3 is the Magic Number!!!!

This was the scene upon my descent to bed on Wednesday night...

Now normally I have no tolerance for cats on my bed at night especially Maisie who purrs in her sleep and sounds like a pneumatic drill and then there's the slight problem of piss on my landing carpet courtesy of Maisie whenever she is allowed in over night!  But anyway I must have been REALLY tired because I decided to give them a little treat and allow them to join me for the night...BIG mistake because at 4.45 I woke to the sound of Dotty licking the duvet cover furiously and when I peeked over the covers there she was grunting and pushing away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A total shock seeing as she had only been pregnant for about 5 minutes and had a very small bulge to show for it but anyway within about 20 minutes here the first one was....

What a wonderful sight until Dotty beared teeth and picked the whole kitten up in her mouth, with me thinking she was going to kill it (cats do this is they feel threatened or to help mother nature take it's course), she headed for underneath the duvet!  So I grabbed her and the little scrawny thing bearing some resemblance to a kitten and put them in the wardrobe where she promptly picked it back up and flung herself at the bed and under the duvet.

Sooooo what else could I do but sit downstairs with a coffee at 5.30 AM!!!!!!!  Whilst she brought 2 more scrawny little chickens into the world, this being the result....

OMG LOOK AT MY BED LINEN!!!!!!!!!

So there they were, VERY scrawny and far too little to be in this world, Dotty either had them too early or she is just too small and young herself to have been able to carry very healthy kittens.  I have left her to it for the most part, for the first 2 days she had no idea what she was doing, they didn't seem to be feeding very well and when she went in to them she would plonk herself on top of them.

However we are a few days on and despite my initial worries that they wouldn't make it past a couple of days, they seem to be doing well, Dotty has got the hang of it although when they sleep she buggers off out for hours at a time, but always seems to know to come back when they need feeding!  And here they are today....

You can see how tiny they are, they are all chicken legs and not much else!  We have two girls and a boy and one of them has got an eye open already which is a good sign!

Poppy is off to the vets tomorrow (sshhhh I haven't told her yet) to be "done" "spayed" "neutered" whatever you wanna call it, so that will be one down and as soon as Dotty is ready I will take her too I don't really want to put her through the ordeal again!

As for Marley he is still here, his back leg is back to normal and he has a final check up in a couple of weeks!  Busta came round to play the other day so I will leave you with some piccies of them...

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

A Pregnant Dotty and a Free Marley!!

Here she is, the current pregnant one!  She seems to be coping well so far although she is waddling like a duck!!

Please note the scruffy ginger mass behind her is the FAKE cat the BFF gave me for my birthday once because obviously 3 REAL ones was not enough!!!!!!!!

And I gave Marley the freedom he has been craving on Sunday at the meadows so wanted to share the photos with you....

Marley - loving life!!

Oh and this was a special one I took just for my twitter page!!!!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Exhaustion and Despair!

Poppy that is not me!!!  The three amigos went on Thursday and Friday last week and Poppy is now flitting between exhaustion and feelings of despair!  This is how I found her yesterday morning....

Sleep at last!!!

The funny thing is had we kept the kittens or even just one of them, Poppy would very quickly had disowned them (she absolutely can't stand Dotty), but I can't help but feel her pain when she has been wandering around the house calling for them and when she can't find them she just sits and cries a bit!  She spent ALL night last night crying for them!!!!

I on the otherhand am soooooooooooooo relieved they are gone, because with them they have taken the persistent smell of kitten poo and wee!!!!

Still Dotty is now up the duff (can you believe it!!!) so it won't be long until I am having to contend with hers grrrr..............

So poor old Marley is still confined to lead walks only although his legs appears to be pretty much back to normal!  I did a little naughty thing though and let him off the lead over the park the other day because it was lovely warm sunshine and Busta was out with us and I just wanted to let him have some freedom!  It was so lovely to see and he LOVED it.....

Right I am off to sort some washing out (I hate sundays!!!) and then I am going to take Marley for a sneaky roam around the meadows off his lead (don't tell the surgeon!!!).

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Couldn't Resist....

Posting these photo's of the three babies asleep on top of the tumble dryer!!

Happy Monday!

TTFN 

The REAL Marley and Me xxx

Manic Monsters!!!

Would you ever think that three bundles of gorgeous fluff would ever wreak complete and utter havoc to a household!  Well let me introduce you to Casper, Jasper and Tony - the manic monsters....

Excuse the pink hue which is from my phone case somehow!!

Adorable....

Aren't they?!!!

Yes they are but at the same time demonic!  They are EVERYWHERE!!!!  Up the curtains, down the back of the sofa, under the sofa, under my feet, eating the bottoms of my trousers, up the stairs, running for the front door every time it opens trying to escape and running like it's life or death when I put their food down!

So they are now weaned on to solid food which means POO!!!!!  When they are little and only nursing from mum they don't wee or poo!  What happens is the mother cat licks their bottoms to make them do a wee which she then consumes herself (EWWW!!!!!!) it's fascinating to watch (which I promise I don't do on a regular basis), because the kitten lays perfectly still with a glazed look on it's face while the process is happening!!

They have all been sold and are going to two lovely families (Jasper and Casper are going together) and as much as I truely love them and they make my heart melt when I look at them, I just can't WAIT for them to go!  To not have a litter tray indoors anymore and to be able to shut Poppy out so that she can't constantly scavenge for food!!!

Sleepy babies!

Marley on the other hand is doing very well, he is using his leg much better and I am hoping that in a couple of weeks he will be able to go to the meadows for a run!  It's boring not being able to walk him in a field he doesn't get up to much mischief when he is confined to short lead walks and indoors all the time!

I started a new job a couple of weeks ago which has required me to employ a dog walker 3 days a week and she seems to be bonding well with Marley (not that I ever see her), he seems happy enough with his new routine and I am glad that I don't have to worry about him while I work all day!

Just chillin!!!

So once we are in the meadows again I am sure their will be plenty of tales to tell but apart from a couple of ninja cats doing moves on a garden fence outside the school the other day nothing much has happened for Marley bless him!  Fingers crossed for normal mania to resume shortly!!!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Marley and THOSE legs!!

So Thursday was the day of Marley's check up!  As I suspected he is not performing as he should on his back leg and so X-rays were required which meant ANOTHER general anesthetic   This is what he looked like when I picked him up....

You can't help but laugh at this picture despite his obvious misery!

If only he could speak!

Or maybe he wouldn't have been speaking to me at all!!

The Surgeon's verdict is undecided.  He said there is nothing too obvious to point to why he is not using his leg properly although the inside hasn't yet healed properly   So he is back on anti-inflammatory pills for 2 weeks and then I have to ring in for a discussion on what action to take next.  He did say he would like him to have hydro-therapy (!!!!) but I am not sure I have either the time or the insurance cover for that so I am going to have to make some enquiries tomorrow!

We got poor Marley home and he really didn't know what was going on!  He kept standing  in the living room and swaying and when he did eventually sit down, he was drooling and his head kept falling to one side as he dozed off which then woke him up again!  He did eventually go to sleep against his will in the position he fell in....

He's still alive don't worry!

So we still can't go for proper walks which has been a real shame with the sun making an appearance this weekend!

The GIANT kittens are growing second by second, so much so that I have transferred them from the litter tray to a box because Poppy couldn't fit in with them anymore, so I will leave you with some heart melting piccies of them!

Scrummy!!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Hazel Cottage in the Sunshine!

Hazel Cottage comes into it's own in the Summer.......

And so with the sun having his hat on today (although giving no warmth whatsoever!) I just had to share my house with you!

I give you Hazel Cottage!

   

It's a shame the roses round the porch haven't bloomed yet

 but they are gorgeous when they do and smell heavenly!

My lovely Easter plant - a present from my Mum instead of an Easter egg!

Today has been a glimpse of what Spring should be like albeit -10 degrees!  I fear that we are going to skip Spring and go straight to Summer which will be a shame, but anything above 3 degrees will be a blessing!

TTFN!

The REAL Marley and Me xx