We are 6 weeks old now!

There is no entry for today.

Sherlock has a new mummy in Toussaint. When Sherlock doesn't want to play and he wants some attention, he seeks out Toussaint and of course, Toussaint is delighted at the prospect of another baby to love and care for. I can't actually remember the last time I saw Sherlock with his own mother as he has chosen Toussaint as his now. I think this is incredibly sweet and Sherlock certainly seems more than happy. Morse, bless him, will go to any mum that wants him. He isn't fussy at all and so long as someone will provide the milk bar when he needs it, then life is just fine for him. Nancy Drew and Miss Marple are both of the opinion that Thames and Ock were put in this earth solely for their benefit and both girls have been making sure that Thames and Ock know exactly who is boss by playing constant pouncing and limb biting games with the younger children. I think that the reason they enjoy doing this so much is because they used to be the "victims" as this is what the Nuts did to them so now they are deriving a great deal of pleasure out of having someone younger and smaller to pick on.

Our Detectives are now spending more time in the Water Babies' posh box, than they are in their own. Having said that though, they now also sleep in varying places throughout the room and they are not particularly bothered whether or not they are on their own, of whether they have their siblings curled up with them. This is unusual in a litter this age as they don't normally reach that "independent" streak until another couple of weeks. Miss Marple and Nancy Drew continue to try and follow me out the door every time I leave the kitten room and it's gotten so bad now that the little buggers throw themselves at my legs, or pick up their paws and whack me as I'm trying to get out the door. I would dearly love to have the door open so they can come and go as they please, but the Water Babies are still a bit young for this, to say nothing of the fact that Drambuie and all the older babies spend some of their time upstairs and Lucy and Drambuie do not have a very good relationship at this particularly point in time. I do think however that our Detectives would be thrilled to have much older play mates.

Sherlock is thrilled to bits with having a new "mum" and as soon as the Water Babies' ramp came down, Sherlock was in like a shot, trying to latch on to Toussaint who was more than happy to feed an extra baby. You will have noticed that our Detectives have now graduated to eating out of the larger trays as opposed to the small bowls and plates. As all babies are now eating very well it makes more sense to start serving up one large meal each time as opposed to a few small bowls. Morse is really funny at meal times because he is one of the first to come running straight over to the tray and quite often he reaches it before any of the Nuts do. He is really starting to love his food now and this is evident in his weight gains. All of the Detectives are doing quite well at the moment and they are very playful little babies. Nancy Drew is definitely the naughtiest of them all though, with Miss Marple not far behind her.

All entries are the same today...........

Actually, there aren't really any entries at all today. Last night, I had said to my mate Teen on the phone, that ever since the Nuts were born, I have spent so much time just trying to keep these babies alive, that I had gotten very little pleasure out of the babies at all. All my energy and time had been consumed with syringe feeding and 24 hour monitoring, and I think I had forgotten how to actually just enjoy the babies. So today, I spent some time doing exactly that. I was in the kitten room, sitting on the floor with the kids, just chatting with them and playing, and it was then that it hit me that THIS is what breeding is about and this is what I had missed with these babies because these litters have been bloody hard work, they have been exhausting, so I am now making up for lost time and am simply just going to have fun with our babies :)

To explain today's photos..................well I entered the kitten room, armed with the camera and the hoover, and Tia Lusso decided that was the time to herd all 9 children into the corner underneath the shelf unit. None of them would come out so I just took photos (bad ones!) of them where they were.

At the moment I am not happy at all with Sherlock's weight, so last night I gave him some Cytagon (Vit. B12 supplement) in order to stimulate his appetite so I can try and get a bit more weight on him. He still plays, but his appetite has really decreased in the past 24 hours, so he'll be monitored extremely closely at all meal times and if need be, I will be supplementing him with Nutri Drops as well. This morning, I think the B12 had kicked in because he didn't hesitate to start eating breakfast along with everyone else so I'm hoping that this is a positive sign. The rest of our Detectives are all doing quite well, even Morse now weighs more than Sherlock, and they are all very playful little babies. Miss Marple, Nancy Drew, and Cashew are all now able to climb the large scratch post and join the Nuts in the bed on top of the post and they look so proud of themselves as they sit up in the bed as if to say "Look at us mum, aren't we clever, we climbed up here all on our own". You really can't help but smile at them as they are very adorable :)

It's hard to think of our Detectives as being 5 weeks old today, particularly when I compare their weights to those of the Water Babies. Yet when I watch the Detectives play, it is very evident that yes, they are this old because they all do everything that they should be doing at this age. One thing I am relieved about is that not once today have any of the Detectives gone underneath their kitten box. They were doing this yesterday and it was really worrying me, particularly as their box is not very high off the ground and I did have visions of them getting stuck but each time I've gone into their room, when they were sleeping they were all in their own kitten box. We've had a couple of little accidents with the Detectives and the litter trays. On the whole, they are extremely good, however, we still have the odd time when they just don't make it to the tray in time and I am finding little nuggets on the floor, halfway between the bed and they tray. They are getting there though and considering their age, and the fact that they are using the large, hooded trays, I am quite pleased with how their litter training has gone.