Day 26 – Thursday 5^th November

I have discovered that the timing of introducing food to The Teas is crucial.  If I happen to go in with some food when they have just woken up hungry, they think it’s wonderful.  If they are in the middle of a game they are far too busy for boring stuff like dinner.  If they are asleep, they are very fast asleep, and care about nothing at all.

The Teas have discovered the Hairy Scary Game, as Kat calls it.  To show how tough and terrifying they are, they will puff all their hair up, turn their tails into bottle brushes and arch their backs.  Then they jump sideways at each other with all four feet at once.  I could watch this for hours; especially when it starts getting really involved, with other moves like pouncing and creeping.  Stalking is one of my favourites when it starts with the little backwards bottom shuffle.

It’s wonderful to see the babies growing and learning all the behaviours we take for granted in adult cats.  Having said that, The Teas are moving out of my bedroom SOON.  I can’t move my feet without checking five times if someone is underneath, China is redecorating by shredding blue paper all over the place and for some reason all seven of them seem to get a massive fit of the giggles at bed time.  You would think that kitten giggles sound quiet and fluffy – they don’t.

Day 25 – Wednesday 4^th November

There are two entries missing, just because things have been so busy.  Rather than go back and try to remember what happened on which day, I’m just going to put all the news into one entry.

I never get bored of being blown away by these little children.  They are just amazing, and growing and changing so fast.  I have to be very careful when going into the bedroom now.  Partly this is because you never know quite where The Teas are going to be, and partly because they love to chase feet.  When they catch a foot, they lie on it and hang on with all four limbs.  I’m not sure why, but it seems to be very important.  And it’s so endearing that I end up playing the foot game with them, and just standing around for ages!

Lotus’ favourite thing is running.  Suddenly she will take off, dash across the floor then stop and wonder how she ended up on the other side of the room.

The fighting games that The Teas are now inventing are fascinating to watch.  There is wrestling, boxing and tail pulling.  Oh, and ear biting.  It’s the red boys that get really involved in little wars.  This is another great example of kittens’ attention span though.  There is not one thing that they do at this stage that stays in their little kitten brains for more than around three minutes.  Then you notice this funny little expression come onto their faces, they stop doing whatever it was that was so important five seconds ago, sit there for a while, then decide something else is probably in urgent need of being done.  The exceptions to this rule are when they are suckling, or sleeping.

I noticed that some of the babies have started to show an interest in the grown-up’s food, so took a shallow plate of mince up to see what would happen today.  Phoenix and Calcifer were of course delighted to be having an extra meal, and I was amazed to see Oolong and Chai go straight up to the plate and start eating away as if they had done it a thousand times before.  I did get some lovely photos of this, before discovering that there was no memory card in the camera <sigh>.  So in the pictures I managed to get with the other camera, there is hardly any mince left, and everyone is losing interest.  Typical!  Most of the babies had a sniff and a few licks of the food, but it’s definitely Oolong and Chai that have got the hang of it straight away.

Day 22 – Sunday 1^st November

The Teas have started to try out running and jumping.  It’s really funny to watch, because they still aren’t quite in charge of their limbs, but they do give it a good go anyway.  This has started to frustrate Phoenix, who doesn’t understand why her children are so difficult all of a sudden.  She has a new tactic of staring at them in horror as they potter around the room and screaming at me to sort them out for her.

The rows at mealtimes are getting quite heated now.  As the babies are bigger than ever, and now have tiny little teeth, I do think Phoenix might be pleased when it’s weaning time.

Day 21 – Saturday 31^st October

Three weeks old already!  I’m still delighted with everyone’s weights and general health.  All seven Teas are bright eyed, inquisitive and strong.  It’s worth remembering here that both parents of The Teas have been raw fed since birth.  This, added to the fact that Kat’s lines are carefully chosen for good health, has given us a litter of seven babies, all of good birth weights, which have all made it to three weeks with fantastic gains and no syringe feeding to top up.

 The Teas are such beautiful children too.  Now that their eyes are starting to focus and see more clearly, they look at everything very seriously to make sure they understand.  When I’m being looked in the eyes by a little triangular face with ridiculously large ears and a studious expression, I have to just sit still and wait until I’m finished with, and it’s time for the next thing.  The sweetest thing is when they decide that, having studied me, they will clamber into my lap and either settle down for a nap or attack everything and give themselves a fit of the giggles.