour and Lucy is quite restless and doing a bit of singing which doesn't bode well. If she is thinking of coming back into call, this will certainly explain a few of the little problems we have been having. I am happy with the Racers appetites at the moment although I would like to see quite a bit more weight on a few of them, but at least no one is losing weight, everyone is eating. With meal times now, quite often I offer 2 plates of very different food so that this way, if a baby doesn't want to have the kitten food, there is also fresh chicken or fresh fish available and vice versa. I honestly don't care what they eat so long as they eat. No one has ventured down the stairs yet, although it's not unusual now to go upstairs and find some babies sound asleep in the middle of the hallway floor and I have to step over or around them because being Siamese, naturally they have no intentions of moving out of my way.

As I type this entry, all I can hear is the thundering of paws from above. I have just come back down from the kitten room where I had been delivering yet another meal of freshly cooked chicken to the children, all of whom are still extremely keen on their chicken, and I guess that now lunch is over, it must be play time. How on earth such tiny little beings can be so loud as they run about is something I will never understand. You will notice that I actually managed to take some photos at long last so hopefully this will please our kitten families :) Whilst all of our Racers facial features are maturing, they have remained the same, all apart from Desert Orchid. She has really surprised me because during the past week or so, her facial features have changed and she is becoming an extremely attractive looking young lady and she looks nothing like she did a few weeks ago. I had a lovely surprise yesterday because I was in the kitten room doing another feed, and Shergar had no interest in what was on the plate but instead, he went and ate the James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits. He is the first of our Racers to eat the biscuits and I am hoping that he will continue to do this and then the other Racers should follow suit.

I have found that the Liquivite is making quite a big difference to the babies, particularly in the respect that our smaller girls who have suffered them most are not really needing to be syringe fed because when I mix in some warmed up Liquivite with Natures Menu kitten pouches, they really love it and do eat from the plate. Having said that, I am not being complacent and am still continuing to monitor them all very closely. The rest of the Racers are also enjoying the Liquivite and this is a relief because if this continues over the next few days then I should hopefully start to see some rapid improvements with our babies. This morning, all of our "smaller" Racers didn't hesitate to have some breakfast, which again was Natures Menu and Liquivite so we're off to a good start for the day. I have started typing this fairly early on this morning and will leave it here and come back to it because I'm about to upstairs and hoover the kitten room which looks like a bomb has struck! Some idiot (namely me!) left an open bag of cat litter on top of the ottoman last night and when I went in for breakfast this morning, there was litter from one end of the room to the other, all over everything :(

2 hours later and the upstairs part of the home is presentable, at least until the babies start to make more mess again which shouldn't take them very long :) There has been a slight change to our babies' routine today in the respect that the door to the kitten room is now open and the Racers can choose to explore the bathroom, upstairs hallway, and even come down the stairs if they choose to do so. Already, Shergar & Sea Biscuit have been out of the room and sniffing everything in the hallway. This diary seems to be going nowhere fast today. Every time I come back to the pc to type another sentence, my attention is diverted yet again with something else. Having just come back from the tip, the supermarket, the vets (to pay yesterday's bill), and the bank, I am just giving up today's entry as a lost cause. Something else to add though, upon returning from all the running around, the first thing I did was take some freshly cooke chicken up to the babies and I am delighted to say all 6 babies fell over each other trying to get out of bed to the chicken. I was a bit concerned that Red Rum and Desert Orchid stayed in bed, so I picked up a bit of chicken, waved it under their noses and sure enough they were awake and up like a shot so I sat them both in front of the plate and they started gobbling up the chicken as well. I then took a step back and watched with huge satisfaction as all 6 babies tucked in. Oh, and one other thing is that the fur is starting to get back to normal now so it's just a case of getting more weight on some of our smaller babies but on the whole, I'm pleased with how they seem to be picking up now. Tomorrow, time permitting, I will actually manage to take some photos which I haven't done in quite a while now I think.

Yet again, you will see we have missed a couple of days' entries over the weekend, so let me fill you in on what has been happening..........................

First of all, we were not here on Saturday as we were at the Wessex Cat Club show with Cacao and Drambuie, both of whom had excellent results. It was a long day where we left early as per usual and didn't arrive home until early evening. Naturally, upon arriving home there was mountains of work today around the home and chores to sort out. As it is, today is Monday and the car still has not even been unpacked, nor has the show equipment been washed yet.

Then on Sunday, we had kitten visitors so apart from the normal household cleaning that is done every day, we did not have time to do anything else at all, not even a diary entry. So now, onto the babies themselves......................

As you know, I have been concerned at KT, but by Sunday afternoon, I was not happy with the progress of any of our Racers. It really was nothing I could put my finger on, they were all playing, and seemed bright, however, a few babies had gone off their food and weren't eating, I didn't like the look of their coat, and as odd as it sounds, they didn't smell right. This sounds really strange I know, but to me, they just smelt as if they were not right. I told Graham and we said we would phone our vets first thing in the morning, so today at 8:50am I phoned our vets. I have to say here they we are so lucky to have such a great vet as they told me to bring them straight in and they would squeeze us in between their other appointments. Upon arrival at the vets, I was seen within 10 minutes of being there which for me as a breeder, is extremely important. Lucy and the babies were not overly keen on the car trip, but they didn't protest too much. Jo, as per usual, was wonderful, and extremely thorough. She examined hearts, eyes, mouths, took temperatures. Lucy's temperature was a little high, not worryingly so, but still not normal, most of the babies' temperatures were normal, although Desert Orchid's was up slightly. Everything else seemed fine and Jo agreed with me that a couple of our girls were just a bit scrawny at the back end, whereas some of the others were fine and good weights. So at the moment, Jo feels this is a minor bug and to be on the safe side, Lucy and the Racers are on a 5 day course of antibiotics and I shall be continuing with the feeding every 3-4 hours of a couple of our girls to make sure no one becomes dehydrated which is always a worry with babies so young who go off their food. The antibiotics should sort this out and Jo doesn't think it's anything major, so hopefully within a few days, we will be back to normal. Apart from their normal meals which are given at the standard times during the day, I am also syringe feeding Liquivite and Hills a/d. I will add here a huge thank you to our vets for seeing us straight away despite being busy, and also for taking such wonderful care of our girl Lucy, and the Racers. Every breeder's best friend is their vet.