We are 10 weeks old now!

Note for all kitten families: Now that our babies have had their first set of vaccinations, I can give you a definite date when they can leave us. Their 2nd set of vaccinations will be administered on January 9, 2007, which means that the Trotters can leave home from January 13, 2007 onwards. There are still no photos in either of today's kitten diaries as today was "Vaccination Day" and with 9 kittens to be vaccinated, as you can imagine, it's lot of fun and games trying to get organised.

To say that the Trotters surprised me during the vet visit today was a total understatement. This was the first time since using our new veterinary surgery that we have seen someone other than Jo, the Practice Owner, and you can imagine my delight when Claire and I were chatting as I discovered that it was Claire who assisted in the Trotter's birth (remembering the C-Section of course) and it is thanks to Claire and Jo, that we have our 4 beautiful babies. I did think, that as we are still going through the socialisation process with them, that the would have been rather nervous at the vets, but that was not the case at all. In fact, all 4 babies were beautifully behaved and there was not a squeal from any of them as their temperatures were taken, nor when the vaccination was given. They all stood there quietly and were not phased at all by any of it. I really am incredibly proud of our Trotters. This was the first time they had ever been away from home and they were not bothered at all that Claire, a total stranger to them, was handling them and examining them. All 4 of our Trotters were given a clean bill of health which, as always, is quite a big relief as you can imagine. They were very pleased to arrive home though, particularly when within minutes of being out of the carrier, they were given a meal of scrambled eggs, pilchards and Hi Life, which they all tucked into as if they had been starved for months. After their meal, they had some games of chase and explore, and then everyone settled down for a nap which is what they would normally do at this time of afternoon, but so far, all is looking good but as per usual, we will be monitoring them quite closely for the next 48 hours to ensure that there are no side effects to the vaccines.

Both diary entries are exactly the same today.

Many apologies for not really getting an entry online today. It has been one of those days, so much so, that I cancelled the vet appointment but I'm hoping to get there tomorrow instead. I don't seem to have had a spare moment to get another done apart from cooking for the babies/cats and cleaning. It didn't help that I didn't sleep particularly well the night before, aided by Franjelico and Ashanti, both of whom think it is tremendous fun to use me as a springboard at ridiculous hours of the morning while they play their games of chase around the bedroom. I am hoping tomorrow will be a much more normal day and we can have an entry with actual photos.

Jill was going to come to visit her fur child, Racquel today, however, Jill is not well at all, so we will rearrange her visit for another day. In the meantime, we all hope she is feeling much better soon. The Trotters still had some cuddles and attention though from Lynda, Andrew and Robin who were here to visit Baccarat as she will be joining their family in January. Bringing the Trotters downstairs has really done them the world of good as already, they are much more confident than there were a week ago and they are now comfortable enough in Graham's room to go tearing around all over the place and climbing up on the table and Graham's work surface, knocking everything over in their wake. They have also now seen our other cats and kittens through the screen door and whilst Trigger is very curious about them and not phased at all, Rodney does his Basil Brush impression and growls at the other babies and adults through the door. He then looks rather surprised at the fact that no one growls back, and just look at him with bemusement. I think when they come out of Graham's room and meet the rest of the family properly it is going to be very interesting to say the least.

Just like the Gamblers, the Trotters have been absolute angels this morning. I am totally surprised, because after breakfast, they all curled up on the chair and went to sleep. You honestly can't imagine the peace. The only time they moved was when I went into Graham's room to hoover, and then they woke up fairly quickly and thought it best to take cover under Graham's desk and under the table to get away from the nasty hoover. I always find it fascinating that when you consider I hoover every room, every single morning, from the day the babies are first born, yet there are still some babies who are petrified of the hoover. Now I could expect that from Lusso's babies as she is terrified of the hoover, but Toussaint is not bothered by the hoover at all. She is one of those cats, like Ashanti, that I have to move out of the way in order to be able to vacuum. The Trotters also had some visitors today because what I'm doing at the moment is making everyone who comes to the home to also say hello to the Trotters because as you know, we are working on their socialisation skills, or lack thereof :) So they had some strokes from Alison and Trevor, as well as from Karl, our daughter's friend. We're at the stage where at the moment, the Trotters no longer run away when strangers approach them, so long as they are approached quietly and gently, but so far, so good.

I don't know what the weekend situation will be with regards to photos in the kitten diaries as we have a full weekend of kitten families visiting because this is the last weekend we will be having anyone here until after Christmas as we are going to have a bit of a break ourselves.

Our Trotters are still familiarising themselves with being in Graham's room, but as each day passes, they are becoming more and more confident, and, more importantly, more friendly! We have had issues with these babies with regards to socialisation, as their new families can attest, however, we're now working on correcting this so that by the time they leave, they will no longer be growly, scary balls of fluff when people pick them up. One thing about them though is that they make photo session time very difficult and I spend more time lying on the floor trying to take photos of them than I do anything else. They are doing incredibly well though and are nice, big, beautiful, healthy babies and on Monday afternoon, they have been booked into the vet's for their first set of vaccinations which should hopefully go very well.

I'm relieved to say that the Trotters are adapting much, much better to being downstairs today. By the end of yesterday, they had gone totally nutty, were not happy at all with their new environment and it got to the stage where they were growling at each other and their own mother which did make me laugh. Graham and Mo were horrified but I had been expecting it because up until this point in their lives, apart from visits by their kitten families, I am the only person in the home who actually has anything to do with them. But today, they have been so much calmer, they have been exploring everywhere, playing games, and no longer run away whenever Graham or Mo move around the room so I'm really pleased with their progress as I actually thought it might take a little longer than it seems to be.

At long last our Trotters made it into Graham's room as you can see by the photos below and it's about time really as they are 9 weeks of age today. As soon as I had fed all the babies, checked my emails and had a cup of coffee, I went upstairs to the kitten room, bundled the 4 Trotters into a cat carrier and brought them downstairs. I then left the carrier in Graham's room so that they had somewhere to retreat for security purposes if they felt it necessary. One thing that did surprise me was that none of the Trotters seemed bothered by Sabre, our large dog, who was also in Graham's room and I had been fully expecting them to be very apprehensive of her, yet even Rodney was cautiously walking close to Sabre, and around her, while he was exploring. I also brought some of their toys downstairs from the kitten room so they would have items that were familiar to them. Now that I have done this, and made a start on the diary entry, I shall finish the litter trays and do the floors, have another coffee and hopefully by then I can take some photos for the diary entries! By the time I had finished all the morning chores and tried to take photos, all of the babies were settling down for a nap so I'm afraid there are no "exploring" photos at all.