December 11th, 2003 (3-4 days to go!)

With just 3 days to go, poor Tia is getting very restless indeed. She has been sleeping with us of an evening and wants to be with me 24 hours a day. If she goes upstairs and I'm not there, then she cries until I go and show her I'm still around. Then I have to pick her up and bring her back down the stairs. I have felt her babies moving around quite a bit and Tia is a bit uncomfortable with it as all they seem to do is kick her! She's still being extremely calm about it all, so long as she has me within eyesight she is generally okay. I think the Deadly Duo (Amaretto and Ice) are getting to her as they are now both in their "teens" and tear through the house constantly and she rather tired of it. She actually growled at Ice the other day when he annoyed her and she is normally an incredibly placid cat. She is eating even more now. I have even put another food bowl on my desk where she spends most of her day sleeping. She still prefers her dry food to the pouch food, however, when she has her evening pouch meal now, she absolutely refuses to eat it from her dish on the floor. She will only eat if she is sitting on my chair. Her waddling is even more pronounced now and she couldn't walk straight if she tried. She is also purring constantly and is on a constant "grooming session" with anyone who happens to be sleeping next to her.

Not much longer now thank goodness. These last 2 weeks are absolutely dragging by. I think what is making it go so much slower is the fact that we prepared everything rather early so there's literally nothing for us left to do now and wait. You would have thought that with Christmas looming, we would have plenty to occupy ourselves with however all the cards have been written and sent and all the decorations and tree are in place. Tia is still putting on weight, but at a much slower pace thank goodness. She's also eating a lot more of her dry food and has now decided that she doesn't like her pouch food of a morning anymore. I've been able to feel the babies moving inside her now which I'm really thrilled about. She's still extremely snuggly and although she still sleeps quite a bit, she has been more playful and much more alert over these last few days.

It's been a busy few days for us here. We thought that with just over 3 weeks to go, we really should start rearranging the bedroom so that Tia actually has somewhere to give birth! Needless to say, whilst the room is now cramped for us, Tia has everything she could possibly need. Her cardboard box is now set up ready and waiting, with the heating pad turned on to encourage her to want to use the box. Next week we will be putting up the pen and placing the box in there because we made the decision that rather just have the box where she can then move the kittens from one of the room to the other, we would put the box in the pen so that she can't move her babies anywhere. For weeks now she has been sleeping in the upstairs part of the house, along with Cacao as we didn't want either of them tearing round like lunatics (as all Siamese/Orientals do). However, for the last few nights, we have got out of bed the next morning to find that she had dragged her cat bed off the ottoman, pushed it across the floor to our bedroom door and slept there all night. I think that she is trying to tell me she would rather be in with us of an evening now. During the day she can be wherever she wants, al thought she never strays too far from my side at the moment anyway. She is getting a lot bigger now and is eating like there is no tomorrow. At least now that everything is ready and waiting for the birth, I can get other things done, such as normal household duties and preparations for Christmas.

After 4 solid weeks of doing nothing but sleep and eat, Tia Maria has finally started to become active. Our poor baby has had bouts of morning sickness during the past week and a half, however it appears to have ceased for the time being. The morning sickness has bothered me much more than her, particularly as one of these times, she decided our daughter's bed was the best place to be sick. For the last 2 days, Tia has actually ventured outside into the cat run. She's also been chasing Amaretto to play with her, and she's been sitting on my chair "whacking" poor Kahlua whenever he walks by in the hopes that he will play with her. It's nice to see her getting back to her normal self. The only problem will be making sure she suddenly doesn't do too much aerobic activity. She's also starting to eat a bit more now and her tummy is starting to get larger as well. We have now put her onto kitten food as prior to this she had been eating adult food. Pregnancy seems to suit her as she is blooming at the moment with a lovely soft coat and very bright eyes. Although she's always been affectionate with me, she is ever more loving at the moment.

We are thrilled to announce confirmation that Tia Maria is now pregnant and her babies are due approximately December 15th. I had a feeling she was starting to go pink however, I had asked Cathy to come by and confirm it and she has just been round and confirmed that she is definitely going to be a mummy. It's going to be a very busy time for us as Cacao has also been mated and if she has taken, her babies are due December 27th. Tia has done nothing but sleep since coming back from her honeymoon. Pregnancy has turned her into a total sloth! She certainly seems happy enough though.

Well it has been a long time coming but finally Tia Maria has been mated to Sharue Golden Boy. She was mated quite a few times on October 11th and 12th, ironically, this was when we had decided we were going to pick her up and bring her home as it didn't look like she was ever going to call! This mating is due to the perserverance and dedication of breeder, Shelley Carter who devoted many weeks of her time to ensure that Tia finally got there in the end. I am extremely grateful to Shelley for taking time out of her busy life to help me try and get Tia pregnant. It really goes to show the difference between an experienced, caring breeder like Shelley, and one who just wants to make money off their boys. I would recommend Shelley to anyone who wanted to buy a kitten or wanted to have their queen mated. We shall now be watching our girl very carefully and she will have no contact with the boys in our household and she will be sleeping with us every evening now until the kittens are due. At this stage, it is too early for confirmation of her pregnancy, but we are hoping and praying that in a few weeks time she will start to pink up and all will be well. If the mating was successful, we will be expecting some lovely babies in this litter, quite possibly torties, tortie tabbies and solids. Colours could be anyone's guess!