For some reason, the older the babies get, the less there is to tell. Our Charmed Ones were wormed again today and fortunately, there was very little mess or protest about it all. Last night, we left the kitten room door open all night so the girls could go and sleep wherever they wanted all night. I was thinking that they might keep us awake with all their running about and playing, but they were as good as gold. At the moment they are all asleep in the lounge room so it is peaceful as even Tia is asleep which means no screaming. The babies no longer want to stay behind closed doors any more now when they come downstairs. If I put them in the room down here with me, they just sit and the door and cry to be let out to have the run of the place. It's even impossible to try and get in and out of the door now because as soon as I open it the slightest bit, the babies come zooming over and go out the door straight into the lounge room before I can stop them. The girls are very interested in what goes on out in the great outdoors, particularly now that I have a tendency to open up the door to the cat run every day so Tia and Cacao can go into the cat run and get some fresh air. I think the little ones don't understand why there's a barrier there and they can't go out as well.

A rather short entry today as there actually is nothing to tell! The babies spent most of the day downstairs today and I have decided that from now on in, they won't be shut in the kitten room of an evening. The kitten door will be left open so they can choose where they'd like to sleep, although the popular place appears to be the bathroom. Let me assure you, when one gets up to go to the toilet during the day/night, it's rather disconcerting to suddenly see 16 eyes all looking at you! Still haven't had any more 1 kilogram milestones but I'm sure it won't be too far away. Their mother is still screaming her head off night and day! I gave her some Rescue Remedy to try and calm her down a bit yesterday but unfortunately it made no difference at all. It will be a relief when my vet gets back from holidays and I can speak with him about her. I won't be going down the road of giving her Ovarid as I don't personally believe in that, but by the same token she can not go on calling like she's been doing. It's been 3 weeks of solid calling now with not a day's break so somewhere down the line a decision will have to be made. I don't want to mate her again straight away as I really do want her to have a break from babies, even though she has done an absolutely astounding job and there were no problems with the birth. Still, we'll see what happens......

Not a great start to the day today. Poor Graham was woken at 5am!!!! by Sabre who was stressing at 5am because Amaretto and Ice were having an extremely loud disagreement. Then we had no coffee in the house, so a trip down the road which only served to show that our local shops aren't open before 8am. Thank goodness we always have fresh coffee in the house. A few hours later I dropped a photo frame which had cat certificates in it and smashed the glass. And all this, before our kitten owners were due to turn up. Anyway, it was wonderful to meet Mark, Louise and Jade, who will be Paige & Piper's new owners. They are really lovely people and we had a lovely visit with them, showing off our babies and our cats. Fortunately, the Charmed Ones were well behaved, although their mum, Tia, was rolling around all over the place like the little tart that she is. Pru and Paige were both ganging up on mum this morning in the bathroom. Paige was attacking Tia from the front, while Pru kept pouncing on Tia's tail. They were having quite a lot of fun until Tia smacked them both and then walked away. All babies have just finished a meal of sardines and some Gourmet Gold and are some are now exploring the lounge room again (both mums are up in the kitten room) whilst others are sleeping off their lunch. At least it's peaceful for the time being. I had to send the Charmed Ones registration paperwork back in this week because over the last week or so, Paige has suddenly gotten a great deal darker and she is in fact a seal tortie, not a blue as I had originally thought. Naturally, I had already registered her as a blue, so all the documents had to be sent back to amend the colouring. Serves me right for registering them so early :) So at 9 weeks of age I can now verify that Paige is a Seal Tortie, Piper is a Seal Tortie, Pru is a Blue Tortie and Phoebe is a Lilac Tortie Tabby and didn't I feel rather stupid when I sent an email off to Mark to explain that his kitten had "changed colour overnight"! There's no pics yet but hopefully I'll get some online later on today.

A milestone last night! Piper was the first of our girls to reach 1 kilogram (just over in fact). I think the other 3 will make it to the kilo mark as well this week. Now that our Charmed Ones are getting older, I have started separating them from Tia for a little while each afternoon. The reason for this is to give Tia a bit of a break and to give the Charmed Ones some more independence and freedom. They don't seem to miss mum very much during this time, usually because they are either fast asleep or they are too busy playing games with each other to worry about what "mum" is doing. The babies aren't too happy with this cold snap that arrived a few days ago and are often seen sleeping under the radiators, as opposed to in their carriers like they used to. All the girls are now down to 4 "wet" meals a day now, they are fed first thing in the morning, then at lunch time, then at approximately 4pm, and dinner at about 8pm. There's still the odd time where if they are still awake and playing at around 11pm I will go downstairs and make them a late supper before settling them off to sleep. They had put their mice under the ottoman again last night because when I went in this morning to feed them and tidy the kitten room, there wasn't a mouse in sight.

There's no photos at all yet today because I put the camera batteries on charge last night and forgot to turn the power point on! Obviously when I went to take them out of the charger today, they were still dead so I'm currently sitting here waiting for them to finish charging so I can take some pics later on this afternoon. When I weighed our girls last night I realised that by the time I weigh them again tonight, Piper should have reached the 1 kilogram mark! The other 3 aren't far off that either. The girls were a bit upset this morning as their little "mice" went missing. After much searching through the upstairs of the house I finally located them underneath the ottoman where the babies had obviously put them, but were then unable to get them out. The Charmed Ones enjoyed a lovely run around the downstairs of the house this afternoon, and hubby was rather surprised (not sure why) that the girls can now get on top of the dining table. Whilst I was down the road, he tells me that they were having a great time running and chasing each other across the table. Their colours are really starting to come out now and develop a lot more and it really is amazing the way they all seem to change so much each week. Every single girl now all has the same tendency to purr as their mum and they all love cuddles and sitting on our laps. The girls are fascinated by our chinchillas who have a run in the cat run every afternoon. All 4 girls sat on top of their cat carriers and their box just watching through the glass at the Chins running around and chasing each other outside. I hate to tell you all but I have now raided all your kitten bags and took your mice back out of them for the babies, but don't panic, I will replace them before it's time for you to collect your little ones to take home.

Well I'm really pleased to say that we have had no side effects whatsoever due to the Leukemia jab yesterday. All 4 Charmed Ones have been bouncing around and eating as per normal. I'm also very happy to see there there is no redness or lumps on the backs of any of their necks as a result of the injection so as per normal, our girls cope really well with anything that happens to them. Their latest favourite toys are some little toy mice that I had bought. Originally I bought a little mouse for all new owners to take home and had bought some spare ones for my own babies. However, it looks like I'll be replacing the new owner's mice with a different toy as there simply aren't enough mice to go around the 8 babies :) They love them so much that whenever some of them are playing with the mice, the others follow them around trying to take the mice of them. I think I'll be raiding all the owners kitten packs tonight and taking out the mice so that each baby has one of their own :) Their weight gains are still going really well but I'm not surprised at that to be honest as they are all such good eaters. The new owners will be happy to know that the Charmed Ones registration papers came back today so I guess it's time I looked at getting the girl's paperwork all in order.

Well our Charmed Ones have now had their first set of vaccines and so far, so good. At this point in time, I must thank my fabulous vet, Andy Garton, for his wonderful care of all the Schimmel cats as well as the Schimmel babies. He does a super job in looking after my fur kids and he always takes the time to listen as well as offer good advice. I'll be keeping a very close eye on our babies for the next 24-48 hours but so far so good. They all had lunch at about 1pm and all ate like little piggies so the vaccine hasn't affected their appetite which is a good sign. They did sleep for a little while after getting home, but that is also perfectly normal. As I write this, they are all wide awake, have taken over my chair and are fighting with each other whilst they try to go to sleep all at the same time, (I'm using my daughter's chair) so things are looking good. There's not really any photos yet, but I will take some much later today and will add them in here tomorrow.