Welcome to the world...

A big "hi and hello" to little Jeanne, newly born daughter of our friends Olivier and Isabelle.
Bravo to both of you, she's gorgeous!
And a hearty welcome to you, little Jeanne, a little star born on French Mother's Day!

Do you play??

Sssscccraaatttcchhh....
That's about the noise that the kittens make when I have to "pluck" them off of me now ;-)
They're one month old and rabbit-hopping all around the room when I let them.
They're living in a foldable wire-pen I have for my rabbits and when I open the gate and walk towards the kitchen, I have three fluff balls dribbling after me to have a bottle.
They've reached the age when everything becomes a play. I think I have hardly ever seen anything as funny as those three furry balls of fluff playing tag and roll'em-over on the carpet. When one does a somersault and lands on its back, both other kittens leap on top of the first one and bite its toes and ears. The bundle of feet and legs then moves together, making it hard to tell where one kitten starts and the others begin. Occasionally, one of them will sit back on its haunches to rest a little, but the others are not ready to settle down and on it goes like this. I'm not sure who wins the fights, since they all seem to resolve themselves in all kitties collapsing at once in a heap and falling asleep on the nearest square of carpet.
Quiet then reigns for no more than an hour before someone in the pile stucks a paw in someone else's eye and the battle is on again.

I have to go now, I am being stared at by six hungry little eyes, accompanied by squeals that would wake even a hibernating bear. ^^

Pim-pidee-Pim

Where is the time you were so much smaller than the kittens and suckling from a bottle too??

Going on 4 weeks of age!

Oh, and they adopted the litterbox ;-) yipeee!!

thanks to Catharina for these pictures.

Sad songs say so much - Elton John

Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
And ironing out the rough spots
Is the hardest part when memories remain
And it's times like these when we all need to hear the radio
`Cause from the lips of some old singer
We can share the troubles we already know

Turn them on, turn them on
Turn on those sad songs
When all hope is gone
Why don't you tune in and turn them on

They reach into your room
Just feel their gentle touch
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much

If someone else is suffering enough to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it's easier to have those songs around
The kick inside is in the line that finally gets to you
and it feels so good to hurt so bad
And suffer just enough to sing the blues

Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say so much

The peace of wild things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

- by Wendell Berry


From Gillian's Tumblelog

Growing

Almost three weeks old now!!

Sharing wonders...

I just discovered some marvellous person...
A tumblelog with thoughts that have dwelled in my soul for years and years without ever being transformed into words.
I've always been persuaded that they would stay figures of smoke, ashes of words, just "feelings" in my head... It's good to see someone prove me wrong!
One person collected those feelings I talk about in a tumblelog resuming words of wonder.
All those things I thought I felt : I found assembled in poems, in quotes there on Gillian's TumbleLog.

Please visit, it's breathtaking.

ps : Oh, and Gillian, I can't leave a comment on your blog but thanks so so much for your comments on mine. I fell silent by all the wisdow your blog contains when reading it.

At last, I get it :

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the
daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem
less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart,
even as you have always accepted the seasons that
pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the
winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within
you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy
in silence and tranquility:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by
the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has
been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has
moistened with His own sacred tears.

- by Khalil Gibran

Eyes wide.... Shut or Open???

Some news from the kittens :

Pixel (the calico) was sick yesterday afternoon. I really thought she was going to pass away... But luckily she held on and we went to the vet this morning.
Pixel and Minimum (the tabby) are two females, Spook (the black one) is a little male.
Both females have an urinary tract infection and all of them are constipated because of the change mother-milk -> formula.
They have antibiotics for five days (tiny tiny doses) and their transit has to get well again within five days. If not, we'll have to change the formula.
They ate well today.
And... and ... and... Biggest news of all : Pixel opened ONE eye!! I took her in my hands this evening to feed her and one bright blue left eye looked at me. *happy sigh*

Keep your fingers crossed please!