Saturday 22nd April
Phew. I am not sure what has got into all my cats and kittens, maybe it is spring in the air, but they have been exhausting today!!!

OK, G is calling, and trying to break the sound barriers, but the others have been sooooo naughty. As I type, Fluffy is on my kitchen surfaces, investigating everything, and looking very pleased with herself. 10 minutes ago, Tari and Gollum and Spotty were up there also, no sooner do I put them down, then they are up again.

Gollum has been trying to break out through the cat flap that leads into the conservatory. It is locked so that they cannot use it, but it has not stopped him trying to put his great escape plan into action!!!

I was eating out in the conservatory with the children, and I suddenly became aware, of lots of pairs of ears, and blue eyes, gazing at me from the kitchen window. All their little mouths were opening and shutting, so I suspect they were also yelling at me to open the window and to let them in!!! I am just a bit scared to , as it is next to the big outside world, and it only takes one child not to close the door properly, and there would be a mass breakout.

Cari has become a little clingon. She follows me everywhere, yelling to be picked up. At times today, the noise has driven me slightly crazy!

I managed to get a photo of Gollum trying to break out of the cat flap, he is such a funny wee fellow. He has this little tummy, that waddles as he trots along. Being the only male in the house at the moment, apart from Percy, he is a bit outnumbered, by all these noisy girls!!

I also took some photos of them on my kitchen surfaces, you will see that they were in the process of knocking everything off everywhere! Nothing is safe at the moment.........another reason why they are currently not allowed in the lounge, I have to have one room where I can go to seek refuge when they are really intent of hearing it around, wrecking everything in their path!!!!

They have settled down now, so hopefully they will sleep for a fair bit this afternoon, so that I can recharge my batteries, ready for the evening onslaught.

Friday 21st April
I wanted to write a few words before I went to bed, because by the time the morning comes along, and tiredness has hit me, often I forget all the things that I am thinking at bed time.

It occurred to me that trying to get to bed, is a bit like Indiana Jones!!!!!!!!!!! You have to pass through various hurdles. The current one, is that at midnight, I have got into my room, which is no mean feat, there are no kittens in here, lights are all off. I have Percy in, despite his attempts to stay out all night, and Richard, as I can hear, has just come out of his room, and gone downstairs to get a drink. The problem with this is that he probably has not shut his door properly, which means any minute now, there will be a break out of kittens into his room, or he has left the kitchen door open after him.

So in a minute, I am going to have to run the gauntlet, to go back out of my room, and check all the doors!!!

The kittens are on fine form tonight. I think they must have had an injection of caffeine, maybe the boys have been feeding them their Easter eggs……….I was trying to take some photos before coming in here, and Cari appeared from nowhere and leap onto the camera in my hand………now wee Cari, was a sweet, quiet cuddly little girl. But it appears, that over the past week, her tabby points are beginning to show in her character, Troublesome Tabbies…………she is becoming soooooo naughty, and she demands, and shouts for attention a lot of the time, and yet she is such a small kitten. She makes up for it in volume and personality.

It occurred to me today, that I have not been getting Jasmin in enough photos, it always seems to be Cari, who happens to pose for the photos. I had Jasmin in a wonderful pose just before bed, but she does not keep still long enough, and as I took the photo, she leapt off the big mouse!!!! She is a lovely girl, she has heaps of purrs, and heaps of energy. She is either flaked out asleep, or moving too fast for the camera. Cari on the other hand, likes to pose as often as possible!

It is sounding quieter outside now, so it is probably safe to try to open the door and go to check the other rooms again. They are getting so quick now, getting from one room to another, when you do not want them to follow, is proving a challenge!!!!

I have left them a banquet fit for a King downstairs, so they cannot complain at me, although they will still look at me as if they are half starved when I get up in the morning, bless them.

Time to 'run the gauntlet' and go outside to check Richard,s door, and then much coveted sleep!!!!!!!!!

........................Well, the good news was, that all doors were shut, and I got to sleep quite quickly after that!!!! But 6.30 am came around far too quickly. I was feeling tired, they were not!!!!!! I just wanted to go back to bed, they just wanted to trip me up as I walked down the stairs, use all the litter trays at once, yell at me because I was not getting their breakfast quick enough ( Yes, their bowls were empty!), ambush Percy as I tried to get into the lounge to let him out..........so it was another morning driving the children to school, with sun glasses on, hoping that I did not have to get out of the car for any reason!!!!!!!

They are all asleep now. G is calling again, but she has gone mercifully quiet for the moment, that quiet is lovely. I am going to do the photos now, which I took last night, and then have a lay down for half an hour, hopefully I will then have some energy when I pick the children up from school later on!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday 20th April
Well, I confess that I am sitting here today, trying to think what to write!! It has been an uneventful 24 hours really, in the sense that cats and kittens have been carrying on in their normal routine, of eating, sleeping and creating havoc when they are awake! Since moving out of the place the relevant piece of bedding, the little 'accidents' have stopped happening. I often think it strange how they will suddenly pick up on one item, or place, for no apparent reason, and suddenly it changes it's identity to become an extension of the litter tray!! This is the first time this has happened with this litter. So offending bed, taken away, fingers crossed that will be the end of it.

I had some friends over yesterday, who are going to give a home to one of my babies, and I left them here while I whizzed off to the hairdressers. It was nice to know that although I would be gone all afternoon, with school runs etc, that they would not be left on their own. The cats all seemed to behave themselves, and they also seemed to be taking advantage of some extra cuddles when I got back. Of course they tend to get up when they hear my voice, I am the voice they react to with regards to food,or something going on in the kitchen! But it made me feel better, knowing that they would still have some company while I was away. I do try very hard to let them have as much human contact/cuddles as possible. So far my kittens have all bee cuddly and sociable when they leave us here, it is something I have always been proud of.

Tari and Gollum continue to leap ahead in the weight contest!!! Bless little Gollum, he does not have a very long body, but he has a very round tummy, he is so funny to watch as he runs down the stairs. Tari, if she has the chance, does enjoy to ride around on shoulders. Talking of Tari, I have just remembered an incident which made me laugh last night. I was sitting on the bed settee, chatting on the phone to the friends who had been over in the day time. I had a small glass on my lap, I had decided to indulge in some Retsina, which I had brought back from Greece the end of last summer. All of a sudden, Tari, and I can only describe it as 'flew' from nowhere, in her pursuit of another kitten, and landed with her back paw in my glass. The retsina spilled everywhere, and she ran off again, very quickly, shaking her paw as she went. I was hoping she did not stop to lick it!!! This all happened in the split of a second, but it did make me laugh.

They are all currently asleep, in the front room, all squashed in the wicker basket, or those that can fit, on top of the kitten box. In 3 weeks time, when most of the babies have left us ( it is looking now like I will keep at least one of these little kittens, I didn't think I would manage to let them all go!!!!) I will remove the kitten box, thus getting the room back. I will open up the conservatory and they can enjoy the rest of the summer out there also. And hopefully it wont be too long before they have their run to they can go out in it!! I am really looking forward to that.

Wednesday 19th April
It is a busy evening here tonight. It is the first evening, since the 4 of Lily's kittens left us, that the food has depleted as soon as I put it out! At 11pm I am still finding myself in the kitchen cooking chicken, and as I type, lol ,Fluffy is in the kitchen, battling with the oven gloves, lol, as they hang on the oven. They appear to have beaten her, as she has just given up the fight, and gone to scatter biscuits all over the place. Bless her, but we love her.

Richard was insistent tonight, that he sleep in the room downstairs. It is school now, so I was also insistent that if he was still awake by a certain time, he went up to his room. I could hear him pretending to be asleep, as he was invaded by the cats. After 10 minutes, I had an appeal to clear all the cats out of his room, as they were attacking him and leaving little scratch marks all over his chest. I am laughing as I type this.

As I removed said cats/kittens from his room, I left with the parting words, that the next time at bedtime, that I tell him to go to HIS bed, to do as I say, cos mother really DOES know best on these matter. He muttered as I left the room,, but it sounded like words of agreement.

I have fed all of them, they have heaps of food here, the smaller ones, I have sat with, to make sure they have eaten, without the others muscle ing in ( Gollum is now trying to drag the oven gloves down!!! lots of sounds coming from the kitchen, that is just to my right, little monkeys.) So now, I have done a head count, so no little monkeys hiding tonight!!!!! So by mid night, I plan to be sleeping. Cari, my little auto purrer, has just come onto my lap, for a wee cuddle. You only have to look at Cari and she purrs, bless her. Her mummy was like that as a kitten.

I don't have time to write much this morning as I am off to the hairdressers to try smarten myself up a bit!!!! I also have the new parents of one of my babies, due any time now, and they are going to kitten sit while I am out. I think they need 'sitting', as they are in devilish mood today!!!!!!!!!!They are wrecking the place, at a time when they are normally kipping, L and G are being very bolshy, and I confess to stress levels being a bit high today. I came down to find one little darling had toileted on their bedding..............not the start I would have chosen, as it was the first school run I had had to do for a while. Not sure what has triggered that over night, but they are on restricted territory for the day to make sure it does not happen again!!!!

I have just been to take a couple of photos, they are all in the box on the landing. Fluffy and Spotty were fighting on the top of the old scratching post, it was swaying dangerously, as they are big girls now, until they both fell off into the box, where they are all currently now playing, apart from Cari, who has now got the top of the post.

Tuedsay 18th April
Well, I will start with last night, as not very much , SO far , has happened this morning, although there is plenty of time for all that to change. At the moment they have all gone to sleep, the sun is shining and they have found the nice warm spots. I can tell that they are getting older now, as the mornings are much more civilized and I am not running up and down stairs, with litter trays, and trying to keep 2 sets of babies happy, while trying to urge the kids to get a move on for school.

I really thought that I was going to be in bed by 11.30 last night. How sill of me to be so optimistic. I was feeling like I must have forgotten something because it seemed far too easy to be going to bed, rather than the usual hassle of trying to settle them down. I had a small sense of , 'oh gosh, I have hardly the energy to chase them out of my bedroom'. I think it was at that point that I realised, that I did not seem to have a full deck of kittens..........There were definitely a few of the little ones missing. I groaned inwardly, at 11 at night, they should all be running around, not hiding from me. Playing hide and seek that time of night, is a real sense of humour 'no no'.

After a bit of head counting, I realised that Gollum and Tari had disappeared, the 2 partners in crime. If something is amiss, I can guarantee it is those 2!!!

Half an hour later, still no sign of them!!!!! I felt as every little nook and cranny had been searched, washing machine, dishwasher, Richard had been woken up 3 times, to make SURE he did not have a kitten in bed with him. Tim did not wake up when I did a bed search on him.

An hour later, and I was beginning to panic a bit now. I even sent out a search party outside, incase one of the little fellas had escaped, although I did not see how.

In the end, I came to the conclusion, that they had to be underneath my bed somewhere. I was sure I had heard a shaking of the ears when I had been looking in there. But if there were, I certainly could not see them!

So, it was worth a try. I shut the door to my room, sat on my bed, and started to rustle with a piece of paper. Still nothing. But after a few minutes of this, I heard a sound, at last I thought. A kitten appeared, not from under my bed, but from under a small set of drawers. The thing was, it was neither Gollum or Tari, it was Cari. I was not aware that she had disappeared also!!!! I decided that the other 2 horrors had to be in the same place. Upon careful inspection, and lifting up the drawers, Gollum and Tari were extracted from inside the bottom of the drawers, looking none too chuffed at being woken up!!!

Thank goodness for that, at last now I could get into bed and get some sleep, but my earlyish night had slipped away from me!! This morning, I have not seen too much of them, apart from trying to stop Spotty, from keep running into the conservatory every time I went out there. Fluffy made a bid for freedom once, and came nose to nose with Percy. Percy sniffed her, and at least this time her tail did not fluff up as much. But it was funny to see her come to a rapid stop as she almost ran into him. Gollum is also making regular bids for freedom into the conservatory. I don't really want them out there at the moment, because the children have all their war hammer they are painting, which is lots of plastic models, with plastic glue etc, not really safe for little furry noses. I shall have to get them to move it, so that the little ones can have the room back, now that it is warming up out there in the day time.

I must sign off now. I have not taken any photos yet, so I had better go and do that. They are all asleep, so it will probably only be a couple today.

Monday 17th April
Today is one of those days, where there is not very much to write about. That of course it tempting fate!!!! I have however, added an entry in Lily's diary updates, as Noah and Christmas have an update on their adventures!

I weighed the 3 smaller kittens in the litter, and I was really pleased by a good increase in their weights yesterday. It is not so easy to weigh them now, as they do not want to sit still anywhere! I use my digital scales, which I set to zero, with quite a large box on top, and put them in the box. It is then a race to check their weight, before they leap out! So there is an element of give and take with the end figure!!!

Now that babies have started to leave me, I have been reducing the number of litter trays around the house. This has made a difference to the amount of tray cleaning that I have to do also. They are tending to gravitate towards one or 2 trays, so it is easier to keep an eye on them, and clean them regularly.

They are currently all asleep on my bed. Well, Spotty was amongst the teddies when I came down stairs, but she may well have joined he others by now. I took a photo of her getting ready to snuggle down. The other photos were a bit hard to take, as they were all curled up, and I had to get into some weird angles, just to try and capture their faces!

Gollum and Tari are growing pretty big now. When the two of them get into one of their wrestling matches, they really do get quite physical! I do try to keep an eye, if either of them are play fighting with Cari, Mini of Jasmin, as there is quite a large difference is size and strength. It is not that the 3 are particularly small, it is that Gollum and Tari are particularly big!!!! They are pretty much the size of Spotty now!!! Not caught up with Fluffy yet, but then she is a big girl too!!!!

I will sign off now, and post the photos. But do go and read Noah and Christmas's update. Their new family have a lovely way of describing their antics, that always has me laughing!

Easter Sunday
Last night I decided to leave children and their father here, while I went out for 2 1/2 hours. I left at about 18:10 and was back by 20:40. Now, when I left, all the cats and kittens had food out, clean trays etc, and were asleep. It seemed that for a short period of time, it would be ok to leave them, under, what I thought was, good supervision. I mean what could go wrong? It was the second time that I had been out in the evening, since Lil had the babies, all that time ago.

On my return, I find..........
Percy sitting by the conservatory door, looking desperately like he wanted to go outside. There appeared to be no lights on in the house ??? Worry began to creep in at this point. I unlocked the conservatory door, and Percy flew out!!! As I go into the conservatory, Lily and G appear, that was not unusual, as they are allowed in the conservatory, and percy knows them well. That was the point that I notice, in the darkness, lots of little white shapes, darting around..........by now you will have guessed. If Percy had not met the kittens before, he certainly had now!!!!!!!!! All 7 of them were having great fun among Richard's warhammer, and the lounge, and Percy's food.........................

Poor Percy, what must he have thought, suddenly being invaded by 9 siamese!!!!!!!!!! He is a big soft black cat, poor boy must have been terrified!!

Anyhow, I continue through the house, still no lights on.........to find Rich, Tim and their father, in the front room, watching Harry Potter................

Not for much longer though, as the wicked witch had returned and order was restored, television was turned off, and each of the 3 of them blamed one another for not shutting the door.

Fortunately Percy is none the worse for his fright, and at least now he has met them and knows why he has not been allowed in the rest of the house all this time!!!

This morning, when I awoke, I opened the door. When I do not have to rush to school, I love to spend half an hour, with them leaping over my bed. Cari and Mini Choc came for a cuddle, Gollum and Tari proceeded to attack anything that moved, fluffy fell asleep on top of the bed, and I am not sure where Spotty and Jasmin were. They appeared a little later. Cari ran off with the bell from Richard's chocolate bunny, and had a good growl is anyone else came to take it, this is something only she and Spotty do. They are good little growlers.

All is quiet now, at 10:53. Timothy has not woken up yet, Richard has gone back to sleep, and all the felines in the house are asleep. Bunny has moved back outside, now that the weather has warmed up. Timothy has just got out of bed, I wonder if he realises just how late it is!

The photos that I include today, were mostly taken this morning, in my room, as I got up.

Saturday 15th April
I did not submit an entry yesterday, as we said goodbye to little Bilbo, who is now having his pet name of Teddy. I will put a little update for his progress a little later on, but it sounds like he is a very happy little boy.

We are now down to 7 kittens in the house, and I have noticed a difference in the food consumption. G's kittens do not seem to get through ( apart from Gollum!) as much food as Lily's were eating. Cari, Jasmin and Mini Choc do not have quite the appetites that Nia, Bilbo and Frodo had!!! and Fluffy, but my not so little girl is still with us.

I have noticed at last, Cari eating out of the bigger bowls, and she was eating fish, so that was good. I think now that the older kittens have started to leave us, there is more room round the food bowls, and not so many big ones to fight through. Although I have always left out lots of bowls, to make room for everyone. I think the little ones got used to that personal food service that they were getting from Timothy.

At bed time last night ( or closer to 1am), Lily settled down, and all the kittens descended upon her. G just grumbled around the place, looking. She seems quite happy to let her mum take over the babies like this. But then at other times, I will come in, to see her all snuggled up with them ( as she is now) and Lily sneaking off to a quiet place of her own. I know that I am lucky to have mother and daughter with such a close bond.as the two of them have. I am hopeful that Fluffy will fit into this equation. Fluffy, despite being the hooligan of the bunch very early on, is now quite a soft easy going girl. It is really important to me that all the cats in the house do get on together, and are happy. And when the kittens have left for their new homes, Fluffy has the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Percy!!!

It is hard to believe that the kittens will be 10 weeks old tomorrow. It is hard to believe that we have come along this journey so far, and here we have these beautiful animals. When I think back to when they were born, to the anxiety that I felt, when after 2 hours, I had not managed to get the first 3 to latch on to G, to the hours of sitting with G, making sure she stayed with and fed her babies, when I think back over all that, I feel as if I have climbed a very big mountain, and that now the summit is almost in view. I feel tired and emotionally drained, but the love they give you when you hold them, and they purr and love you, helps to re charge that exhaustion.

The 3 smallest kittens, Cari, Jasmin and Mini Choc, have all broken the 1kg weight barrier, a barrier that Tari and Gollum broke a while ago. Sometimes it can be hard to believe they are from the same litter!!! But they all have the same amount of mischief and determination in the naughtiness stakes!!! And little Jasmin can shout louder than all the rest of them!!! They have their distinctive voices even now, and I can often tell which kitten it is that is yelling from one room or another. ( Fluffy being the most obvious).

I will need to go and take a few photos of them now, as I was so tired with Richard coming back from Aberdeen late last night, and the expected fall out that would cause ( coming back under mum's authority was never going to be easy.....the play station was removed at 11.30pm.......hidden until further notice....it is hard to be the authority figure sometimes, as you know that at almost 13, you are the one they most want to challenge!!!)

Anyhow, I will go and do my little David Bailey, and see if I can take some good photos!!! Until tomorrow, I will sign off now.

Thursday 13th March
I am sitting here, it is just gone half past midnight, and behind me are all my babies, as I just ease Spotty's head back onto the cat bed, as she is drifting over the edge. Most of them are on the cat bed ( well, it is a dog bed that I bought for Percy when he first moved down from Scotland, because he is such a large boy, I needed a large bed for him in the cattery), on top of the kitten box, but a couple are in the wicker basket.

They have all been fed. Tim has a wonderful way of feeding the 3 smaller ones of the bunch, and their trays are all cleaned. But I just love that half hour, that I have with them, when they are all settled and relaxed, before I go to bed.It is a bit like having my babies all over again, when you sit with them for a while, to make sure they are safe and asleep. I have just put Spotty in the basket, as she was running out of room on the other bed!!! They are very precious, and when they lay like this at bed time, I know I am truly blessed. The little ones are recovering from the ordeal of their vaccinations yesterday, and are now back to full menace routine!!!

No one is using this room at night time now, so they have it set up, with soft squidgy bed on top of kitten box, wicker basket on kitten box, on the floor, they have 2 more travel boxes, full of comfy bedding, they also have the sofa bed, the hallway, landing, bathroom, banquet to keep them going until I get up in the morning, so they have as many comforts as I can give to them. Spotty and I have just had a lovely wee cuddle, and now I am off for some much needed sleep, hopefully to rise before 10 am tomorrow ( someone, I think Fluffy, has just got up, and gone and used the litter tray.....I can smell it from here!!!!!!!! bless her, now I must clean that out before sleep!!!! )

Well, sleep did not quite go as I had planned it to.......at the point of signing off last night, a few of them decided they needed to pass a pre sleep solid motion............more litter tray cleaning. Eventually it must have been 1.30am before I climbed into bed. I apparently left the kitchen door unlocked, fortunately there is the conservatory, so we did have some security!

At 8 this morning, I was aware in my dreams of degrees of pain being inflicted on my body. It appeared upon opening my eyes, that Cari was gazing into them, on her way under the duvet, the rest were leaping on her moving form as she made her way under the duvet, and she decided to take it out on my arms.........then the 2 mums decided to leap onto the bed, now they are quite heavy girls......I tried to submerge myself under the duvet for protection, but this did not really help, because Cari came with me, and then I could see Mini Choc and Gollum peering down from the top of the quilt. The thought of 2 more little menaces leaping all over me did not really appeal to me.

I am assuming, somehow, that in my tired state last night, I did not shut my door totally, and Lily had managed to open it, letting the little terrors in. I knew to try to move them all would take for ages, so I lay there, under siege for about half an hour.........then the doorbell rang, it was now 8.30am, and I confess to feeling a bit bad tempered by this stage. ( Gollum is systematically trying to beat into submission all the girls in the litter, behind me, I keep having to drag him off, and Spotty has found a piece of paper and is growling in the hallway........)

I am not sure what the post man thought, as I bleary eyed, opened up the front door, by the smallest of cracks, and muttered something about kittens not escaping, and could he pass the thing through the small opening so I could sign it inside. I then asked him to put the package out the back, as I could see it was a box with kitten packs in from James Wellbeloved.

I am not sure what the post man thought, as I bleary eyed, opened up the front door, by the smallest of cracks, and muttered something about kittens not escaping, and could he pass the thing through the small opening so I could sign it inside. I then asked him to put the package out the back, as I could see it was a box with kitten packs in from James Wellbeloved.

I am actually going out for a short while tonight, to the cinema at 18:40, it will be the first evening time that they will have had alone since the end of December, so I will be panicking to make sure they have everything they need before I go out. But it will be nice to feel human again, in a human world, even if for just a short while!!!!

Wednesday 12th April
I had a lovely lay in this morning, no vets to rush off to, no other chores to rush to, and best of all, no school!!! The sun was shining early this morning, so all the cats and kittens were happily resting in the sun when I did get out of bed. Since I have been up though, it was the usual routine of, 'Hi mum, breakfast please, and we want every little selection here and NOW !!!! Fortunately I had Tim, who was being very helpful, and he sat with the 3 smaller kittens to make sure they had something to eat, without the bigger ones barging in. I tend to put theirs on a separate plate, so that I can check what they are eating, and the rest of them, just have a free for all. They are all big enough to get adequate servings, and to fight L and G for the rations!!

I have just been in with the camera and taken some photos of them, getting themselves comfortable in the sunshine in the front room. It is a brilliant spot, because the kitten box takes lots of sun, and then the windowsill, so I am able to put their beds there. It is probably the best place in the house this time of day, apart from my bed. When we get into summer, and I get my conservatory back into action ( I set it on fire last November!!!!), then they will be able to go through there. The insurance company have finally paid up, only 6 months or so later!!! so I am in the process of buying furniture. And now that it is warming up, bunny can soon make her way outside, for night times as well as day times.

I also took a photo or two of bedtime last night. Lily was all settled with the kittens, on the kittens box ( no one was sleeping in there last night, so they were able to have the room all night), and G was sat on the chair next to them!!!!! I am pretty sure Lil does not really have any milk, but she just likes to have them all cuddled around her. G is happy with that too. G does still cuddly and let them suckle, but she is also quite happy for her mum to take over the cuddling bit. I can hear lots of purring, the sound they make when they are suckling, so I am going to sneak my head around the door, and see who is doing what!!!!

Bless her, a lovely moment, with G in the basket with her babies, I just took a picture of them, but I have to look a few times, to make sure I have the right mum, lol, they can look so alike!!! I am assuming that Lily is therefore upstairs on my bed, with her young ones, as they have all gone quiet.

I will post the photos now. Only 2 days now until bilbo leaves us!!!! Then there will only be 7 babies here!!

Tuesday 11th April
Well, I have returned, exhausted, as predicted, from my trip to the vets for their vaccinations. I cannot quite work out why I feel soooo tired, because they were incredibly well behaved!!! I collected 4 of them up, and put them into the wicker basket, that I had put in the lounge. I do this so that Lily does not get too worked up seeing them go into the basket. Lily was running after me, with that cross look on her face. She is far too clever for her own good, and knew exactly what I was up to. Well, I managed to get 4 into the wicker basket. They are used to this basket as they sleep in it a lot of the day, so they were not phased by being put into it. They were a bit bemused when a 'door like thing' was put on to stop them getting out!!! I went upstairs to find Tari, and found her in the travel basket she has for going home in, snuggled up with Fluffy, so rather than take her out, I just closed the door on the basket, and put her and Fluffy in the car as they were. Well, I decided a ride in the car would not do Fluffy any harm!!!!

So, leaving a grumbling Lily, with 2 kittens, and her older daughter, who really hadn't a clue that her kittens had gone!!!

I put the first basket in the waiting room, with Tim,while I went back to the car to get the other. I come back in with second basket, to find Tim, with the door of the wicker basket open, and he is stroking them all. Quick panic on my part as I hastily tell him to close it up!!!

As they all know me in the vets now, everyone want to come and look at these kittens, because they have not seen them before. Kittens are being suitable cute, laying back in their beds and batting their eyelids at all onlookers!!!

When we go through to the surgery, half of them have gone back to sleep, and don't thank me for waking them up to be checked over, and thank me even less when the needle goes in!!!! Cari was the worst, she was a right wriggler. Jasmin and Mini Choc were also not too keen. Gollum sat as if nothing was happening, that boy is a real hero!!! And Tari was also pretty good. While this is going on, Tim has Fluffy out of the box, carrying her around the room and showing her everything. He asked me if she could have a run on the floor!!!!!!!!! To which he got a swift no, and to just cuddle her and behave himself!!!

That was all done,. and we were back in the car. NOW they all decided to wake up!!!! It is about 10 minutes from home, but it was like having an octopus sitting next to me, as there were white paws poking out of the front of the basket shouting their little heads off!!!

Phew, when we got back, I found Lil, G, Spot and Bilbo, snuggled up on top of the kitten box, without a worry in the world, so they did not miss them !!!

I open them baskets and they all bundle onto Lily, who welcomes them and purrs like crazy. G looks bemused, as if to say, ' oh, you brought them back, it was nice and peaceful before'!!!!!

I go back in 5 minutes later, to find them all bundled onto Lil, in search of something to suck, and G legging it off upstairs. Lily is giving me one of those looks, 'help I am submerged mummy', but I know she just loves having babies around her.

Now, they are all snuggled up together, including G, resting hopefully for a couple of hours so that I can take a break!!

I took some photos of them all on my bed last night, some in the vets, and some playing round the rustle tunnel. I will go and transfer them across to the pc now.

Monday 10th April
Well, I did not write anything yesterday, it was Timothy's 10th birthday, so I was busy with him, an decided to have a break from writing. I have included another short follow up in Lil's diary also today.

As I type now, late in the day, as I had a hospital appointment to make this morning, and then my mother was round for ages wanting to know all about it!!! A few mugs of green tea later, debriefing over, and I am able to get on to type this.

I have put the rustle tunnel back out. It had to be confiscated, as a couple of the little ones had been using it as a toilet, but then so had Lily's 2 litters before them, so it has seen plenty of visits to the washing machine. Now that it is back out, smelling lovely of fresh air and washing powder, all I can hear on the landing above me, is the sound of thumping, crinkling noises and general running around, so I am assuming they are pleased to have this coveted toy back again. It does mean I have to give it the nose test every morning, any reoccurrence of the toileting and it has to be withdrawn again!!! But the love rustle tunnels, they are such fun, leaping in and out of the holes, and attacking any sign of another kitten as it moves through the tunnel. Having lots of toys is a great way to tire them out, without your house being wrecked in the process.

One habit I wish they would unlearn, is the act of pulling all the towels off my towel stand!!!! I put them back on, they pull them off, and so it carries on!!! I had to pull 2 towels out of the litter trays when I got back at lunch time today!

Tomorrow is the big day,it is the day we have to go along to the vets for vaccinations and general check ups. None of them have been to the vets before, nor been in the car, so it will be an interesting experience, no doubt with lots of yelling at me for locking them in their basket. at least they are used to the basket, as they sleep in it most of the time. I have Timothy to help me out, so I am hoping for an easier time than my last visit, with Lil's babies. So lots of fingers crossed that they are all ok.

All has quietened down now.......I am hoping they have fallen asleep so that I can cook some food for us. They are dear little kittens still, they all have a purr for you when you pick them up, and they are excited now that they are allowed in the kitchen. The only room they don't have really is the lounge.

I must sign off now, as time is getting late, a few kittens are now making their way back down stairs, for a little nibble and some company. I am going to miss them terribly when they leave me. I was sat in the front room last night, watching David Jason and Ghost boad, and there were just all these ears, and eyes and purry babies, and I just thought how wonderful it was to have their company, and how rich my life has been for sharing this time with them.