+ Nutmeg = 5

I guess Nutmeg's here to stay. We can't help it. Other than his mange, he's started coughing, sneezing and wheezing. It's hard to see his tiny body racked by the wheezes. I wonder how it must be for him. We've also noticed that he has a slight limp. He also has some missing front teeth. Fortunately these are his milk teeth so he should hopefully have a full set later on, unlike poor Cory. And he has the biggest, saddest eyes I've ever seen on a kitten, and the teeniest, tiniest meow. Sometimes he opens his mouth and no sound escapes.

For all that, he is a very affectionate little fella. (I suspect that was what swung the case in his favour where Gravitas is concerned.) He will lie on our laps and purr loudly when we stroke him. He plays enthusiastically, not looking anything like a kitty on its last legs. Although he is supposed to be quarantined till the end of this week, we've started letting him out of his quarantine room (the bathroom) for some fresh air. His mange doesn't seem to be recurring so I think we've made the right decision.

Saffron has welcomed him enthusiastically, making friendly noises and overtures from the very begining but the others are still into hissing and avoiding him. It's amusing to see the Scary Spice Meow, Cory, who terrorises the others mercilessly freeze in his tracks when he encounters Nutmeg,who is perhaps one-fifth his size, then hiss and run away. He, along with Ginger and Pepa, have since progressed to sniffing or touching noses with Nutmeg before hissing and running away. We've observed the same process in the introduction of Saffron and Cory and this should eventually to acceptance (or at least tolerance) of the new fella, and is far better than pouncing on and attacking.

I suppose Saffron is glad to have a friend of his very own at last, someone to play and wrestle with (I don't know how the little fella tolerates being rolled on by a fat black and white sausage but he goes back for more) who doesn't disdain him (Pepa), or only responds half-heartedly when in one of his rare moods (Ginger), or plays rough and sends him scuttling for cover (Cory).

For those who wonder how we cope with five cats in a little apartment, we have no answer for you. Perhaps Nutmeg is still small, perhaps the baby is not here yet. There are those who think that cats and babies don't mix. Mumsie thinks the fur will interfere with baby's developemnt, MIL thinks the cats will jump into the cot and frighten baby. I suppose there are others who will have a thing or two to say about cat germs. No matter. We are not getting rid of them (partly because there isn't anyone who can or will take them in) and are in the (slow, slow) process of converting the last room into kitty land. With high rise limitations of course. Cory's present room is the proposed nursery..