Day 48 - May 15, 2005

All three of our Musketeers can now reach the work surface. They do this by either jumping from the scratch post onto the chair, and then onto the work surface, or they jump straight from the floor onto the back of the chair, clawing their way up it until the are where they want to be. I wouldn't mind so much except at the moment my desk is still covered in paperwork, most of which I still have to sort through and most of which is rather important and can't be destroyed by little teeth. The other problem is that the smaller of the Planets have been watching the Musketeers intently as they do this and they are trying to follow suit, almost succeeding. This worries me as they are much smaller than the Musketeers and I have visions of babies falling from the work surface. I think tonight I shall move the chairs away from the desk and hopefully the Musketeers won't be able to reach. At this stage, Aramis is definitely the most mischievous out of the babies and is always the first one to do something she shouldn't. Her brothers though, are not slow in following in her footsteps and all three of them together leave a trail of destruction wherever they have been.

Day 47 - May 14, 2005

This entry starts off the same as the Planet's entry as most of my day was spent in the back yard mowing the jungle so I wasn't with the babies much today. I simply must ask this question though. If any of you who are reading this diaries know where I can buy a replacement metal blade for a Challenge petrol mower, can you please email me? I'd really appreciate it. The Three Musketeers have not been happy with me as the door to the back room has been shut since Friday so they haven't been able to run throughout the house as they normally do. The reason for this is that a couple of our adult cats were due for vaccination and were done on Friday and I can't have the babies who are unvaccinated in contact with the adults who have just had their boosters. As a result, they've been voicing their disapproval of their sudden confinement by systematically destroying the back room and making as much mess as possible.

Day 46 - May 13, 2005

The Musketeers are making my life very difficult as far as the kitchen is concerned. Since yesterday lunchtime, every single time I open the kitchen door they run in there, and as soon as I put one out, another runs in. They can't get under the cupboards or fridges etc. in the kitchen so they are safe in there but that really is beside the point. I must admit though to giggling (just a little) because to my babies, this is a fun game to see who can get the furthest before being caught by mum. I did think that by have the door leading into the back room permanently open, they would be more concerned with exploring the house than running into the kitchen but it hasn't been working out that way. They are enjoying their forays throughout the house though and have no fear of Sabre, our large dog at all and this does surprise me because she is so massive and they are more than happy to go up to her and check her out, yet when Sheridans enters the back room (which he does a lot), one growl from him and they all go running. Go figure! Poor Tia Maria now has her work cut out for her because every time the babies run throughout the house, she is right on their tails, making sure they are coming to no harm and she is finding it difficult to follow babies as they all run off in different directions.

Day 45 - May 12, 2005

Just like the Planets' diary, at long last I've managed to take some semi decent photos of the Musketeers, all of whom are growing at a rather rapid rate. This is no surprise though when you consider the amount of food that they are eating every day. The babies are now enjoying their freedom of having the door opened again today, just like yesterday, however, at this stage they don't venture too far. They don't mind the other cats coming in and out, but once the Musketeers step beyond the door and come face to face with our other fur kids, they then think twice before venturing any further. What always amuses me when we get to this stage and the doors are opened is that today, just like yesterday, our other fur kids were more interested in sniffing the babies bedding, toys, and the mum's as opposed to sniffing the babies themselves. It is funny because you see while they are sniffing the bedding etc. the babies will move a bit closer to their mums and look up at mum and then look at the intruders and then snuggle a bit closer to mum. So far though, no one has had the "Basil Brush tails" or hair standing on end which is great :)

Day 44 - May 11, 2005

A rather busy day today as I have an appointment at lunchtime <groan> and visitors this afternoon so I'm trying to get the diaries online much earlier as I won't have the time later on. I've made an almost definite decision now that Aramis and D'Artagnan are both, without a doubt, tabby points whereas Athos (our little boy who isn't booked yet) would appear to be a Blue Point and not a tabby as previously thought. It's going to be very interesting over the next week or so, seeing how he does actually develop "colour wise". Athos climbed up the CD rack this morning and into the cupboard with the cassette tapes and promptly proceeded to fall out of the cupboard, onto the cylinder shape (in photos below), taking half the cassettes with him. It may not have been so bad but Aramis was on the ground near the CD rack at the time and one of the tapes fell on her head. She wasn't hurt at all, but she was certainly not too happy about the incident. Athos on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what he had done to his sister as he was a bit upset at the noise the tapes made when they hit the floor.

Day 43 - May 10, 2005

Our Musketeers have now discovered the game of playing with balls of screwed up bits of paper. They were playing with their little toy mice this morning but they weren't having a great deal of success with getting them to go where they wanted when they batted them. So I screwed up a sheet of paper into a ball and flicked it towards them. D'Artagnan jumped back so that the ball wouldn't get him, Aramis & Athos moved closer to it and Athos tentatively put out a paw to touch it and then drew his paw back. So I gave the ball another gentle flick and they started to run after it. Once the three of them reached it though, they weren't sure what to do, so I waited for a minute and they stared at it, Aramis picked it up in her mouth (she's always on the lookout for food), and then she put it back down. I flicked it again and then D'Artagnan ran after it and he batted it gently with his paw which obviously sent it across the floor. This really excited the babies and then it suddenly clicked (I love that look they get in their eyes when they figure out how something works) so the Three Musketeers were running after the ball, batting it everywhere. I left them to it to go and make a coffee and when I came back into the room a few minutes later, the ball had vanished and the Musketeers were sitting there looking bewildered. I have no idea how they managed to lose it in such a small space of time however, I gave them two more which made their day.

Day 42 - May 9, 2005 (6 weeks old today)

The Three Musketeers are now 6 weeks old and I'm going to have to look at opening up the back room door to give them the run of the whole house. I've really only been holding on until the Planets were a bit older so perhaps later on this week. They are still driving their mum's crazy which is why I think it's a good idea to give them more freedom now. They are such funny little things at this stage of their lives, exploring everything and anything that they see and they do create havoc everywhere. What's really funny is when one is concentrating on something and one of the others sneaks up behind them and scares them, then the victim jumps up in the air, the tail turns into Basil Brush and looks quite funny. However this in turn, scares the stalker when they see their brother/sister looking so odd and then they do the same thing. All that aside, they are wonderful little babies who are progressing beautifully :)