My babies are growing up :) You can always pick the day that the babies become proper little beings for the first time and that day is today. I feel very sorry for Tia because she is going to have her work cut out for her keeping the R's under control now. When I first went in the kitten room this morning, all the R's were on the bedding which is on the floor in front of the sofa. Tia obviously put them there as they didn't climb off by themselves. As I wanted to clean the floor in there, I put all the babies back in the hooded bed on the sofa. No sooner than they were back in the bed, they start coming out in full force and were doing laps of the sofa bed. I stood there watching them for ages because when those real exploratory steps are taken, it truly is just the most magical moment. Poor Tia was lying in the bed feeding some of the R's while the others were walking on the sofa, walking around the back of the cat bed so Tia was stretching her neck as far as she could to try and grab the babies that had escaped her clutches. I then sat down on the sofa which calmed her down a lot and she continued to feed the others and left me to monitor the ones who were walking around. It's wonderful that she trusts me that much that she feels she can leave the babies in my care and I do feel very honoured. I always think this time is one of the best parts of breeding.........watching the little ones become little "people" developing their own personalities and taking their first steps into the world beyond their bed. Although I've said this before, I will say again how "easy" this litter of Tia's is for me. I've had absolutely nothing to do for these babies since they were born (apart from topping up on Day 1 and Day 2) and this means that I've had a lot of time available to actually just sit in the kitten room and watch them. They are still weighed every night but that is the only time I have to get involved so to speak. Let's hope that Cacao's are the same.

As you can see by the photos below, I've gone overboard with the camera again. I really need to stop doing that as I don't really know that anyone is that interested in millions of photos of my little bundles of joy when they are actually doing nothing. I think the little R's had a bit of a shock late yesterday afternoon. I had been up in the Kitten Room cleaning it out as I do every day (it's amazing how the Kitten Room is kept in an immaculate state compared to the rest of the house!) and I came downstairs to get the cover for the sofa bed to put back on it. When I came back up with the cover, the R's and their hooded bed, was upside down on the floor. I was horrified and immediately thought the worst. As I had opened the door, I caught Tia diving off the sofa bed and running under it. I'm figuring that it could only have happened recently as I had just been up there and it was all fine. As for how it fell of, I have one of two explanations. Either the bed was sitting too close to the edge of the sofa and all the R's were at the back of the bed which made it tip over or..............Tia pushed the bed off and I truly don't believe that is the case, although she looked incredibly guilty when she slunk out from under the sofa bed. Anyway, after checking each and every single kitten, I was immensely relieved to find that they were all fine, in fact, some of there were still asleep! I've now moved the bed away from the edge and hopefully, it won't happen again. Since then, there have been no more incidents and everything is going along as per normal. When I went in the room first thing this morning I was rather pleased to see that the bed was still on the sofa and there had been no other accidents. The R's seem to definitely recognise me now which is fabulous. Tia tends to get a little annoyed with me if I pay more attention to the babies than to her. Whenever I pat the babies, she comes along and lies down in front of me and insists that I pat her and talk to her. Of course, then the babies get upset and start squealing because I'm not patting them. Looks like I could do with growing another pair of hands as one pair obviously isn't enough. As soon as I sit on the sofa and start calling them and talking to them, they all clamber straight over to me, talking back, and standing on each other in the race to see who can reach me first. Evenings are getting much more time consuming now as we have gone back to the "cat separating" which is always a bit of a hassle. At the moment, we have to put Cacao in our bedroom of an evening because she is so horrid due to be hormonal during pregnancy that I don't like to leave her with the other cats in case she terrorises them. This means putting litter trays, bowls etc. in our bedroom. Once that has been done, I then have to put the 2 boys upstairs, and the remaining girls downstairs as Ice is causing me problems. Due to the fact that he's such an eager young stud, he now thinks that if it moves, it's his to bonk!!! A couple of time now I've caught him trying to bonk my darling Drambuie who isn't even quite 5 months old yet!!! She's obviously not calling at this young age, however, I need to discourage this practice straight away, so from now onwards, Ice will not be left alone with the girls of an evening. One of these days we'll get the stud house finished and the problem will be solved!

Well I managed to get individual photos of the babies yesterday afternoon but as usual, I had to put Tia in another room while I did it. Rosie refused to cooperate, as per usual. It's not a long entry today as sorting out the photos and putting them online has been incredibly time consuming. The R's are doing really well and seem to become more aware of their surroundings every day. When I was in there talking to them this morning, little Gino, who was at the back of the bed, started crawling over to me for some gentle pats which was really lovely. In one way, I'm really impatient for them to start moving around and to explore everything, but the downside to that is when they get to that stage, that's when all the hard work starts. I was thrilled today to see Danny, Rosie and Daisy all at the front of the bed trying to climb out. I don't know where they thought they were going to, but wherever it was, they were trying really hard to get there. The babies got a lovely new toy today (photo below), although it will be another couple of weeks before they can use it! Many thanks to hubby for who put it together for me, after he had to pull it apart when I put it together the wrong way! Best keep an eye out for another cardboard box too now so I can cut holes in it and make another source of amusement for inquisitive babies. The last one I made only survived the 2 litters, which was no surprise.