At long last

After an incredibly long wait, and a long and quite stressful weekend, I am delighted to say that my new girl is safely home.

Claudia has come to us from the Fearbhail cattery in Holland and it has taken 11 long months to get her over here.

She is a cinnamon classic tabby oriental and will, hopefully, inject some new genes into the cinnamon lines in this country.

My good friend Lisa and I took the overnight ferry from Harwich on Friday night.

We then drove from The Hook of Holland to Amsterdam, following Dave (Claudia's breeders husband).

We had a lovely day with Maaike and Dave , who took us sightseeing, and then packed Claudia and her half brother Rocky (who is going to live with Lisa) into the van and set off to catch the overnight ferry back to the UK.

We managed to get ourselves lost and made it to the ferry by the skin of our teeth.

Claudia is now getting to know Derek and me before being introduced to the rest of the hooligans.

Praying for a fair wind

I am off on my travels tomorrow, leaving the cats and kittens in the hands of my OH.
This will be a test of his skills and their collective ability to adapt to a totally different regimen from the "normal " one.
A strong aversion to all kinds of wet cat food (his, not theirs) is going to make feeding time, over the weekend, stressful.
It's always appetising to have your meal delivered accompanied by the sounds of retching and gagging.
Mind you, the cats will probably have their revenge by puking in his bedroom slippers.
It's thoughts like these that keep me going.
I'm just praying for half way reasonable weather - not too much to ask, surely.
I have to remember to leave contact telephone numbers and to put some credit on my mobile phone.
These are exciting times- but more about that next week.

10 weeks old

The babies are 10 weeks old today and are becoming a real handful. I'd quite forgotten how quickly they go from just nibbling cat food to clearing whole plates and demanding more.

They seem to be constantly hungry and my pet shop man is rubbing his hands in glee at the size of the orders I'm placing.

The lounge looks like a doss house - with the curtains tied in knots ,to stop them from climbing, and the floor covered in shreds of paper, ripped from envelopes and newspapers, that they spend hours playing football with. Poor little devils don't have any toys of course and have to make their own amusements.

I caught Maisie marking the days off on the calendar - I get the distinct impression that what little novelty there was, in having babies, has worn right off.

She has to come into the office with me for some peace and quiet but she still comes running if one of them yodels.

I don't think that she's enjoyed this experience much - so I don't feel inclined to make her do it again. Once they've all left home and she's put on a bit of weight I think she'll be off to the vets for a quick snip.

Vets and Kittens

The time I dread has arrived and the babies have been to the vets for their 1st vaccinations.
I have to admit, much to my astonishment, they all behaved very well.
They have had their ears, eyes, noses, teeth and throats looked at. Their hearts and lungs listened to and their tummies felt. They were weighed and the boys (much to their disgust and the delight of the girls) had their "bits" checked.
They all passed with flying colours - Phew!!!!!
This means that we are on the downhill slope now and they will be packing their bags and going off ,without a backward glance, in a few weeks time.
This is a cue for me to buy a large box of tissues because, as much as I pretend otherwise, I'll miss the little blighters when they've gone.
Maisie, on the other hand, will heave a big sigh of relief.

Kitten Registrations

The babies registration papers have arrived this morning and I only sent them off a week ago!!!!!

Normally there is a turn around of about 3 weeks and you're left sweating on the paperwork arriving before the babies go off to their new homes. So I sent them in early and look what happens.

Now that they've just got used to their pedigree names their new slaves have chosen their pet names - just as well there's only 4 for me to remember.

Lyra is to be called Tabitha, Iorek is now Perceus, Lee is Kai and Serafina is Tia.

Some mornings I have problems remembering my own name so what chance do I stand with this lot?

Introduction time

My name is Phoebe and I get to go first as I am the senior girl in this house.

My human slave calls me "Big Black Bag" which is alliteration at it's best but not very flattering.

I share my home with two slaves (human), 3 other girls (one of them my daughter)and 2 neutered boys. Then, of course , there is the big redhaired dollop that lives up the end of the garden (but he hardly rates a mention).

I get to chose where,when and with whom I sleep and my preference is in the middle of the slaves bed where I can lay stretched out like a bolster and stop them both from moving.

I've been told that I am a good mum and I like babies - but only if they are mine. I'm not keen on this mob of Maisie's as they show me no respect at all. Not even a sharp smack on the head and a good hiss seems to put the little blighters off stalking me.

I wanted to tell you about the other residents in this mad house but my female slave says that I've to let them speak for themselves.

Should be good for a laugh as those boys can't string 2 words together at the best of times and they can't spell for toffee.

I intend to keep a close eye on what's written here and I fully intend to pop on, when the mood takes me, and tell the true story of what goes on here.

Spring?

We've had 2 days of beautiful sunshine and the feline family thought that it was safe to venture forth from the heated luxury that is the conservatory. Big mistake as it has gone straight back to being overcast and cold - so they are back to huddling around the radiator and trying to work out how to turn the heating up.

I managed to hack back the garden sufficiently to catch a glimpse of the back fence (which badly needs painting - any volunteers?).

It's been a strange week so far- a mixture of good and bad news. I just hope that things turn out for the best (which they have a way of doing) and I'm trying to keep my positive head on and not over react.

I need to go to the pet shop and collect the cat food order and then get out of debt at the vets before the next round of kitten vaccinations.

I knew I went out to work for a reason.

Babies are driving me crazy (not far to go really) and they are into everything.

Lyra has ambitions to be our next size zero super model and weighs in regularly- as you can see from the photo.