Tiny Babies and Huge Obstacles

It has been the hardest first week of my life with these wee babies. Two days in and they had all rapidly lost weight and Mum had very little milk. I was devestated. After having my four previous litters challenge me in every way, I was ready for an easy one but its not meant to be.

These babies are all being sup fed, taking 5ml each on top of Mums milk every time they feed. I don't get to bed until 11.30ish and get up twice a night. I'm tired but can see the results in that after a week we are almost back to our birth weights.

And to just put the cream on the cake, our choc silver has turned out to be a lilac! Fingers are crossed that everything works out. Its still early days. They have all hit their first milestone and thats to be alive after the first week.

POP goes the Devon

First though, a confession. I had no idea when Titch was due....cause I didn't write down what date she got mated. This is quite unusual for me because I am quite anal about that but she got mated twice. 2times....two....and everyone knows that queens need to be mated at least four times to produce enough hormone to encourage them to release their eggs. ( at least thats what I read somewhere LOL). AND Titch didn't pink up, there were no pink nipples. So I quite wisely deleted the information and forgot about it until she was roughly six weeks along and was quite fat!

That being said though, she remained a bit of an enigma and dug her bed and pretended to have contractions some two weeks before she gave birth.

Last night she was sitting beside me when she gave an almighty push. She gave no other signs that labour was imminent. I organised her crate and sat quietly beside her as she continued to move forward into full, active labour. The first baby was born, a lovely torbie bicoloured baby. Mum seemed more concerned with her own welfare rather than her babies so I quickly took over and revived the little one. Her brother arrived some ten minutes later. He was coldish blue colour with a silver sheen which had me stumped until he dried and became a chocolate silver tabby.

Around an hour later, number three arrived with her Angel Wings intact. She never took a breath, no matter how vigorously I tried to revive her. For anyone who takes breeding lightly and is in it for the money or for the joy of their children experiencing birth? Hold a dead kitten in your hand and marvel at its perfect but stillborn features. Yes, I shed a tear or two because this little one never had a chance.

An hour later number four popped out and is either a cream or white male. At this stage Mum settled down but still had some very strong contractions. By 2am I was quite concerned and bundled the new family up and flew to the vet. It cost me $165 to walk in the door and a little over $110 for the vet to tell me she had a tummy full of food! Cow....(gr)

Home by 3.30, in bed by 4am and now absolutely cactus.

SO...here are our stats.

Torbie girl- 70gr

Choc Silver boy- 90 gr

Dcd girl- 90 gr

Cream boy- 90 gr

A big litter alround!

Mum and her babies, settled in on the heat pad

The wee munchkins after their first bed change.

Now,if you will excuse me,my bed is calling!

I am Nav-Woman!

My husband and I run an antique store and we often have to either deliver stock or pick stock up. For years now, I have been the navigator, the one who directs us to our destination. I rarely get lost unless we have to go to one of the newer areas where the streets are tiny and crammed in and getting lost is easy for everyone!

THEN, on the weekend my husband came home with a NavMan. I am both angry and somewhat hurt. He says its for when he has to go out on his own. He has the sense of direction of a blind dog. He could get lost in a paperbag that has been left OPEN!

I am still miffed....very, very miffed. Why? Because the first time he decided to use it was when I WAS SITTING NEXT TO HIM! So he lied.

Anyway, he plugs it in and off we go. We get half way to our destination and the damn thing goes flat. I looked at him, he looked at me and then he dove for the refidex while still driving. I mildly said that I would gladly navigate if he wanted me to. And I got us to our destination in no time.

Fast forward to Day 2. Second journey....He tells the client on the phone that yes he can find their house because (dun dun DAHHHHH) he has a Navman. On the way there we stopped in to get a holder for the damn thing. I told him calmly that I would figure out how to attach it while he drove. When the salesman handed us the packet, Husband told him that the "little wife" would put it on. AND he wondered why I glared at him.

So, off we go again. All is going well until the Navman told him to take the left exit in 1.5km. He looked at me while I placidly looked at him. "Turn left in 50m". He glanced at me again, "What, this exit?" I just stared at him as the exit whipped past with the Navman telling him to turn left NOW!

"Was that it?" he says. "How should I bloody know, do I have Navman written on my head?"

4.6 km, one U-Turn and 4.6km back the other way and we were back on track with me looking a little smug and him looking downright peeved! Further down the road he was informed to turn left in 600m. He was in the right hand lane. Turn left in 150m, still in the right hand lane, turn left NOW....and we whipped past the next turn. This time I just gaped at him with complete disbelief.

Around we went again. At the next set of lights, I turned on him. "Listen up you great git, if you KNOW you are going to have to turn left, you get in your bloody left lane!" I poked a finger at the Navman."See that little arrow, look where its going every time you stop at the lights, it actually gives you a bloody warning that you are going to have to turn!"

We turned the corner, him very subdued, me quietly seething. Ten minutes later, less than 1 minute from our destination, in failing daylight, the bloody Navman turned off. "Did you charge it...." I asked through gritted teeth. "It was on all day", he whimpered. That left me scrabbling for the refidex, in the middle of a rabbit warren of tiny streets where I couldn't read the map in the light. And to make matters worse, husband kept on driving. In less than 30 seconds he had us completely lost, I had no idea where we were and I had to get us back. A few wrong turns and we finally reached our destination.

After unloading the stock, we went to leave...and he immediately went to drive down the wrong street. He got lost by just turning around.

As we finally headed home, I said to him, with a fully fledged snarl, "Get rid of the bloody Navman, you've got us lost twice with it, it won't stay bloody charged and for the love of God, if it does turn off...STOP BLOODY DRIVING!"

I think its a fair call to say that his bargain Navman is going to be retired...soon.