We are 9 weeks old now!

Prior to typing today's kitten diaries, we would like to congratulate Linz and Martin on Tifa's fantastic show results and we would like to congratulate Julie and Andy on Mimi's fantastic show results today. Please Click Here to view the girls' results.

Poor Morse is not having a very good day today. He fell in the water bowl when he was being chased by Pecan and he was really not a happy boy at all, not even when I dried him off. Then when he was trying to have a snooze in the bed on the scratch post, the Nuts decided that was the time to play their rough games. All Morse wanted to do was sleep and when he saw that was not possible, he was slinking around the back of the bed, trying to stay out of the way and also trying to get out of the bed. Each time he tried, either Macadamia or Pecan grabbed him and started "strangling" him. In the end I had to rescue him as he really had just had enough. I can't say that I blame him because those Nuts are incredibly boisterous children and Morse, being younger, is a lot smaller than them. Miss Marple has gone back to toe biting, whilst Nancy Drew has gone back to springing out at me from various places in the kitten room so it is safe to say that the Detectives are keeping me on my toes. Sherlock has been very well behaved today, and has just been his happy, playful little self. When Ock was at her lowest, Sherlock was quite distressed because he is very fond of Ock and they would often be seen together, and even now, he keeps going up to her to see if she is "okay" which is so very sweet of him.

Diaries today are very short, due to our battle with Ock, but at least there are photos, albeit "sleepy" ones.

The Detectives have done their utmost to make my life difficult today. With Ock and Heston at the moment, I am up and down the stairs every hour, and each time I go up and down, the Detectives are right there, on the stairs, or in front of the doorways, playing, or trying to "grab" me as I walk/ run past them. Normally, yes I do think this is very sweet and quite funny, but not today. Still there's nothing you can do though, they are babies and that is what babies are like :)

There are no kitten diaries today. Please read the Water Babies' kitten diary for an explanation.

It has been one of those days whereby every time I have attempted to start today's kitten diaries, my attention has been drawn elsewhere and as a result, it is now 1612 and I am only now just starting to type the entries. This means unfortunately there are no photos in any of today's diaries and all I have really done is just scribble a few lines. We have 2 of our older Oriental Black kittens leaving home tomorrow which meant I had to spend a minimum 2 hours doing their paperwork and preparing for them to leave. Tomorrow, there WILL be photos, one way or another :)

Nancy Drew is a very lucky little girl as her mum and dad, Nicky and Karl came to visit her today. Nancy Drew made it perfectly clear exactly what she thought of her daddy by settling down in his lap and refusing to budge at all. She may well end up being a Daddy's Girl I think. It was so lovely to see Nicky and Karl again, we both adore them, and thank you so much for Jag's treats (which is very happy about) and for the gingerbread which we are planning to have tonight when things calm down a bit and we can enjoy it in peace and quiet :) Nicky and Karl have chosen a very pretty name for Nancy Drew which really suits her. For the majority of the visit, she was extremely calm and well behaved but towards the end, she starting prancing around and playing chase with the other babies. As for the rest of our Detectives, well they are doing extremely well, even little Sherlock is holding his own, although he still has an awful lot of growing to do. As it stands at the moment, Sherlock does not have a new mummy or daddy waiting for him. I am waiting to see whether or not he catches up to the rest of his siblings before even contemplating finding him a home. I have no doubts that he will be just fine, but I do want to be sure. I do feel a bit sorry for him though because the other babies have their new families to come and visit and poor Sherlock has no one which is incredibly sad. I think, from now on, whenever anyone else visits, they will have to spend a few minutes having cuddles with him because I do not want him to feel left out. He is such a happy, playful little soul and I can't imagine what must go through his mind when sees people coming in and cuddling everyone else but him :( As you can imagine, he does get quite a bit of extra attention from me to make up for it.

As per usual, I took photos of our younger 2 litters first, and then by the time I went to take photos of the Water Babies, the Nuts and the Detectives, I had taken just 2 photos of Pecan and the flippin' camera batteries died. I now have them on charge but that will take a while so I don't know whether or not I will get any other photos in today's kitten diaries for these 3 litters.

Our Detectives are causing me quite a few problems when it comes to the 2nd kitten room that the Chef's and the Ray J's reside in. Every single time I enter their room, or try to leave it, the Detectives are right there at my heels, trying their hardest to get in. Let me assure you, when you are carrying towels, milk mixture, syringes etc. it's very difficult to stop them getting in without dropping everything. The problem is that our Detectives are extremely fast little babies and on more than one occasion today I've had to put everything down rather rapidly to scoop up the babies and put them on the other side of the door. I know that neither Sambuca nor Amaretto would mind about the babies going in there, however, we are at such a crucial stage with our Chef's and I can't afford to have any of our older children in the room at all. Not than I can blame the Detectives for wanting to go in there because they are such curious little souls and are so desperate to know what is going on behind the closed door, particularly when they can sometimes hear some of the young babies in the room.

Our Detectives really are absolute little cherubs, very mischievous, but totally wonderful. As each day passes they are becoming more and more like little kittens and all 4 of our babies have the most expressive eyes that just seem to see straight through to your heart. They have only been downstairs once today, preferring instead to create havoc in their own room. The mess that greeted me in the kitten room this morning was rather bad. I don't know what our babies had been doing overnight but there was kitten biscuits, cat litter, toys, paper, anything that isn't pinned down or too heavy to move was strewn throughout the entire room. Goodness only knows who was responsible. Miss Marple has now gone 3 days without nipping my toes, for which I am very grateful, however she has now discovered that if she climbs up onto the small cupboard that sits on the work surface, she can pick up my pen, drop it on the floor, and then try to bat it around the room. I would like to discourage her from doing this because it's the only pen I have in that room and it can make weighing sessions rather difficult if I don't have anything to write with :)

Entries are not the longest today and there aren't many photos sorry. I'm still trying to catch up after our lady's long labour and also today I had the pleasure of Diana's company for a little while as she came to visit her 2 babies. Having Diana in the home is like having part of the family here and it was nice to just take a bit of a break and sit down, chat and do nothing at all :)

Our Detectives, just like the Water Babies, and the Nuts, have now started venturing downstairs. They are so funny when they come down because their eyes open up as wide as they can in surprise at suddenly having found "another" world. Even little Sherlock has popped his head through the kitten door and taken a few steps in the front hallway. Bless him, he is such a tiny little soul, but never let it be said that size gets in the way if he wants to do something. I did have intentions of sharing our babies' weights with you today but will end up having to do that tomorrow I think as I've not calculated anything at the moment and already it's 1434 and I still have 2 more diaries to type and a Tesco trip to fit. I am pleased though with our Detectives progress for 8 weeks of age. They are all progressing quite well, and all of them, except for Sherlock, eat the James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits which I am really pleased about.