Awww baby kittens are born!

You may remember that last year our little wild cat, Barb, gave birth to a litter of kittens. At one point we had a fairly large family so we named them. Mum was Barb, dad Jim, we also had the kittens R Denise, Anthony, Baby David and Twiggy. The little family stayed with us all through then summer, then most of them vanished one day, apart from Barb and our pretty little R Denise. We guessed that maybe all the boys had gone off in search of pastures new. Barb and R Denise remained very close, and little Denise became more tame as the months progressed. A few weeks ago we noticed Barb was looking a little on the chunky side,we had not noticed any other cats around, but guessed she had had a one night stand! I followed R Denise one evening as I went to feed them, and noticed two little round things extremely close to her tail....... oh my goodness she's a boy! I'm afraid she will always be R Denise to me!

We knew the kittens were imminent, Alan and I were working in the casita when we heard Barb howling! I wondered if she was in labour, struggling. I crept into the barn where the noise was coming from and there she was in full sight of us, having made a little nest with three beautiful kittens. I think the photo below they were just a few hours old!

One week old and Barb looks happier

Musical alpaca's day!

We needed to have a day to spend time with the alpacas and give them injections. Nothing drastic, just ivomec which we vaccinate them with, to control parasites. We felt it was also a good day to play musical alpacas and move them around. Alan had planted oat hay for the girls in a new paddock, and they were about to think it was their birthday! The girls and their cria had been close to the house, so we could keep an eye on their babies through the winter, they were moved to were the boys were "hanging out!" The boys came back up to where the girls were prior to giving birth!

As the girls were in a small paddock, we used to let them roam and eat weeds in our outdoor areas. Silly them going to waste. I think they thought they were escaping and loved it!

Santa could not find his way out the first time!

Alan carried him to his mum

The girls have a munch on some weeds

The girls love their new paddock

Lovely weeds for the boys

It's all about Miliko

Little Miliko was unaware he was due to be castrated, poor lttle guy. So he was his normal cheerful little self. Alan and I had taken him the week before to our local vet where he was given a blood test leading up to his op.

One particular day, a couple of weeks ago, we were spending time with the alpacas, as I shall explain in my next thrilling installment. Miliko can see the alpacas when he climbs onto a wall, which slopes upwards on one side, but has a drop of about two and a half metres the other side. We cannot stop him, or Carlos climbing onto these walls, so we tend to try and ignore them and not make too much of a fuss, when we see them towering over us. Often both of the boys are running along the wall together. To my horror, I heard a slight squeal, and in a fraction of a second, I looked up and felt that Miliko had fallen, rather than jumped, off the wall. I shouted "Oh my God," and he hit the ground, with a thump, on his back!

I was so scared, I thought he had badly injured himself. He is a boney little boy, who had so recently had a major operation on his hip, and had just been discharged from the surgeon . He rather carefully manoevered himself to sit on his bottom, and then he shook from head to toe, as did Alan and I! We carried him into the house and cuddled him for a little while. Apart from, I'm pretty sure being fairly bruised, there was no great harm one. Little Miliko is like a cat with nine lives!

That same evening we took him to the vet to plan his castration, and we were informed his blood test showed up a liver problem, so the operation was on hold. He is now on liver protection pills for a month and then the blood test will need to be redone! Poor little Miliko, he does go through it!

He has n't learnt his lesson!

What a blooming palaver!

I had forgotten to share with you a slight bit of panic that arose, the night before I left England. Frankie, Kaci and I had a lovely time with Mark, Callie and Maisie until I had to say my "goodbyes," and balled like a baby, oh I hate goodbyes! Anyway, we were picking up Chris from work when I had a text meassage from Alan, saying "Can you phone me immediatley!" Well I wondered what on earth could have happened! Sadly when one of us comes away, something awful tends to happen, so I was pretty worried! I phoned him straight away, and he had just had his wallet stolen, from outside a service station, whilst filling up with petrol to collect me from the airpot the following afternoon. It's a large service station, on the auto via from Seville to Madrid, although just about fifteen minutes from where we live, so luckily we are regulars there.

Apparantly Alan had missed his pocket, and his wallet landed on the forecourt. He realised this about a minute on the road, when he patted the pocket, where his wallet should have been. He of course went straight back. As we are regulars there, they straight away looked at the cctv tape and saw exactly what had happened. A sneaky person, to keep it polite, had seen what Alan had done, and kicked Alan's wallet under his car, to enable him to pick it up when he thought no on was watching. Although this was seen, sadly the number plate could not be.

Of course the real worry was credit cards that were in the wallet.

I do totally understand security must be put into place, but Alan had not enough credit on the phone he had to phone and cancel the cards. We do have a contract phone in case of emergencies, but I had that in England, so the plan was for me to try and cancel the cards. I was able to tell them every password, what colour pants he wore, any other details they may want to know, or even better, could they phone him!!! Would they help, no bloody way! So we had to hope and pray the cards would not be used until I got back to England, and Alan could phone them from the contract phone. Surely there should be some sort of help to be organised in these situations?

Our good friend David took us to the police station the following day, not in Montoro as they seem to be doing work on the building, but to the tiny town of Pedro Abad, in fact where the service station is. There was a tiny office with three police men in, one of which was smoking away in a corner whilst on a pc. The policemen already knew of the incident, I told you Pedro Abad is small, and they just needed a few details from us. They also has seen the cctv tape and did not recognise the "baddy" . They shook our hands when we had finished, and off we went, really not expecting to hear any more about it, but Alan needed to report his driving license missing anyway.

About a week went passed, and we were in our local post office, where we collect our mail. The gentleman that works there told us he had a phone call from the police station in Seville. Some one had picked up Alans abandoned wallet in Seville, and took in to the police station. Would you believe they wanted our address to post it to us, amazing or what. Well I'm not sure that would happen in England. Of course the cash was missing from inside in but everything else was intact. So although a little lighter, all was well in the end!

Actually since publishing this blog entry, Alan said I was a "big fat liar".... no, no not really, as if he would dare, I had however got some facts wrong. Alan did not wait for me to come home the following day but contacted David and drove into Montoro. He kindly allowed him to telephone the credit card companies, so the panic was over slightly earlier than I remembered, sorry about that!

Another wonderful trip back!

I could not believe my luck! I was going to become a nannie, for the second time in approximately four months. The big question was once again, would the baby hang on in there, until I arrived!

I arrived in Brighton on Tuesday 2nd March, the baby was due a couple of days prior to this. I knew that having a few days with Frankie, Chris and the gorgeous little Kaci would be wonderful, leading up to Mark and Callies baby being born. So we spent loads of time together, and waited and waited! What a difference four months makes, from the two week old baby, I had tearfully left in November. Kaci was chatting away, and she told me lots of stories that only her nannie could understand ;) She is a very expressive little girl who loves to make faces, and gurgle away. It was such a joy to be with her. Obviously I miss the family loads, but the more she grows and becomes a real little person, the harder it is!

Kaci with my dear Uncle Charlie, he's 89 years young!

Kaci with Uncle Marky

Kaci's first swim

New hat!A lovely family photo!

Well eight days after Callies due date, they took her into hospital. Poor Callie and Mark have gone through rather a lot for this little baby, and it was almost time to meet him or her. Well my Mark being a fairly typical bloke did not really let his mum know what was going on, but I forgive you Mark :) Callie was induced around midnight of Monday 8th, and sent back home again... as they do because they feel you will be more relaxed at home. If it was me, I think I would just curl up on a bed and refuse to move. I remember when Frankie was in labour and us trying to concentrate on "This morning" and "Loose Women". But I am sure they are right! I am so pleased that Becky, Callie's mum was with them, as it was so wonderful for me to be with Frankie and Chris, and share their miracle! Mark did say he would have gone to pieces without Becky being there as support. I won't go into too many details but we got a phone call from Mark at around 3.30pm on the Tuesday. He sounded extremely emotional as he told us he had a little girl. She had actually been born at 1.36pm but Callie was very poorly and had to have an emergency blood transfusion. I don't think Frankie or I knew what to do or say, we just wanted to cry with what they had been through, but also in sheer delight that everything was ok now!

I was more than happy to give the new little family a day or so to enjoy being together, especially as Callie was so poorly, although I could not help being over the moon when Callie phoned us a few hours later, and said we could come up to see them. Kaci was fed, like the speed of light, and we drove at top speed as we knew visiting hours were nearly over. Frankie was almost skipping hehe!

Well what a little dolly, Maisie Rebecca Penfold, all wrapped up and sleeping soundly. Callie looked amazing, and Mark..... well he was white and shaking! "Never again" he said!

How difficult to see someone you love, go through what Callie had. Frankie and I felt pretty emotional after seeing him, we had never seen Mark like that before, (sorry Mark, I'm not doing much for your streed cred hehe) but I am doing wonders for your credentials as a loving partner and daddy :) I was lucky enough to see Maisie every day before I went back to Spain, Becky, Ross and Maisie's Uncle Jack always made me very welcome, thank you!

The proud parents

Mark still looks in shock

Beautiful, just beautiful!

Cuddling daddy

Little cousins!
Callie looks amazing!Proud daddy!

As the baby was late, I was lucky enough to be in Brighton for Mothers Day. We all spent a lovely afternoon together plus I even managed to catch up with Alans mum, brother, granddad and Jennie. Some lovely family photos below!

Terrible floods!

All through the winter this year, the rains have been beyond belief. When I arrived back from England in November until the middle of February we had aproximately 5 good days. I would say houses in the UK are built to withstand wind, rain, snow etc. Where as houses here in Spain, well certainly in the campo, are built to keep them cool, thick stone walls, tiled floors. We have no central heating, or carpets, we don't even have mains electricity. The winter has been extremely depressing! Everyone here has been feeling the same, although we know we are very lucky compared to some parts of the world, of course! I have posted some photos below!

Our track, we could n't drive up it for two days

The River Guadalquivir in Montoro

It burst it banks, you can see the tops of the olive treesAnd below

The Lake Arenoso is about 10 minutes drive from us

In November the lake was approximately 30% full, now it is over 80% full

RIP Marybelle

The beauty of the snow gave way to great sadness. Whilst wandering round admiring the beauty of our surroundings, we found Marybelle. She had passed away! The day before she seemed fine, she had eaten her dinner and we saw no cause for concern, so it was a great shock for us to find her. She is sadly missed. When we walk the dogs we would see her sunbathing or sheltering from the heat under an olive tree. Even when we go shopping I miss choosing her favourite fruit. We miss her!