We tried something slightly different with this birth, not necessarily by choice either! Lusso started spending the evening's in the bedroom with us where her box was set up, as all of our girls do. But by the time Thursday evening had come around and again during some ridiculous hour of the morning Lucy chose to go to the toilet on the bed, I decided enough was enough. So she spent Friday night in the upstairs part of the home, on her own, and I had already made the decision that I would move her box into the 2nd kitten room (where Amarula and The Nuts currently are), to see if she would settle in there. I knew it was a slight risk in the respect that because her own babies hadn't been born, there may have been friction between her and Amarula, or perhaps Rula's babies would find a way into Lucy's box and annoy her. So I cleaned out the entire room, put Lucy's box in there, moved Lucy in. She settled in the box straight away, not really bothered by the cries of the Nuts, whereas Amarula was extremely curious about who her new room mate was. Once Amarula was satisfied this was a lady she had shared babies with before, she more than happy to go back to her own box and tend her children. Every half hour I went up to the kitten room to make sure labour had not started and to make sure all was well between the 2 ladies. At about midday, I went back upstairs, opened the door, peered into Lucy's box and my first thought was "It's started, we have babies". On closer inspection, the so called "babies" were none other than Pistachio and Pecan, being mothered by Lucy! I turned around and here was Amarula getting back out of her box with Macadamia in her mouth this time around, carting him into Lucy's box. I promptly removed the 3 babies, and couldn't believe that Lucy was growling at me as I was taking away the babies. Amarula was not particularly happy either about being dumped back in her box with her own babies. I then settled Lucy back down, explained that her children have not been born yet and she couldn't have other people's babies. I stayed in there for 5 minutes more, left the room, and I reckon that the "baby move" started again before I had even got to the bottom of the stairs. Rightly or wrongly, these 2 ladies wanted to be together, something we have never had happen prior to a queen going into labour, and as far as Lucy was concerned, the Nuts were hers just as much as they were Amarula's. After 5 more occasions of removing Amarula and the Nuts from Lucy's box, I just totally gave up. The odd thing was is that every time the Nuts cried, Lucy would put her face right next to them, groom, them and cuddle them, yet they still went back to their mum for milk, rather than Lucy. By the time Saturday afternoon had come around, Tia Lusso had gone right off her food, which is generally a good sign that labour would be within the next 24 hours. Another good sign was that she was resting herself quite a bit and the babies were kicking like footballers inside so they were obviously preparing themselves as well for what was about to happen. As for the labour itself, well it happened so incredibly quickly that there was no time to do anything, let alone take photos until right to the very end. Tia Lusso has done us proud, she is an excellent breeding queen, a superb mother, and you often hear breeders say "She shelled them like peas", well she did. Out they popped, one after another. While the babies were being born, Amarula and the Nuts were in the box the entire time, Lusso wanted Rula there for moral support and Amarula had not intentions of leaving the box. Tia Lusso did almost everything, she cleaned all the babies, she ate 3 of the placenta's, she did the cords for 3 babies, but not the other 2. Mess was minimal, it really was a textbook litter all the way through. There was a break between Number 4 and Number which allowed me time to make a coffee and come downstairs and grab the camera which I forgot to take up with me last night. The difficult thing was trying to keep Rula's Nut's away from Lusso as it's imperative that Lucy's babies drink only from Lucy for the first few days because they need the colostrum for their immune system. After baby number 4 had arrived I went downstairs to offer a prepare a plate of food for Lucy, and I did have to laugh when I took it up to the kitten room, put it in the box and Amarula pushed Lucy's head out of the way and started eating it herself. She seemed to think it had been she who had been doing all the hard work and not Lucy. Now I did make an attempt to sex these babies and there is a very high chance that I'm wrong however time will tell. This brings us to names I guess, well Graham has chosen a lovely theme for this litter, one he'd been wanting for a while, so please allow us to introduce you all to........................................................................The Detectives

After Frost was born, I came downstairs, made coffees, quickly checked emails, went back upstairs to collect the birth bedding, change all the litter trays, came back downstairs to put the chicken in the oven (for the cats, not us), put the mince on (again for the cats), made a start on this diary entry. It's now midday and Lucy is showing no signs at all of delivering any more children, but I am not convinced it is over just yet. We would be happy though if she were finished because we have 5 lovely new babies and that is more than enough so we will wait it out for the rest of the day and see what happens. Lucy is very content and very proud of her new children and she has that smug, contented look that all new mummies get. Keep an eye on this entry throughout the day because on the off chance Lucy does decide that labour isn't over yet, I will update this page with any news.