We are 7 weeks old now!

Most other breeders are happy to supply their babies with balls and other lovely toys. Here at Schimmel, we just give ours a toothbrush :) As you can see, the toothbrush is still featuring quite highly in the Trotters' lives and at this rate, I will end up placing the toothbrush around the plate to eat with everyone else! I have given up taking it out of the room because Toussaint then goes searching for it and doesn't give up until she has found it and put it back in bed. As you can tell, we don't do "normal" when it comes to Schimmel cats and kittens :) I am really delighted to say that so far, up until 1300, all 4 of the Trotters have been out of their kitten room and tearing around the hallway and bathroom upstairs which does please me. One thing I've noticed in the last few sets of photos though, is that Trigger and Rodney's names really do suit them. If you look back, you will see in a lot of the photos that Rodney and Trigger are fairly lazy, dozy sort of guys and spend more time bed than out of it, whereas Racquel and Del Boy are constantly on the go, which again, is very apt considering their names.

When I went into the kitten room first thing this morning I could not believe the mess that the Trotters had made. There were dry biscuits all over the floor. Litter had been tracked from the litter tray to the other end of the room, books were out of the bookshelf, and one of the cat carriers was on the floor. Goodness only knows what sort of parties they had been having all night and I wouldn't mind so much if they were to clean up the mess themselves, but that is too much to ask of course. Yet again, despite having the kitten room door open all day, no one bothered to venture too far out of the kitten room, except for Toussaint whom, unfortunately, I think is about to come back into call as she has been walking up and down the stars all day long with a toy in her mouth, howling at the top of her voice.

I do plan on having photos in tomorrow's entries as per normal. I have honestly spent most of today trying to catch up because as you know, we weren't here yesterday and that does tend to put me very behind in everything I must do. We also had kitten family visit us today which was great, and even now, it's 1748 and I'm still trying to get the washing done and the diary entries online. (what there is of the entries anyway). Our Trotters coped extremely well without us yesterday, and as we weren't here all day, they did not have whole upstairs access and were confined to their room for the day but it doesn't appear to have done any of them any harm whatsoever which is a relief. The more they mature, the more troublesome these children are going to become and the more their personalities are developing. I still can't quite believe the size of these babies and am extremely curious as to how large they will be when they are fully grown adult cats. As I said, it's quite late in the day, and not much of an entry at all and I'm feeling rather shattered, but hopefully tomorrow, things will be more normal................is there ever such a thing as "normal" in this home? :)

There is no diary entry today as we have not been here for the majority of the day. Instead, we visited the biggest GCCF cat show in the country, The Supreme. We've not even been to the Supreme before as we were always too far away but now that we have moved it is much closer and easier to get to. Champion Schimmel Sun Chaser and Schimmel Mazpahs Castana had an enjoyable day out with pleasing results.

I absolutely must tell you this because I have been meaning to for a couple of days now but keep forgetting. It's actually about Toussaint and a toothbrush, so not really about the Trotters, but then it might be about the Trotters when you consider they will all inherit an awful lot of their mum's traits :) As you know, the door to the kitten room has been open so Toussaint and the kids can come and go as they please (must remember to tell you what the Trotters did last night too actually after this little story) and so far only Toussaint had been out of the room. Well 3 days ago, our daughter went into the kitten room, I think to put some bedding away, but can't remember, and next thing I heard was an extremely indignant shout of "That's my toothbrush!". I peered into the room to see our daughter rescuing her toothbrush from the kitten bed. Toussaint had obviously wandered into the bathroom and decided she like the look of Mo's toothbrush, for whatever reason, and took it out of it's holder and put it in bed with the babies. So here's me wetting myself laughing while Mo storms out of the room, with her toothbrush, to thoroughly clean it. Then yesterday, when I went up to the kitten room, and the first thing I spotted in bed with the babies was Mo's toothbrush............again! So I had a bit of a giggle, returned it to the bathroom, and then during dinner last night Graham asked who was the new toothbrush for that was in the kitchen (I had just come back from Tesco's, so I had to explain that Toussaint kept stealing Mo's and putting it with the babies so I bought a new one. Mo was then rather annoyed I think when I explained Toussaint had taken her toothbrush yet again, so I suggested she keep her new toothbrush in the cupboard :) I will admit I was laughing the entire time, which is actually probably what annoyed her. I tell you, it is extremely difficult for the families of cat breeders because to me, one of our cats stealing a toothbrush is not only normal behaviour, but quite funny, whereas quite often, family members can't quite see the humour in the cat's little idiosyncrasies :) :) :) Now as for the Trotters and last night, well I took the ironing up at about 6pm to put it away, and as I rounded the corner towards the top of the stairs, here was all 4 Trotters, out of their room! They were having the time of their life exploring the upstairs part of the home, they were in the bathroom, and running across the landing. I was really pleased that they had finally left the room of their own accord and were willing to explore. I guess it was just extremely unfortunate that they had left it so late and I herded them all back into the kitten room and closed the door because it was time for the Gamblers to move back upstairs for the evening.

Do you remember last week where I made mention of the Trotters' weights? Well no one actually thought to tell me that I didn't actually say what their weights were. I tell you I have totally lost the plot :) I will give you last nights' weigh in and this will certainly show you just what big babies these Trotters are going to be. Last night, when they reached Day 43, their weights were:

Del Boy	820 grams
Racquel	721 grams
Rodney	740 grams
Trigger	722 grams

Normally, our large babies get these genes from our boys' side and both of our boys have lines that are renowned for throwing large cats, however, this time around is it a combination of the lines behind Sheridans as well as the lines behind Toussaint because she is a very tall, very long girl. The Trotters had a visit today from Del Boy's new family. Fortunately, the babies weren't too badly behaved :) Del Boy even allowed himself to have a cuddle with his new mummy, although at first, he was extremely rude and didn't hesitate to show his new mum how bad tempered he could be :) We also talked about the possibility of maybe showing Del Boy and I was saying how none of our kitten families ever actually intend to show their kittens, but once they broach the subject, and we have a chat about showing, it's not long before the kitten families see that I am right, and it is a really fun day out :) Of course the one thing you have to be careful of is not to become too addicted to showing, as our darling Caryll has with her beautiful girl, Gr Pr Schimmel Chilli Tequila. I think that the lovely Kyla has more rosettes and certificates than all of our own cats put together :) The thing about showing, if you're doing it for the first time, make sure your breed is at the same show so they can help you, and once you start showing, you end up at the same shows with the same people and wonderful friendships form. We are always lucky enough to be at the same shows as some of our kitten families and we all just have a great day out and have the pleasure of seeing our fur children's relations which is great. Now that I have totally bored everyone to tears with the wonders of showing, I'll carrying on with what is left of this kitten diary :) I know I am saying this constantly but I am just so thrilled with the progress of the Trotters. When you consider the current problems I am having with the Gamblers, to then have another "easy" litter, really does make such a big difference. Again today the kitten room door has been open all day long, but the only fur person to venture out of the kitten room was Toussaint.

Entries are not particularly long today and there also isn't much in the way of photos. It is hectic today as we've been in and out and there is quite a lot going on.

At 6 weeks of age, our Trotters are progressing beautifully with no problems whatsoever. I have had the door open to the kitten room all day today but not a single Trotter ventured downstairs. Racquel went out of the kitten room and was having lots of fun exploring the upstairs landing but she was really the only baby who was interested in leaving the safety of the kitten room. Toussaint on the other hand, was more than happy to come down the stairs and sit on the bottom step howling to be let out to join the rest of the family. As you can see, I have still done nothing with regards to bringing the babies downstairs into Graham's room although it is at the back of my mind as it has to be done fairly soon now.