We are 8 weeks old now!

Our Racers were left to their own devices today. We spent the day at the Surrey & Sussex Cat Association Show with Cacao and Ashanti. It was a fantastic day and we had some outstanding results. Our Racers were fed before we left home at 7am, with their normal wet food, and they were also left a plate of freshly cooked chicken. Upon our return home at around 6pm, the JW kitten biscuit bowl had been well and truly depleted which I was really pleased about. Over the last few days the babies have been eating a lot more of the biscuits and this is something I am trying to encourage as the JW kitten biscuits are a complete and balanced food for the babies. Naturally though, the first thing I did when we got home and let our show starts out of the carriers, was feed the babies.

Today was the last of our "hectic" days and as a result, I was not able to get a diary online. We were also out for about 6 hours this afternoon and by the time we came back, it was the evening, so once chores were complete and we got around to eating dinner, it was time to go to bed! Hopefully by Monday we can get back to normal soon.

Well we're off to a good start this morning. I let Graham get up first, and I hit the snooze button and waited a while. I then heard our visitor (we have a guest staying for a few days) saying "Graham can you help me, Nocello got in my room and I can't get her out". I heard Graham go into the spare room, heard some searching, Graham went back into the hallway and sure enough there was Nocello who had obviously snuck back out of the room. Problem solved so I figured I had better get out of bed. I got up, evicted the upstairs sleeping cats to the downstairs, prepared some breakfast for the babies which consisted of cooked white fish and some Natures Menu kitten pouch, fed the babies, came back downstairs to make a start on the emails. An hour later I went back upstairs to sort out the day's washing, only to discover the furry little monsters had totally shredded an entire roll of toilet paper............the bathroom was covered, the upstairs hallway was covered. Oh what little treasures they are :) They would soon put that Andrex puppy out of work I tell you! I started this diary quite early this morning, however, I took a break so that I could do all the hoovering/litter trays etc. and by the time I finished deboning a chicken I'd been cooking for the cats, it's already 11am. So hopefully, once I run over all the floors with a mop, I can then feed the Racers again and attempt to take some photos for today's diary entry. Nowhere is safe from our Racers now and they are into, and climbing on, absolutely everything. The only issue they seem to have is with the stairs. They have absolutely no idea what the stairs are there for, or how to climb up and down them. They'll soon learn though and I possibly shouldn't wish for them to cope with the stairs just yet because like all babies, once they have mastered stairs, they'll be running up and down them at ridiculous speeds and will drive us all mad :)

Apologies for not getting an entry online today. Remember me saying we have a very hectic week planned which involves paperwork? Well it's started. As a result, the babies didn't come downstairs today, and they won't be downstairs again now until Sunday. With everything we are currently doing, we can't afford to have the babies in Graham's room at the moment but as of Sunday, everything will resume as per normal.

We arrived back from Tesco and PC World yesterday afternoon and I came into my room to start on some bits and pieces, while Graham was in his room sorting out computer bits and pieces and then I hear "Oh no, they're all in the telly unit". I sat here for a few seconds before replying as I wasn't really sure what the response should be as I was waiting for the moaning to start about having babies invade his room. I eventually said "Good, that's what we want to see, babies who are out and about, running around, exploring, and being totally fearless, especially when you consider they were a touch timid in their own kitten room". He then replied, with a bit of a laugh "Come and see them". I dutifully got off my chair, went into Graham's room and sure enough, there were Racers on top of the DVD box, on top of the Sky box, underneath the unit, heads poking out from the sides. I said to Graham that it's really good that they are comfortable enough to start to get into mischief. I came back into my room, sat down, and I'll be honest, I did have a silent giggle to myself because I know full well in a couple of day's time, these Racers are going to be driving him mad as they will be into everything they shouldn't be and I call that poetic justice as up until now, I've been dealing with them :) I don't know what entries will be like this week, but don't expect any of them to be very long because this week is a very busy week for us and there will not be enough hours in the day for what we need to get through. I will try to make sure though that there is at least a small paragraph and photos each day. You know, I'm still smiling to myself because I reckon it won't be long when the cursing will start at the Racers getting into things they shouldn't. We do go through this every time a new set of babies is moved from upstairs into Graham's room. The difference is that normally the babies do not get into anything they shouldn't for the first few days as they are still acclimatizing to their new surroundings, so for the Racers to have started on their first day of being downstairs means we are going to be in for some colourful language and Graham telling me that the babies have to leave his room, and oh dear, I am tired just thinking about it all. But I will remind him that he at least only has them for a week or so, once they move from there into my "area", they'll be annoying me for the next 6 weeks or so :) As a small update to the entry I very quickly typed this morning, I have now spotted Kingston Town swinging on the curtains, back and forth, Phar Lap managed to get onto the lower shelf of one of the units and knock half the ornaments out of the unit, and quite a few babies managed to get themselves stuffed behind the fireplace which required rescuing! So on that note, I'm going to finish today's entry, have a very strong cup of coffee, and pray for peace! Today's photos are all simply titled "The Racers" to save a bit of time.

Well I have to say that the "Big Move" went a lot better than I could have ever anticipated. The Racers were brought downstairs at 9am and they won't be going back up to "their" room until about 6pm. Within minutes of being in Graham's room, they were off and exploring the room. I brought down their bottom bunk bed and put it in the bunk beds that are in Graham's room so they would have familiar bedding and smells, and I also brought down their small litter tray, even though there is a large hooded tray in Graham's room already. One thing they are not sure of is if anyone (mainly me) goes in and out of the room, and as soon as I open the door to Graham's room, or open the back door, they do all scarper and hide behind the bunk beds, but they will soon get very used to this as I am constantly going in and out of there. They have been fascinated with Ashanti, and he is equally fascinated with the babies. They have been constantly coming up to the wire screen door, pushing their noses against it, while he sits there and looks on in amazement. He adores the little ones and loves to play with them. He's not moved from the door for the last hour bless him. The rest of our feline family are not particularly bothered with the new additions as they have seen them too many times before :) There's not many photos today as I didn't want to stress the Racers any more than they may already be so I took a few pics of them eating and then left the room to let them get on with it under Graham's watchful eye.

Our Racers are 7 weeks old today and as promised, I have managed to include some (not great) individual photos. It's so difficult to get the babies to sit still, as Ian and Mary found out yesterday when they were trying to take photos of Sea Biscuit. So the images below are the best of a bad bunch really. It will be tomorrow that the babies will come downstairs as today I am having a relaxing day for a change as we don't have to go anywhere and we do not have anyone coming around. We have a very busy week planned next week and I'm not going to have a great deal of time, so today I am going to just chill out and catch up on a few things that I want to get done. Red Rum has now also been spotted eating the JW kitten biscuits which thrills me. The sooner the babies start eating the biscuits, the better really. I'm finding that the fish is making a massive difference to the babies' appetite, as well as their weights so fish is being included in quite a few of their meals now, as is chicken. The more I can get the babies eating, the less they will feed on Lucy, and the more progress they will make as a result. Poor Lucy is so incredibly unsettled due to her calling and she is spending quite a bit of time sitting at the bottom of the stairs behind the barrier, crying out to all the males in the home, hoping someone will reply to her. Naturally, Sage and Ashanti are always two of the first boys up against the barrier calling back to her.