Toussaint was never supposed to have been mated, however, she managed to slip past one of our kitten families who was visiting us, and by the time we realised she wasn't upstairs it was too late as Ashanti had done the deed. As per usual, just once is all it takes for Ashanti and this one off mating was no exception. Fortunately Toussaint is a young, fit and healthy lady who only had the 2 babies in her last litter and she totally sailed through this labour with very little effort.

This morning, I had done the usual chores such as feed everyone, sort out the kitchen, put the first load of washing on etc. when I heard Graham call down the stairs to me that there was a baby. It was 9:20am. I flew up the stairs to discover not only was there 1 baby, but there was 2. The 2nd was still attached and the 1st was still wet. I dried off number 1 while Toussaint dealt with baby number 2. Number 1 was Siamese, possible male, and a fairly good weight. I gave him back to Toussaint and then took baby number 2 for examining and weighing. I wasn't happy with the amount of blood on the cord for baby number 2 so I ran into the main kitten room, grabbed the dental floss and came back in and tied the cord off. This one was a slightly bigger baby, again male, but an Oriental. Both babies looked fine and we were pleased.

Toussaint was nowhere near finished so I changed the bedding, grabbed some more bits and pieces such as paper towel, extra bedding etc. I then made a cup of coffee, went back upstairs and baby number 3 was appearing. This poor baby had only just been delivered, the placenta was still inside and suddenly out popped number 4! Toussaint made this all look so very easy. To my delight, baby number 4 was an Oriental Chocolate Tabby kitten, although I don't know what pattern yet. Baby number 3 again had a cord problem so I tied off this cord as well. With this birth, I had never seen such bright red blood in the placenta's before and as each one came out, there was a lot more blood than I am normally used to seeing. Yet having said that, every single birth was remarkably clean and we did not go through anywhere near as much bedding as we normally do with our girls. Both these babies were examined and weighed and were just fine. Toussaint started to settle down with them so I changed the bedding again, came back downstairs to get her a plate of food. She ate the food, not all of it, but a decent amount, and then she relaxed and snuggled up with babies. She had only emptied one side though so it wasn't over yet.

As she was so settled, I started on all of the litter trays because every tray in the home has to be bleached each morning and this morning was no exception. I put the chickens in the oven for the cats/kittens' dinner and also got another load of washing on. I then went back upstairs, again with coffee in hand, and a short while later, Toussaint delivered baby number 5. An Oriental Red Tabby baby so I was pleased :) This baby appeared to be fine although was our smallest baby born, weighing in at just 79 grams. All looked normal though. I waited another 40 minutes but Toussaint was well and truly settled so I changed the bedding again, came back downstairs, got some more washing in the machine, cleaned and filled all the downstairs water bowls and then went back upstairs. Baby number 5 was bleeding in the cord, something which can be fatal so I very quickly took him off the bed, put him on our bed while I tied the cord very tightly with the dental floss and gave him back to his mum. I then watched and waited but the bleeding had stopped, he seemed to be more than fine, so I stayed up there to finish my coffee, gather the remains of the bedding to be washed.

A very short birth entry I know, yet it was almost a textbook birth, very quick, very clean, and with very few problems. The names caused a few hassles in that Graham calls Toussaint "Monkey" (she does look like a monkey), and so I had said to him that I wanted to name these litters after monkeys i.e. species of monkeys. So Graham went online looking for different species, decides that there aren't any "good" ones, so we should have a spider monkey, a "something else" monkey, and then the other 3 could be called: Funky Monkey, Hunky Monkey and Chunky Monkey!! I explained to him that you can't name 2 babies after species of monkeys and then give other 3 such odd names like that and that they should all be named after species. So we disagreed, then we couldn't find any species with names that we both liked, as such, our litter are still the Monkeys, but they are certainly not named after what I had been originally intending <sigh>. I sometimes think people only ever read the kitten diaries just so they can see what daft names we have called them! As such, we would now like to introduce you all to.......................................................

Now chances are, as always, the Sex Change Fairy will pay a visit, but at least if she does, the names won't matter as they really are unisex names anyway :) I will be monitoring this litter very closely as our 3 smallest children do not have great weights at all and I'm hoping that tomorrows' weigh in will show gains for all 5 babies. They have been latched on to mum throughout the day though so I will take that as a positive sign for now.

I can't see that the babies will be in our room for too long because whenever I'm in the room, Toussaint leaves her babies and wants to be with me and I have to keep putting her back in the wardrobe. If she continues to do this, I may have to evict our older babies, move the Indians into their room, and move the Monkey's into the Indian's room. I won't know until tomorrow though and if that is what is going to happen, I will have my work cut out for me tomorrow moving everyone about.

This is actually our last litter for 2007 and our last litter for a while. Ashanti has kept us very busy this year and now it's time for a break, at least that's the plan :)