3 little kittens

Thursday 17th: After finding out that Puss was pregnant yesterday, we gave her extra cream to drink and bits of fat to eat. She loved it. I then realized the reason I had been so frustrated with Puss over the last couple of weeks. Previously she would never jump on the kitchen counter, but lately she had regularly been hopping up there to see if there was any left over food to eat. Now I know it was because of the pregnancy. Just to be clear - she always has her dry food available. She obviously knew she needed a bit more though.
On reading up on cats pregnancies and birth it was said that you may tell that the birth is soon if your cat stops eating. So we were rather surprised after her feast last night, to have kittens in the morning.

Last night Puss had wondered off and so Brendon went to close the children's bedroom cupboard - hoping to encourage her to use the box we had set up in the passage cupboard for her. When he got up in the morning, I asked him to just check that she wasn't stuck in the cupboard (that he had perhaps not seen her last night). Shadow was following him when he went into the room and she immediately knew that Puss was behind the draws under Hannah and Hezekiah's bunk beds. So Brendon came to tell me and we worked together to get them out from under the bed and into the box in the cupboard.
Hezekiah was thrilled to have a little cuddle of one of the kittens soon after he woke up. He was one reason I was so glad it wasn't long till the birth. I think he would have been asking every day "when are the kittens coming". :-)
Puss was happy with us coming to see her and the kittens. She would purr away and enjoy a scratch under her chin.
Ruth and Hezekiah enjoying just being close to them.

The box is a bit small, but for now Puss is happy with it. We will get a bigger one for her, but I think for now she likes that it keeps her feeling safe.
We brought the box through to the lounge so that everyone could enjoy watching them a bit. And Puss could get some affection from Ruth.

Friday 18th: Our last Champion Centre for the year, and our last Friday session. It was nice to hand our Christmas cards and say our final "goodbyes" to the therapists. All but 1 of the Friday children will be moving to a different day next year, so at this point I don't even know which of the mothers I will get to see next year. It was a busy morning, so I didn't even get to ask everyone which day they will be coming next year.
In the evening Rachel and I headed to a Bible study at the farm. They have a "summer program" with a number of students coming to work on the farm through the holidays. They get a lot of bible study opportunity through the week with the official Bible study for everyone on a Friday evening. It was great that we could join them. Great encouragement from the word and then great to meet some new people too. The only negative was that I got bitten by something (most likely just a sand fly or something as small and insignificant) but my body has over-reacted again.
Brendon, Rachel and I all seem to really struggle with these silly bites. And the anti-histamine we have taken has not helped with the swelling.

Saturday 19th: Puss took a little while to adjust to the bigger box. At first she kept herself tucked up on one side. So it's nice to see her finally relaxing a bit more and enjoying the space to spread out.

More cuddle time.
Their paws are so sweet. They almost look see-through. And we noticed that the claws can't retract yet.

This morning Brendon and I got stuck into moving branches from inside the property. Thankfully Asher just LOVES playing in the old ute that Hezekiah has in the garden. And we could see her from where we were working. So we got to watch her and get a load of work done.

Ruth took a couple of photos. This one shows the top of the hedge. There is so much more light in the garden now that it has been trimmed. We have learnt our lesson though, and will make sure we get it trimmer more regularly. It was such a big job this time. We left it way too long.

In the afternoon we got a load of candy canes made. I am really enjoying the story Ruth is reading to us. :-)
We ended up handing out 126 cards with candy canes. Totally over 8,500 loom bands!!
Ruth and I worked really well together. We got a nice little production line going, with 5 candy canes on each loom. Ruth had some favourite parts, like stapling the candy cane to the card - so she always did that job. She also came up with helpful tips on the actual production (especially finishing them off - she changed it from how it was done on the video she watched). She also searched on-line for an idea of how to keep the curve, and so found that using a bit of pipe cleaner works well. So we got stocked up and had a fun couple of weeks of production. Hannah enjoyed working and earning "computer play" time.
Sunday 20th: Brendon finally got time to wash the van. He really hates having a dirty car, so I know it's been frustrating him for ages. Asher did get sopping wet, but thankfully not once did she try and eat the bubbles or suck the water out of the sponge. Hezekiah just loved washing the tires. :-)

Some photos with the kittens.

Asher getting a cuddle too. She is quite good with being "gentle" but I keep a close eye on her.