We are 4 weeks old now!

Day 27 - December 10, 2007

I can't remember the last time we had such very brave fur children. They are not quite 4 weeks old yet and already they are out of the room and exploring upstairs and I must admit that I do prefer this for our litters because they earlier they become accustomed to the home and the rest of our cat family/dog, the more confident they are when they do eventually leave home. Yesterday was a very special day for Hunky Monkey because he had a visit from his lovely new mum and dad, June and Barry. I had been in touch with June via email and the phone and to be honest, even before she came out to visit, I already knew that they would be the perfect family for Hunky Monkey, or any of our babies for that matter.

Toussaint did not hesitate to grant her approval of Barry by leaping straight from the floor onto his shoulders where she proceeded to "check out" his hair. Did Barry flinch or even bat an eyelid? Not at all. His reaction told me straight away that this was a man who is not only a huge cat lover but that for him, it was normal behaviour. Our cats are extremely good judges of character and as per usual, they were all spot on with their approval of June and Barry. Hunky Monkey allowed himself to have cuddles with his new parents and he was so good bless him. Of course being so young, our Monkeys sleep a lot more than they play at this stage so it wasn't too long before they were all curled back up in the "posh box" having a snooze. I was able to see some photos of June and Barry's fur kids and they are certainly beautiful. I hope than when Hunky Monkey moves in with his family that he will soon become good friends with Bandit. Chances are that Hunky Monkey doesn't quite realise just what a lucky little boy he is to have a perfect family and home to move in to and I know he will be very, very happy. Jag also approved wholeheartedly of Barry and June but then again, Jag is a very good judge of character, even at this young age and I'm sure he knew that June and Barry have 2 gorgeous dogs of their own so he figured they were definitely great people. Barry and June were just as wonderful in person as I knew they would be and it was a real pleasure to meet them.

Day 26 - December 9, 2007

I do apologise for today's lack of entry as both kitten diaries are exactly the same and are pretty well non existent. There is a very good reason for this :) Yesterday, Graham and I were in Leicester for the day at a cat show, our 2nd ever TICA show. We were showing Cacao and Ashanti and we are thrilled to announce that both cats had outstanding results and Ashanti, who is our Monkey's and Indians' sire, is now a Champion. It really was a fantastic day out and we met up with some mates, as well as a couple of our kitten families who were visiting. Of course being away all day long meant that today was spent manically trying to catch up with everything and even now at 1747, I am still way behind. We also had a lovely kitten family visit us, well, they were here to visit Hunky Monkey, but I will talk about that with you tomorrow. I am hoping that by tomorrow morning, I will slowly be getting back on track and we will have proper diary entries with photos.

Day 25 - December 8, 2007

Such very short diary entries today as we had a kitten family visiting, and we also have a very long and tiring day planned for tomorrow. There will be no diary entries tomorrow at all.

Little Monkeys are total cherubs and I have no complaints about any of them, apart from Punky Monkey's constant talking! They still are not venturing out of the room much however I have seen a couple of them on the upstairs landing exploring and fortunately none of them have rolled down the steps at all :)

Day 24 - December 7, 2007

It should come as no surprise to anyone at all that when the Indians and the Monkeys were given full house access i.e. I opened the kitten room door this morning and left it open, that the first (and so far only) baby to leave the room was..................................Punky Monkey. Not a single Indian has ventured out of the room at all, whereas Punky Monkey came running straight out, not phased at all, not bothered by the fact that she is so very young, and not bothered by the fact that she might get "lost". She was perfectly happy to be out of the room and having a little explore. You can see by the first few photos below just how tiny she looks in comparison to the actual house itself.

When I went back into the kitten room this morning after everyone had been given breakfast, I had to smile because I went to change the bedding as I normally do, and found we had another Red baby. It was in fact, Ryan, who was happily curled up in the "posh box" right next to his newfound buddy, Hunky Monkey. I'm not sure if that they both realise they are Reds and therefore must obviously be the "same kind", or if they are drawn to each other for some other reason but they are spending a lot of time together.

At the moment, all 5 of our Monkeys are proving that they will be outgoing, happy babies who are not really phased by anything at all. Even when I hoover, they will not get out of the way and I have to hoover around them. I'm just hoping that none of them actually try to tackle the stairs at all because they are a tad too small to be doing that just yet.

Day 23 - December 6, 2007

I must explain the first few photos of Punky Monkey on the food tray. I went into the kitten room to feed the Indians/mum's the kitten food, I fed the Monkeys their own special mixture (those who would eat it), and left the room to go and give breakfast to the boys. After that, I went back into the kitten room to do the litter trays and had to laugh at the sight that greeted me. Punky Monkey was standing in the food tray, on top of the food, and eating as if there were no tomorrow. How on earth she managed to progress from 2 days of baby rice to want to eat proper kitten food at such a very young age is beyond my comprehension. I didn't have the heart to explain to her that she's not supposed to stand in the food but she looked so funny so I had to take a couple of photos. I will also mention that those pics were taken before I did the cleaning so that will give you an indication of just how much mess the little monsters can create :)

Our Monkeys are now joining in wrestling games with the Indians which concerns me just a little as the Indians are monsters in comparison to the Monkeys, and I will admit that on one occasion this morning I did remove Hunky Monkey's head from Ryan's mouth. I also removed Punky Monkey's leg from Victor's mouth. It is just me being an overprotective mummy though as none of our Monkeys are phased at all by being beaten up by the bigger kids. This morning I had wanted to open the door up to the kitten room but then we had to be in and out and do a few chores, so I left it until late this afternoon, not that I am anticipating the Monkeys will venture out of the room but nothing would surprise me with them!

Day 22 - December 5, 2007

Last night at around 11:30pm I made the decision to see if any of our Monkeys would try some solid foods. The reason for this is that they are such active little people and Punky Monkey continues to scream relentlessly whenever I am in the room. Even picking her up for cuddles made absolutely no difference. This led me to believe that maybe it wasn't attention she was after and it was food. I made up a mixture of baby rice and evaporated milk and I was not actually surprised when she had one lick of the mixture from my finger and then dived straight into the bowl and promptly started eating. At one point I didn't think she was going to stop! Our other 4 Monkeys all ate the mixture from my fingers with Chunky Monkey also being brave enough to try and eat it from the plate. I know that the babies are only 22 days old which is quite young for weaning, but they have decided that it was time and with their current activity levels, they have to have something a bit more substantial than mum's milk.

At breakfast time this morning, Chunky Monkey, Punky Monkey and Funky Monkey all ate directly from the plate whilst Hunky Monkey ate from my fingers. Skunky Monkey also ate from my fingers but wasn't quite as keen as everyone else. I'm not going to make a huge effort with the weaning but will just continue with what I've been doing for the past 24 hours and if the Monkeys choose to eat, then that is great.

Day 21 - December 4, 2007

Despite having reach 3 weeks of age today, our Monkeys act more like 4 week old babies and definitely further ahead than they should be. As the kids are so much more mobile now, I will be monitoring their weights very closely to ensure that the higher activity level can still be supported by Toussaint's milk. If I find that weights are dipping a bit, I will start weaning the babies and getting them onto an evaporated milk mixture with baby rice. Mind you, Funky Monkey had his own experience with weaning late last night in the respect that he was exploring the room and walked straight into, and then through, the plate of kitten food that I had just put down for the mum's and the Indians. The poor little guy didn't know what to make of all this stuff stuck to his feet bless him.

Overall, I am extremely delighted with our Monkeys' progress and they are just coming along in leaps and bounds. My only complaint of course is the noise level which is now at the stage where I almost want to reach for the paracetamol whenever I leave the room. Today, Hunky Monkey is still proving to be equally as loud as his sister and I am hoping that when the babies are a tad older and are weaning, that they will quieten down just a little bit. Rather ironically, I just downloaded my email and there was the usual junk mail but one subject header made me smile as it read: "Sometimes we need valium".............................how on earth did they know??????????