Wednesday13th February
Well, I must start by saying that the kittens all past their health checks, my vet told me 'well done', and they squealed quite a lot when the needle went in.

I attempted to leave Lily at home, but I could see she was getting quite agitated at the thought, so I carried her out to the car and put her in the carrier with the kittens, where she was much happier. She is a wise old girl, and she knew what was happening!

Later in the day, I had a stressful evening, a combination of factors. But I thought the best way of conveying this, was to copy part of an e mail that I sent to a friend last night. My house does not always degenerate into this level of chaos, but last night it did, a factor of trying to deal with my 2 boys and all these cats, when one child is not being helpful! Read on.........

ok, the day was moderately busy and stressful for one reason and another,
taking kittens to the vets, is never a smooth operation, but we got there, and got it done.

I executed some of the garden today, with a view to Tim chopping it up, and saving the kindling for fires for scouts...

They come home from school, which is where it all really fell apart.....

rather than helping me break up the wood and store it, I wonder where Tim has gone,
I find him on the patio, having lit a nice fire........right NEXT to the lovely wooden cat run ............accepting that it is easier to chop the wood myself, I allocate Tim a safe place for him to build a fire, amongst a few bricks.

I walk round the front of the house, to find Richard, firing cherry tomatoes ( left over from his cooking), on the end of a bamboo stick, from his bow ..........

having told him off, I turned my back, only to hear Tim whining that Rich was then throwing said tomatoes at the windows including my car.........

Time to get REALLY cross ........

he grumbled that I was being moody and unreasonable...................grrrrrrrrr

X Box is banned, we get through tea, R being a bit lippy, to say the least, but I am still maintaining superiority ( I can still be scary when needs must)

I go upstairs for a little quiet time, only to become aware that Rich is talking to his friends on the X Box........
................
No point in shouting or getting steamed up at this point, too tired. So I just calmly and quietly went in the room, smiled at him, turned it off, took the Scart plug, and explained why he was now banned until further notice.

He seems oblivious, comes upstairs, lays on my bed, dressing gown on, watches my tv, and gets the hair straighteners out, admiring himself in the mirror........

I laugh ........and wonder where I went wrong !!!

The kittens meanwhile, have learnt tonight, how to leap over the barrier at the top of the stairs, and are at it like lemmings.

I shut the others in the kitchen etc, as Lil does not take kindly to sharing her kittens..........!!!

Scarlett, doesn't like the others, so she has to go in the lounge ............she goes up the chimney again .......black......lots of washing...........and a cross Scarlett.

I put kittens to bed in with Rich in my room, only to hear Scarlett calling ............

I hear Rich grumble that he let her in the lounge.......

She is BLACK ...........covered in soot..............

well, I have given her as best a wash as I can without traumatising her, but tomorrow I must secure the darn chimney !!!!!!!!!

Timothy has been a star ..............

...............Rich is laying on my bed, with the 4 kittens cuddled up to him, telling me how lovely and cute they are ............

and yes, they are very very lovely ............BUT ...........I have run out of energy !!!!!!!!

Phew, sleep will feel good tonight !!!

Today has seen much more calm so far. When I got out of bed, I let them in that room, where there is heaps more to explore, that seemed to deter them a bit from leaping down the stairs. Apparently one did, only to come face to face with a horrified Fluffy, before being whisked back up by Timothy!

Scarlett, I believe can no longer get up the chimney, it is well boarded off !!!

I will post photos a little later on today, as I really must get into town to visit the bank, bills still have to be paid, even when I have a house full of activity!

Tuesday 12th February
This is only going to be a few lines today. It is the dreaded day, when I traipse off to the vets with them all ( Lil as well, otherwise she will get really distressed having then all taken away from her). They will get a general check up for their health and hopefully their first vaccinations.

I book the first appointment of the afternoon, to avoid a busy waiting room, as I don't like people getting too close to the carrier. It is the large wicker one that you will have seen in photos, so they can all fit in it ok. And I will cover it over with towels, to keep them more private.

I am predicting a lot of squealing, but I may be wrong.

I will write tomorrow to say how it all went!

Just a few photos for you today, that I took about an hour ago. They were too lively to get anything really good !

Monday 11th February
This is hopefully going to be a short entry, as I am hoping to sneak off to sleep in a moment!

All is quiet. but that means, that as soon as I close this machine down, they will ALL wake up!

Although they have all been really really lively all weekend, quite worn me out. I think that with the children around, their week routine is disrupted and they are awake much more. So I am hoping this will mean, they are needing more sleep this morning, = I get some more sleep !!

I finally realised yesterday morning, when I saw the state of the bathroom, that they needed to move out of there of a night time. So last night, Tim and I rearranged things. We set my bedroom up, with scratching posts etc, moved breakable things out of the way, and made it clean and cosy for them.

Rich volunteered to sleep in there with them ( I was sooo glad of that). So at 11pm, I was able to shut the door on all 6 of them, and go to bed early !!!

Rich said they barely woke all night, but in the early hours, a couple of them jumped from the scratching post to snuggle up to him. He said that he really liked finding 2 small, warm and furry bundles next to him when he woke up :)

I thought that was quite sweet. He'll soon be 15, and I think these cats keep that 'softer' part of him alive.

I will upload some photos later on in the day, as I now want to run off and grab a place to sleep ........please , please, please , don't wake up little ones, till I have had a doze !!

Saturday 9th February
it has been a tad chaotic this morning. I was woken by kittens mauling me while I was in bed. After 2 mugs of tea, I decided that I really had to get up.

Now the question I always ask myself is, how does cat litter travel SO far, and why does the upstairs to my house look like there has been a snow storm over night!

And how, do they manage to get parts of their toileting, up the wall by the litter trays ......... !!!

So it's out with the big green monster that makes lots of noise but eats up all the cat litter, out with the cleaning cloths to clean the walls.

Having done all that, only to see the little monkeys leap back into the trays and scatter it everywhere again, uttering a large sigh, and 'oh well, I am not doing it again', realise that as usual I have not had anything to eat. That can wait.

I am called into the lounge by Richard.

Now I have a lovely black moggy living with me, called Percy.......

This morning, I seemed to have a second black cat, but it looked remarkably like Scarlett...............

Scarlett had managed to get herself up the chimney !!! She was covered in soot !!!!

There was nothing for it, but to get Rich to bring her upstairs, into the bath, a firm grip on the scruff of her neck, and a vigorous wash. This did not go down well with Scarlett, but it had to be done, as I did not want her in jesting the soot. I will have to do this again a bit later when she has recovered from the first bath.

My tummy is rumbling now, but food will wait.

The scene behind me, sees Lily grumbling big time, as she wants the babies to go to sleep!

They on the other hand, are having a crazy time, on the bed, in the sun. Rich is laying with them, so they have him to chew as well!

I think this morning demonstrates the level of crazy ness that can happen on a weekend morning here. I have just taken a photograph of the scene, so hopefully it will come out when I upload the pictures in a moment!

I wont write a diary tomorrow, I am hoping for a quieter day!!

Friday 8th February
Well, this morning spelt trouble, or trouble for me on the horizon.

Just as we were leaving to go to school, Richard said to me,
'mum, you know that barrier that you put at the top of the stairs, to stop the kittens coming down'
I replied,
'Rich, I really don't want to hear what you are about to tell me'
He replied,
'Well, Frankie and one of the girls are sitting on the top of it , about to jump over ...............'

At that point, Lily's face appeared over it. I wish I could read what she was thinking, but her eyes looked pleading in my direction.

Then .....much to Rich and my horror, another kitten suddenly leapt onto the banister, looking decidedly wobbly.

That was the point that I leapt up the stairs, over the barrier, grabbed said kitten, and told them, that as I could not trust them not to escape, and I had to drive the kids to school, they would jolly well have to be shut in my bedroom until I got back!!

Well they had food, sun and littler trays in there.

When I got back from school, they were all happily asleep on my bed, where they still are ! But now I have to think of plan x,y and z, and decide what I am going to have to do, now that they have grown big enough to escape down here.

But I had a lovely start to the day, before all that. At 7am, Rich woke me up with a cup of tea. I opened the bathroom door, to let the wee terrors out. I got back into bed, and all 4 of them ran after me, and leapt into bed with me, purring, chewing, cuddling and generally just being kittens. And I was struck by just how beautiful they were, and how much I was going to miss them when they leave me.

Thursday 7th February
After yesterday's diary, I have to explain what I found when I went upstairs. They had indeed dismantled all the barriers in the bathroom. Every time I put them back up, they leapt at them and knocked them down again.

I know when I am staring defeat in the face, and just took them all away, did a bit of a tidy up and rearrangement, and now the bathroom is 'whole' again!

It does make it a lot easier getting in and out of the shower!!! And I can get to the sink again.

The next move is to get them into the other bedroom, so that they have even more room. But at the moment, they seem quite content to 'wreck' the areas that they are allowed in.
They are so very sweet. When Rich woke me ( late again!!!) ( I blame this new mobile phone, I have not got the alarm sussed properly yet!) with a cup of tea. I then went and opened up the bathroom door, climbed back into bed to drink my tea, and all 4 of the little sweeties, leapt into the bed with me. That felt so very nice to be woken up by their love and sweet little faces.

And I was hit with this horrid pang, that as they are now over 8 weeks, it wont be that long until they leave me :(

I don't want to alarm their new families, this is quite normal for me to feel this sadness, when I realise I have to let them go soon. And I promise, that when the time comes for you to take them to their new homes, I will be brave, and keep a smile on my face for you ! But honestly, they are the sweetest little ones. And so well behaved ( now that IS tempting fate!).

They are asleep at the moment, upstairs with their mum. I am worried for her, as she has always had one baby left behind. I am going to stagger their leaving, as I normally do, and hope that she will cope ok, as it will break my heart if I see her sad.

I have just cooked some minced lamb in the microwave. I have been cooking it nice and slow, to try to keep it tender. I don't know if any of the cats will like it, as I have not used lamb before, but I thought it was worth a try.

I best sign off now, but I would like to add this little link. Dear Kat and Graham who run this website, have set up another one for me, for which I am eternally grateful.

Leaving your pets when you are away is never easy, so I thought that maybe I could help out a little, http://www.tigerlily-petsitting.co.uk

Now I am off to dish up the mince lamb ..........please may everyone like it !!! Otherwise my already fat black birds are going to become immense !!

Wednesday 6th February
I apologise for not writing any entries for the past few days. Life has been a little hectic here, and also I was in Aberdeenshire over Saturday and Sunday, doing some research for Scouts ( I used to live there, so it was also lovely to see friends). I am going to try to attach a photo of ME today, in the snow, trying to navigate my way with an O S map. A skill I wasn't very good at!

The kittens, well, they are GROWING !!!!! As I type downstairs ( I chose to do this away from the babies, as they are all over my lap top if I try to use it!), they are all awake, and tearing about upstairs, between my bedroom and the landing. I managed to hoover up there this morning, but I suspect that by the time they have gone back to sleep, I will wonder why I bothered!!! It is amazing just how far cat litter travels when you have a mere 4 kittens leaping through it! And as there are 5 small ones up there, its a lot of cat litter.

I have to say, how totally impressed I am with this little bunch. They toilet like little Angels, and I hope this is not tempting fate, but I have never known one of them to ever have an accident!

They are eating much better now, and I don't worry nearly as much. I put out a selection of food, from chicken, fish, Applaws , Whiskers and Sheba, and they come and 'graze' as and when they need. There are always James Wellbeloved biscuits out and Burns dry biscuits out ( for some reason nearly all the cats have taken a fancy to the fish flavour Burns biscuits, I have even seen Fluffy eating them, and that is a first for her!) ( mind you, going by the rate she is growing, she could do with eating a little less!!!! Those of you who have met her will understand!)

Lily has a large appetite, and I have noticed, now that she has been speyed, that she is getting a bit of a round belly, and she is defintely much heavier to pick up.

Whenever I climb the barrier to go upstairs, she asks me if I have some more food for her!! And as she is fussy, all she wants is cooked chicken or Applaws fish food. Now this lady could devour quite a lot of those tins in a day if I let her!

The girls, I have to still admit, are jolly hard to tell apart, they could be identical triplets, honestly! There is one that is a little bit larger than the others, but it is difficult to pick her out when they are moving fast!

Frankie is growing into a beautiful Tabby boy, and it is a good thing that he has a little boy who is so looking forward to having him, because I might have been tempted to hide him away here at home!!! He is very beautiful. Lewis is a very lucky little boy to be having him join his family.

The girls are gorgeous too, so I am confident that all are going to make their new homes very happy.

It sounds as if it has all gone quiet upstairs, that either means that the mad burst of energy has worn them out and they have gone to sleep, or it means they have found something naughty, that they are quietly destroying ............

So I will stop now and go and clean out their litter trays, and sweep up, as there is bound to be a mess around all the trays...........

No, I hear a crash in the bathroom .............someone IS doing something they shouldn't!
When I opened the bathroom up this morning, they had dismantled the barrier that keeps them from the sink and toilet, and trashed the place completely!

So over the next few days, I am going to sort out the bedroom that I used for them as babies, and they can maybe go in there at bed times. They obviously need more room.
Then we will have to take turns on who is brave enough to sleep with them!!!!

Right, time to sign off.

Now that was a LOUD crash.........I better go and see what is happening,
so until tomorrow ( and another one ...........eeeeeeek)

Thursday 31st January
Well, it is a horrid day weather wise, and my older Siamese are fed up with it! So they are doing what all good cats do best, and going back to sleep! If only we had that option.

The kittens seem to have entered that stage, where I am sure they are awake more than they are asleep. They love running and attacking all the paper that I have out. But it is certainly acting as a distraction to their wanting to come down here.

Fluffy made the mistake of 'crossing the barrier' last night .........
Lily took exception and despite Fluffy's size, took no time at all in making it quite clear, that Fluffy was NOT welcome upstairs!
I think I said, 'Oh for goodness sake Lily, she's not going to hurt them'
Lily gave me one of those looks, she gives so well, that said
'I don't care, I don't want her up here, so there!'
They really are lovely little kittens though. Last night, it was tired and I had put the rest of the house to 'bed'.

The kittens really did not seem to want to sleep at all, and it is now approaching midnight.

I am sitting on the floor of the landing, in the hope they will then settle down, but instead, they just want to use me to climb all over.

By midnight I give up, put them all in the bathroom, with mum, go in with them, lay with my head on the vet bedding, which is soft. They then get the message and start to settle down. Lil is purring, and looking at me, as if to say,
'now you just stay there, cos I know you are going to try to creep out in a minute!'
I could have fallen asleep there, as I was so tired, but I didn't. I said, 'sorry Lil' and quietly left and went to bed!

Apologies, but I wont have an entry again now until next Monday. I have to do an overnight stop in Aberdeen, which is going to be fun, as they are forecast heavy snow tomorrow!!

Wednesday 30th January
At 7 weeks, these little ones are becoming so much more grown up. Apart from those few hours when I sleep, they have the general run of my room, the bathroom and the landing. I will expend it into Richard's room soon. I am hoping, that by giving them lots of places to explore upstairs, they will not show too much interest, in escaping down the stairs. The older ones keep themselves down here, Lil is happy.

But I did notice last night, that a few of them were looking longingly at the barrier, wondering if they were big enough to jump over it like their mother.

I had a lot of paper, filling out a new bag that I had bought, so I threw it out all over my bedroom floor. This seemed to be a good source of amusement, as young cats love paper to crawl through and jump on, and it makes such a good noise for them!

They are eating much better now, and eating some of the whiskers kitten food, as well as the more expensive Applaws. Lily however, continues to 'stake me out' for the more expensive varieties of food. This is Lil, after all, never been known to eat anything that resembles normal cat food. She started the way she meant to go on, from the first day that she moved in with me!!

One of the photos that I tool last night, will show you that they have started to take an interest in what I am eating! They are still only at the sniffing stage, although once I had finished Lily polished off the gravy from the plate and the tray!

My sleep patterns are only brief now. It is becoming harder to settle them down at night, and they are awake pretty early in the morning. So I am lucky to grab about 6 hours sleep a night, which does not agree with me. I am very much a 'I need 8 hours sleep a night' person! Which is why I am going to finish this now, and see if I can creep upstairs for an hours sleep ..............

Wish me luck !!!

Tuesday 29th January
I would like to apologise for a lack of entry over the past couple of days. Life got a little hectic, and I just found that I needed to make a decision, diary or spending time with my animals and children. Obviously it was the latter! And yesterday I needed to take Tim to the hospital, where he was having one of his 'arm attachments' altered. This is the one that he used for playing his guitar. And as he has also started target rifle shooting with scouts, we needed them to start working on an attachment for that also.

The kittens are doing just great at the moment. My bedroom is open to them at all times, apart from when I go to bed. Then I confess, and it is only for a few hours, as I don't get the chance to sleep much! They do go in the bathroom for a sleep.

They have learnt how to climb curtains, so I apologise to their new families, this is a new skill which is delighting them, but not me !!!

They love to sleep either on my bed in the day time, or Lil tries to tuck them all in, on the top of the large scratching post on the landing! She wont be doing that for much longer, as they are growing!

I wont have the time to attach any photos today, but both tomorrow and Thursday I should have normal diary entries up, and I will try hard to get some good shots of them tonight. They are pretty lively in the evenings now, so the challenge is always not to get a lot of blurred tails as they whizz out of view!!

So until tomorrow, when hopefully I can get lots of photos to show you how much they have developed.