Day 43
There is a movie for today
Dudley is getting over the screaming phase, but has started the wriggling one again. Katy can't decide if she likes handling or not, and Ellis is just a little tart!


Don't kid yourself: kittens can be little monsters

 what goes up must come down -
unfortunately for Dudley! (climbing movie)


Ellis helps Libby out with the fish (left) and
shows Dudley how to do it with the raw rabbit
(above)


Day 44
There is a movie for today
Katy still has to be reminded at EVERY meal that food is good. This usually involves her fighting me off until I can get some meat into her mouth (against her will) and then she eats quite happily (usually from my fingers). Yesterday evening I caught her at a good moment and for the first time she just took the meat and ate it with no dramas. Today she's back to insisting that it's poison. However, I wonder if she's sneaking food from the adults' dishes during the day as her weight-gain is OK? So far, I haven't seen any of them helping themselves to food, they have to have it presented to them and often will only eat if it's coming off my fingers. This is nuts, as usually they are hungry enough by now to eat whenever they feel hungry, as there is always food available. Fortunately this is possible now that Ellie and Libby have stopped wolfing anything that I leave down (a legacy of their previous owner, who sometimes forgot to feed them). Ellie has lost a lot of her unhealthy fat, and I think she's getting bored with the babies, though she's never bad-tempered with them. She is quite strict - calling them a lot if she wants them in one place. Unfortunately they ignore her a lot of the time unless they want to use her tail for a toy...

Day 45
It has been a miserable wet day, so everyone has spent it cuddled up warm (except poor old me, who still has to work!)

Day 46 - 14 July 2002
A big party today, and the kittens got LOTS of visitors all afternoon - a lot more than Ellie wanted to see! They behaved very well and didn't run away or anything, so I think their social skills are probably all right! Their dad was also not too put out by having his garden full of 60 people, one of whom took this lovely picture of me giving him a cuddle.



Day 47
There is a movie for today
 It's nice to be back to normal, though I didn't sleep much last night as Libby slept with me because she's due to kitten in the next few days, and as she was missing the babies, she kept me awake much of the night alternately crying for the babies or lying on my face purring fit to bust!

Day 48
There is a movie for today
Libby is still huge and probably wants to have her kittens as much as I want her to have them!. I finally decided I'd had enough of the kittens refusing to wean (i.e. help THEMSELVES to food when they are hungry). I have to hand-feed their meat at every mealtime and they haven't gained weight for a week which is really dreadful, though they look healthy and normal, just not as solid and podgy as they did. The vet had another look at them, and suggested that I start keeping Ellie away from them for periods as she's obviously providing enough milk to keep them from being hungry, but not enough to keep up their growth rates. I have tried stopping her feeding them when I see her today, and they're definitely more hungry - Katy actually ate her meat without any prompting this evening!

Day 49
There is a movie for today

Seven weeks old today. I'm exhausted after three sleepless nights keeping
watch over Libby in case she goes into labour. Last night she was having
little contractions probably lining the babies up, but didn't go into 2nd
stage labour, and has spent most of today slobbed out showing no sign of
producing anything!

Ellis has now overtaken the other two in weight because he has been eating consistently while the other two sometimes refuse food, so todays rogue's gallery despite the relative differences in size of these photos, show Ellis for the first time as the biggest kitten, and Dudley as the smallest.