I'm on ur fan, blocking ur overclocking

There's no point having a fan which wouldn't look out of place on a medium-sized hovercraft in your case, if an arctic weasel is going to go to sleep on it.

Damn weasels...

I can has n00bs?

It's been a while since I (the solicitor) have made a posting.  Those of you who know arbie and I will know that for the past month and a half I've been living interstate, because the commute between Brisbane and my new job would be a little bit unmanageable, otherwise.  In another few months, arbie and our perma-cats will be moving down to join me - hopefully we'll have found a cat-friendly landlord by then!

What this means is that despite the fact that the n00bs are systematically destroying our house, and using arbie's legs as a scratching post (if she had haemophilia she'd probably be dead by now), I have never met the n00bs in person.  Not fair! I do however get periodic videoconferences with them on skype, and occasional photos emailed or MMS'ed to me.  The last videoconference was particularly memorable because the lot of them were tearing around arbie's office at Mach 3, and I could hear their galloping paws building to a crescendo, then they would go shooting past the camera and into the other room.

Insane kitten derby

They also tend to infest her desk and keyboard. We have discovered that Skype has some kind of in-built "cat-like typing" detector.  When you (or a kitten's backside) mash down a bunch of keys for a few seconds, both ends of the chat session display an animated cat pawing at something.

Desk infestation

Somtime - thankfully - they are more sedate and are content to hang around for snuggles and/or a nap.

I believe this is Grand Master Flash

I think this is Flash too.  It's hard to tell when I've never met them! :(

Storm getting some quality napping time, wrapped up in arbie's jumper.

I was on the telephone with arbie, on speaker, when Storm wandered over, listened to my voice for a while, and promptly went to sleep.  I hope it's because I have a soothing voice and not because I'm boring.

However, I will be returning to Brisbane next weekend.  I'm taking my camera with me, so that we can have a propper photo shoot with the n00bs and get some studio-quality photos of them, so when they're big enough to go back to the AWL they'll have their modelling portfolios ready to go!  I'll post these pics as soon as they're ready.

(Apologies for the quality of the above photos, most are screen grabs from Skype video calls so they're of inconsistant size and quality - the ISP that my housemates use down here sucks)

Oh, Snap!

With most of Australia having experienced a cold snap in the past few days, it has been neccessary to relocate the n00bs from their enclosure. They now reside upstairs in the spare room, and seem to be enjoying it incredibly. They have put on plenty of weight in the last few days so the hope is that they keep it up. Despite being almost 6 weeks old, only one of them has cracked the 500g mark. I did finally manage to take a few quick snaps with a better camera than my mobile phone tonight though.

What's that sound?

The n00bs have settled in extraordinarily well over the last couple of days. It is wonderful to see them so unphased by things. I think these guys will grow up to be fantastic house cats who are easy going and take everything in stride - not an issue amongst them!

I'm getting the car serviced today, and the enclosure is under the house about 5m from the car. I was a bit concerned that they might be frightened by the sound of the car and the servicing, but rather than scared little kittens, they were all just very curious as to what the sound was. Instead of running away, they looked toward the noise trying to figure it out. So now I can happily work in my office upstairs safe in the knowledge I'm not scarring them for life by having the car serviced.

I am off to Bundaberg tomorrow to see my parents so my wonderful sister-in-law and her gorgeous daughters will be doing the kitten feed and cuddles on Friday evening. I know they are in good hands and won't be at all phased by the new people. I'm sure the girls will relish having these little ones to play with!

Here's some photos from yesterday.... looking foward to getting some shots with a better camera (these were taken with my mobile phone) soon.

n00bs

The new installment of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee have arrived!

They would have to be the smallest 5 week old kittens I have ever seen. But they are at the correct stage in their development despite their small size.

They made their grand entrance yesterday and had an absolute ball tearing around the enclosure and exploring every nook and cranny. After a bit of a chilly night cuddled up in a little kitten pile, they were all excitedly climbing about again this morning. Food seems to be secondary to exploration and play at the moment, but the weighing will need to begin in earnest tonight to ensure they are getting enough to grow. I might have to entice them with a bit of kitten milk mixed into the food for the time being.

So here are the n00bs:

Strike
Winter
Flash (hereforeto known as Grand Master Flash)
Storm
Juni
Breeze