Poor Athos had a little accident today. He had climbed the carpet covered cylinder stand (not a large one) and was sitting on the top and as I turned around to look at him, I was just in time to see him fall off, flat on his face :( He wasn't hurt but Tia Maria and I were in a state of panic thinking he was. It was a race to see who got to him first actually. I picked him up, and checked him over and kissed him and put him back on the cat bed to see what he would do. He sat there quietly for a couple of minutes, snuggling up to Sambuca and then went for a little walk and went to the litter tray and then went back to the bed. It appears that no harm was done thank goodness. Tia and I can certainly do without moments like that! Some good news though is that my Aramis was spotted this morning eating dry kitten biscuits :) The first of our Musketeers to do so and I'm really pleased about this. Hopefully she will encourage D'Artagnan to do the same as he still is not interested in any food other than his mum's milk. All Three Musketeers are now able to climb up into the CD rack which is not something that I particularly like them to do and there is nothing in the room that is safe from them now. They go absolutely everywhere and Tia is kept very busy running around in circles trying to keep track of them.

Our Three Musketeers now spend all of their waking time climbing over everything in the back room, running about all over the place and driving Tia Maria barmy. Aramis in particular is a bit of a nightmare because she will wander about, then suddenly stop and scream and scream so Tia goes rushing over to her, grooms her, picks her up and takes her back to bed and with 10 seconds, Aramis is off and running again and does the same thing! It reminds me of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf". At the moment, it's a bit of a struggle to tell Aramis and Athos apart as they are rather similar in looks. D'Artagnan stands out a lot more as he has this massive wide head and low ears, whereas the other 2 are more more balanced in looks. D'Artagnan still won't eat the weaning mixture and just has no interest in it at all. Nothing will convince him to eat it. Our main exciting news is that yesterday afternoon, we had our first ever little "wee" in the litter tray, by Aramis, which was rather pleasing. When I see the babies scratching about on their bed as if they want to go to the toilet, I now pick them up and put them straight in the litter tray where they proceed to go so at least they are getting the hang of it now which is quite nice.

As stated in the Planets diary, it's a rather short entry today due to lack of time however, even a short entry is better than none at all. I had to smile at the babies last night because of 3 Musketeers discovered the little blue carpet covered pyramid and all three of them climbed it and thought it was such great fun. They've also discovered the carpet covered cylinder/stand and have been darting in and out of there much to the annoyance of their mum. Tia Maria (just like I thought) has not adapted well to her babies' exploratory antics and and soon as they make it to the other side of the room, she picks them up and drags, not carries, them back to the bed. Naturally, as soon as she lets them go, they're off and running again so Tia is getting rather a lot of exercise at the moment.

The Three Musketeers had their big move today and they spent the first 15 minutes, walking around the room crying which obviously did not make Tia Maria very happy. However, Tia was soon distracted as I had the back door to the cat run open (the barrier was up so the kittens couldn't wander out) and as soon as Ice saw Tia Maria, he started singing to her. She in turn started singing back <groan>. After about 1/2 hour I shut the door as I really don't want her distracted from the babies. She then did eventually settle down to feed them which was a relief for Sambuca because while Tia was busy calling to Ice and sniffing everything in the back room, poor Sami was feeding everyone. This isn't a particularly long entry today because now that the babies are out of the kitten room, I have to go upstairs and totally clean it out so that I have it ready in preparation should I need to put any of our cats in there for a night.

Why is it that weaning is never the same from one day until the next? I do love it when the babies get to that stage where you can put a plate of food down and they all come scrambling over to eat it. When I first started weaning the Three Musketeers, Aramis wouldn't touch the food, Athos tucked in like there was no tomorrow and D'Artagnan also loved it. That was only a few days ago. Now............D'Artagnan won't touch the food for love nor money, Athos eats it, but now has to lick it off my fingers first before he'll eat from the saucer. Aramis however will now go straight to the saucer and gobble up the food that she hated only a few days ago <sigh>. Still, one good thing is that Aramis and Athos now both eat from the saucer at the exact same time which means that I don't have to pick up one baby, feed him, then when he's finished, pick up another baby, feed her and then try with the other one. So that is very good progress. I just need to convince D'Artagnan now that eating really is a good idea. If I can get all 3 eating from the plate at the same time, it will be a massive help because then while they eat, I can concentrate on weaning the Planets. Still, Rome was never built in a day :) The Musketeers now have a new game called "When mummy opens the door, let's run out". This game absolutely horrifies Tia Maria who is, as always, over protective. I now have to be so careful when I open the door. By the time I get upstairs and to the door, the Musketeers are sitting just on the other side ready and waiting. They always hear me coming up the stairs. Graham is always saying how is it that someone so tiny (meaning me) can sound like an elephant up and down the stairs so I guess it must be true. Let me assure you, trying to get through the door, balancing plates, mixtures and syringes whilst trying to keep the Musketeers in is no mean feat. So far I've been successful but that won't last long. It's for this reason (as well as the fact that it will make my life easier) that the babies will be moving downstairs on Thursday to the back room.

The poor little Musketeers had to wait an extra half hour this morning for their first meal. I had put their food (mashed up kitten biscuits) in a container on top of the microwave, and when I went to heat up the milk mixture and put the biscuit mixture on a saucer, I was surprised to see that there was no biscuit container. I had a quick search of the kitchen, still nothing. This meant that I had to get another cupful, boil the kettle and mash them up (about 1/2 hour usually does it) so they had breakfast a bit later. I did find out afterwards that when Graham had fed the Herbs, however, he gave them the Musketeers food instead of their own. Well actually, he mixed the both together and then fed it to the Herbs. It won't do the Herbs any harm at all, but I could have done without it :) I'm pleased to say that Aramis has finally got the hang of eating from a saucer, mind you, this was after she had bitten my finger twice and spilt the kitten mixture down my leg. Once she started eating though, there was no stopping her so I'm really pleased. Hopefully, the more of the kitten mixture they eat, the less they will feed of Tia and the milk there will be for Neptune and Mars. The Musketeers are still all extremely active and at least 4 times a day, one of them will wander off behind/under the sofa and get "lost". Tia Maria and I take it in turns to rescue them. When she hears them, she will look up at me and if I'm not feeding someone, or if I'm close to the sofa I'll rescue them, other times, she looks to see if I'm busy and if so, she will then sigh, get up slowly and retrieve her baby.

At 4 weeks of age, our Three Musketeers are starting to drive their "mum's" a bit crazy, particularly D'Artagnan and Aramis Both of whom are definite explorers and as soon as they are awake, they are running around all over the room. When I enter the kitten room now, the majority of the babies all come straight over to me to see what I have for them which is really great as I do love being greeted by tiny babies. Athos while still incredibly naughty is a bit of a "mummy's boy" as he is never far from one of the mum's. This may change though because the personalities that they start to develop at this time of their lives aren't always the same personalities that they still have at 13 weeks of age. With regards to talking, Aramis is definitely the loudest of the babies, although all 3 of them talk to me if I pick them up. Weaning is going slowly but surely, although Aramis is still not particularly keen but it is early days and I'm not worried about it. We'll just keep going with it and see what happens. Trying to take photos of them this morning was impossible because they just do not ever stay still long enough and as for trying to figure out who is who in the photos, your guess is as good as mine although in real life, I know them just by picking them up.