My puddin tats... big kittens now!

Pipsqueek - still our little motor mouth, if I didn't know better I'd swear he was part Siamese just for the sheer amount of chatter that comes out of his mouth!

 

Possom - has gone from the smallest to second largest and taken after Pipsqueek in terms of his chatter.  He is the first and now LOUDEST to greet me in the morning or evening or upon entering or exiting a room or or or...!  If his chat fails to make his point, he'll happily hoist himself onto your lap before repeating himself!

Punkin is proving himself the quiet cuddler... he is a little bit more cautious than his hell-bent-for-leather siblings and wants to look before leaping.  At night he is one of the ones who will quietly snuggle himself near me and settle in before looking at me like, "Well, no one was using that space where they?  You don't expect me to put up with those crazies really?"  (Punkin will be looking for a home after he is neutered, vaxed and microchipped.  The adoption fee will reflect only the cost of this vetting.  He would like a quieter home with snuggles by the fire-side and would be okay older/quiet dogs, gentle older children, other cats and kitty-friendly house-bunnies as he's been fine with Nilla here.)

And then there is Princess Peachie Pie... don't let those sweet eyes fool you, this one is an adventure princess who is the first into everything!  If there is a stalking-pouncing-chasing game she is sure to be in the middle of it but also is happy to curl up in your arms and doze half the night once she's had run play.  (Peachie will be looking for a home after she is spayed, vaxed and microchipped. The adoption fee will reflect only the cost of this vetting.  She would enjoy older/quiet dogs, children and other cats but may enjoy pouncing type games a bit much to be an ideal companion for a house bunny although she's never bothered Nilla here.)

 Quick puddins pics!  I missed the 5th weeks due to being ill and have the 6th weeks but my computer ran into some *cough* minor problems due to certain small cute people holding their sippy near it just as it's lid popped off.  Turns out computers don't swim well and it's having royal fits.  In the meantime I am having to use my laptop which doesn't have photo programs on it so it requires loading the whole files to photobucket and then resizing which is a pain! LOL

a rather perfect (somewhat soggy) mothers day

Mothers Day started here with me sneaking out with the three girls for training for "mommy time" while the kids got their surprise ready.  Nothing better in the world than time with my girls and coming home to the kidlets and a warm (and DRY) house!  :)

After flyball we started the girls on obedience.  We're trying to get back into practice as I'd intended last year to start trialing in obedience with them before we got totally sucked in by flyball. (To be fair we achieved FD, FD-X, FDCh and AFDCh so it's not as if we weren't having fun. *G*)

Initially a few weeks back I was told Rin would have to wait a few months for an opening in foundation (intended to teach novices how to train) because of recent structure changes made her considered "new".  Likewise Hope would have to test in on the next test day because of our extended break.  I said I'd just test both in at competition level classes instead.

When I came back last week we were thankfully able to bypass that all together and both did well where I popped them in and garnered a lot of comments... such clever girlies. :) This week we had small numbers, basically instructors only (read: few people are mental enough to think training in the rain on mothers day seems like rockin' good fun) so after flyball we had the option of running in higher levels than I've trained for at home or going home.  Naturally we decided there were a few centimeters of fabric yet to be totally saturated and stayed!  Rin was bumped 2 levels up from where I thought she should be and surprised me by getting compliments in everything but a blown stand-stay! (Poor dog, she loves to catch raindrops from the air so that was tough ask when those raindrops were just TAUNTING her by falling all over!) Hope got bumped up to CD level and did pretty well if not perfectly polished in everything except not tucking her bum neatly in left-about-turns.  They even gave us a taste of some more advanced exercises I gather are for higher levels - a broadjump and return (I thought she'd be confused but she did it very nice) and a send out to a box the dog must sit in before coming back out over a jump to you. (pretty nice but I'd not want to push it more than the meter and a bit I was sending from atm)  But I still get all melty when I present them with something they've never seen and they manage to fool everyone into thinking we know what we're doing!  Such clever, clever little poppets!

When I got home the kids were bursting with tea, cards, flowers, a love-heart La had decorated with 'lots of jewels and diamonds and sparklies', a new set of framed handprints (we do this every year, so I have a little collection of growing kidlet prints) and a big beautiful plant for my rainbow garden.  Between the kids and dogs (oh dear, those needed DRYING too...) I got clambered all over by the littlest members as well... little puddins have helped write this by batting at my fingers on the keyboard with their little purr motors going for the first time!  Isn't it just fantastic?

The puddins at 4 weeks old...

From L-R: Pipsqueek, Punkin, Peach and Possum

Bebe #1 Pipsqueek - we started solids this week and Pipsqueek has proven to follow his trend of loving his grub a little too much... straight into the middle of the bowl and tucking in with serious intent. We may have to alter his name to just Sqeek or Pip if he ends up tooooooo pudgy!




Bebe #2 - Possum, our teeny little lad... he's such a quiet little guy but I think he's rather clever. While his siblings are pushing around for the food like little piggies he just waits till they're done and I put fresh stuff down to eat without getting jostled!




Bebe #3 Punkin - I know it's not the best framed shot but it just cracks me up. Punkin is proving to be Pipsqueek's little shadow. Wherever Pipsqueek waddles first - and at this point it is waddling and wobbling rather than walking - after a brief think about things Punkin is right off after him.



Bebe #4 - Peachie-pie! Not one to be outdone she is just as adventurous as Pipsqueek but also likes to stick near her mumma. That can make it hard to decide if she should run off to explore or follow mum back in for a nap! LOL


Post photos... it's hard work being a model! Zzzzzz...

Pictures brought to you courtesy of our local friendly Puddin Wrangler, La.

The puddins at 3 weeks old...

In which the puddins get their baby names. I'm sure new owners will change them but I can't just call them puddins for the whole time so between La, Nic and myself the puddins have baby names!

Bebe #1 - Pipsqueek Still our feisty little chatterbox and the pudge of the litter, you can't cuddle him without a steady stream of itty-bitty-kitty gossip!

Bebe #2 - Possum He has a habit of curling his little tail up over your fingers when cuddling and with his soft grey fur and little white points and fondness of being cuddled up like baby possum in a pouch, it seemed an obvious baby name.


Bebe #3 - Punkin, still the cuddle bug of the litter and marked like pumpkin pie with a dash of whipped cream

and of course Bebe #4, our little Peach-blossom who continues to be the most adventure prone. La wanted to name her Coo-ee because she is the first to go for a wander! LOL

"Are you my momma?"

One of the kittens (3 weeks old now) toddled over to Hope (desexed Aussie Shepherd) tonight and nuzzled into her...

"Are you my momma?"
"Well.... I could be... if you want?"

"Well, okay, you smell a bit funny and you're awful big but you're fluffy and you've got nipples... close enough!"

*noise of nursing even if there is no milk*

Hopie is sniffing bebes ears to see if they need cleaning... bebes ears always seem to need cleaning in her opinion!

Hopie is a contented girl - babies big and little with her. LOL

The puddins at 2 weeks old...

As is the habit of small creatures, little ones get bigger. And in the grand tradition of things growing bigger, the puddins are a lot more wriggly and active than the last time I tried to get pictures of them - making it tricky to a picture!

Bebe #1 - how is it possible that the most active one (hence the plushie, otherwise he kept crawling to me) that is nigh impossible to get a shot of takes the nicest picture?



Bebe #2 - the smallest at about 210g but such a snuggly little guy :)


Bebe #3 - our little cheddar-n-cream kitten, on the squidge!


Bebe#4 The plushie trick was required for her as well - I think the next few weeks are going to be filled with little rocket kittens, zooming here and there!

The puddins at 1 week old...

Well some of them were more sleepy than others and more easy to get tollerably decent shots of but here are their one week old pics. :)

Bebe #1



(No prizes for why this one is nicknamed pipsqueek despite being the most chubby! He is very chatty!)

Bebe #2



Bebe #3



(Snuggled next to mumma or her paw anyway!)

Bebe #4... our little girl and the first to start opening her eyes

Hello world...

Meet our new little sweetlings, who arrived last night -

Two little ginger tabbies, one with colouring similar to our own Jasper and one with a white blaze and boots

a little blue tortoiseshell girl

and a blue-silver tabby baby with white blaze and boots.

They're just beautiful and doing very well with their mummy. La is over the moon, chattering about what we're going to name them and how many new toys he wants to buy them in a few weeks when they can play in between cooing over how gorgeous they are, how cute the little milk squeeks and slurps are, praising mummy for being brilliant and repeating everything he's ever been told about kitten development. I feel very sorry for his teachers in the following weeks as they and the class will undoubtedly be hearing ALL about every detail and factoid that he recalls. Nostalgia has hit BIG time, as he recalls our litters of foster kittens and Emi from last year as well. He still remembers each of them. He's not the only one nostalgia has hit either admittedly!

In the meantime, Hopie had a good time at the Hastings flyball comp and was doing a great job. I had an awesome time, given I had Nic minding both kiddos both days - which meant two full days of no kidlets and all dogs! I love my kids to bits but sometimes it's nice to miss them and just be myself without having to worry about what fresh chaos La is getting into. After a week of Lily having a sky-high fever for several days and did this all day so long, at least so long as she was being held...

as well as craptastic sleep and La having a few days where he was alternating between mad-hatter hyper and tolerating things badly this was especially welcome!

(La in an insane-but-happy moment. And anyone reckon SickLily has got the sad puppy dog eyes mastered? Just a bit?)

Last but not least a picture I'd meant to post awhile back. For those who don't know the back story, Shadow came to me from his owner via Maremma Rescue Vic. His owner "fudged" his history, saying he was used to sheep and poultry. Shadow quickly demonstrated he had some pretty significant issues with wanting to be predatory. He had us absolutely in despair over it and at my wits end because nothing seemed to work for well over a year and even when Jodie came over she couldn't see him acting with much guardian instinct. Not being safe around them here wasn't even an issue limited to our own animals safety but presented a major risk if he were ever to escape as not only would neighboring animals be at risk but their owners would be within their rights to have him destroyed. I kept working with him though because of just that reason... and scenes like this are VERY sweet! Yep... that's the dog who couldn't help but chase them and wanted to eat them. Snoozing next to his best buddy Timtam. The real test will come with the birds but we're moving slowly and cautiously at this point.