Back from Scotland!

Back home after my long weekend in Scotland and just taking a break from writing up my reports from the Shorthair Cat Club show.  I had a wonderful time staying with Valerie, Cameron & their gorgeous daughter Tegan, in Birnam - we visited Scone Palace on the Friday,  then drove up to Culloden on Sunday.  They have a new visitor centre at Culloden (new since I was last there in August 2006) and it really is impressive.  This time we had a guided tour of the battlefield with details of the battle positions and tactics -  fascinating stuff but depressing when you realise what a huge disaster it was for the Highlanders.  Then we visited the Clava Cairns,  ancient standing stones about 8 miles from Culloden and the setting for an important part of Diana Gabaldon's stories.   Hopefully I'll have a few photos to post later.

Nina's kittens are doing well after a bit of a setback last week - Nina developed mastitis just before I was due to leave,  which was rather scary as I thought I wouldn't be able to go.  She refused to let the kittens suckle for 2 days, as it was painful for her, hence became totally engorged with milk, and one nipple looked quite badly damaged - I was worried she'd end up with a huge hole like I've heard has happened to other queens.  I started her on Noroclav and luckily the kittens were just starting to get interested in solids - at 7am on Thursday morning I persuaded them all to eat some pilchard,  but had to leave things to Graham, who normally takes little interest in the cats!  He did very well though and managed to keep them going by syringing Liquivite into them several times on Thursday and Friday (they were drinking water by themselves anyway) and by Saturday Nina was recovering and letting them suckle again.  By the time I got back Monday evening she was almost back to normal and the kits had started putting on weight again (they had lost 20-30g each).  Now they are all eating solids really well and have put back all the lost weight and more.  Fingers crossed there will be no more setbacks!

Again, more photos of the kits to follow soon, once I get organised!