LONDON CALLING

Ruby cleared the table and made sure it was played for dinner she then sat down to do knitting. Jess walked Abby around to the garden and stood watching her play with Finn as he ran around her happily barking and jumping up. She looked up at the sky and saw grey clouds drifting over as she felt and saw the first snowfall of the season.

Jessie walked round the corner and smiled seeing Abby playing with Finn he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and he looked back to see Yu standing behind him. " hey looks like snow" he said to him Yu looked up and took a long deep breath in and nodded.

"yes it does, should be good for Christmas." he smiled as he looked at Jessie and then moved on to head further to the west grounds Jessie followed behind him.

As Abbey and Finn were running through the yard, Finn suddenly seemed to take a dive to dash under a bush, with Abbey right on his heels. Finn growled, and then Abbey saw what he was growling at.

"No, no, Dum Dum," Abbey was talking to Finn, crawling deeper under the bush. "No eats it! Not for eat it. Gimme! Gimme it! No eats it! Mine! Mine, mine, mine! Leggo! Mine! Dummy!" She seemed to take something away from Finn and was soon sitting on the ground, half way under the bush, holding something.

"An' Jess, looky! Looky what I gots. I no know wassit, but no let dum dum dog eats it."

Abbey really wasn't sure what it was that she held in her hands but, what she had was a tiny runt of a newborn, ginger and white kitten.

Jess saw her head to the bush and heard Fin growl, slowly she walked over to it and then saw what Abby held "wow, its a kitten" she said and looked around " were there any more under there and did you see it mommy?" she asked taking the small kitten from Abby so she could look and see Jessie and Yu heard Abby as they passed and paused turning back they walked over to the bush Jessie knelt with Abby " lets look together, Finn stay" he comanded and the dog sat down to stay put.

Kneeling down he crawled under the bush to be met by four more bundles shivering under the bush. Glancing around he could not see the mother. "strange." he said to himself. "Okay Abby im going to give you two and I'll take the others , okay , take them with Jess to the barn , you know where that is right." he asked her placing down a black and a black and white kitten.

Abbey nodded and scooped up the two kittens that Jessie got out from the bush.

"No look like kitties," she said, wondering why they looked like mice. "looks like mousies."

She stood up and took the kittens into the barn where Kate had just arrived to check on some of the small animals since the first real cold snap of the season seemed to be setting in.

"What do you have, Abbey?" Kate asked.

"Ant Jess say it kitty. It's mousie," Abbey nodded.

"Let me see," Kate said. She went over and looked at the newborn kittens. "Jess is right, Abbey. These are tiny baby kitties. They were just born probably in the last couple days."

"They got mousie tails and no ears," Abbey said.

"They'll get more fur as they get a little older. and their ears will stand up too in a few days. We can come out every day and you can see how their ears stand up. Where were they?"

"Under a bush. I tell dog they no be for eating," Abbey said.

"Well, you're right. They're not for eating. I don't know if Finn would have really eaten them or not, but I'm glad you found them because its too cold for them outside. Did you see the mama kitty?"

"No. No see no mama."

"Well, we are going to have to feed them with an eyedropper for awhile, probably every hour or so. It will be a very busy job. We'll have to see if the guys are comfortable doing that because if they're not, we'll have to take them in the house and make a bed in a box for them."

When Jessie came into the barn, Abbey looked at Jessie.

"Gam says they gots to eats lots. You know to feed them?" She wanted to be sure Jessie knew how to do this thing right. It made Kate laugh, watching Abbey get all maternal and protective about these newborns.

Jessie came out from under the bush and with Jess they walked to the barn , on entering he smiled at Abby and nodded " yes they do, they need milk but a special milk, they would have got it from their mommy but shes not here." he said setting them in a warming stall and heading to the room at the back , once he made a jug of milk he brought several droppers and set it down close to the kittens. 2 no abby each kitten should have two maybe three droppers no more, they have very tiny tummys" he explained and picked one up , he glanced at Kate to make sure hed done it right since he was new to caring for kittens.

It was now he saw a ginger cat walk in the door and stop she looked at every one before alking over to the stall and sniffed , Jessie could see her back paw was hurt and her coat was matted he put his finger to his lips to Abby " lets see if mommy wants her babies" he spoke softly as the cat moved and lay down with the kittens then tooka sip of the warm milk. Jessie and Jess looked at Kate " I did not think she would apeare, im glad she did." he said seeing the kittens suckling from her.

Jesie sat back watching the mother cat with the kittens but he felt the kittens could use more " Kate do you think we could feed them also just to give the mother a break?" he asked looking up at Kate " it might help demesticate them and I think I could use some hel " he said looking at Abby " you want to help me take are of them, you did so well with the mice a while back." he said with a smile as Yu handed him a full serindge to give the smallest kitten who was struggling to feed.

"Be careful giving an adult any milk products, Jessie," Kate said. "Cats are lactose intolerant, so dairy product could make a grown cat sick. I'll take the runt, and see if I can't get him to feed without aspirating him. When they're so tiny, that can be tricky business."

Kate had to adjust the position of the tiniest kitten so he could drink without the formula going into his lungs. She fed him slowly but steadily until she felt him slow down in eating. Then she was careful to burp him in a manner very similar to human babies.
"Don't forget you really do have to burp them--gently. And here," She said, handing each of them some cotton balls. "Remember they don't know how to potty yet either." She took care of that for the tiny kitten, knowing they'd catch on. Then she took a warm cloth, cleaned some of the formula mess from his tiny face, and brushed his fur with an old toothbrush to clean him.

"When the vet comes, we'll have him tend to her paw, but we'll try to keep her in here to keep her and the kittens safe and warm and fed," Kate said, placing the runt with its mama. "Well, done, Abbey, you did a good job finding those babies. They can be safe and warm now."

"She need a bankie," Abbey said.

"Yes, she does need a warm blankie, doesn't she?" Kate smiled. "We'll get her a couple of them so she can make a warm nest for her and her babies."

"And foods!"

"Yes. We'll get her some food too. Good girl for thinking of all those things," Kate smiled. "You're becoming a good little helper with the animals. Come with me." She took Abbey into the store room and gave her a couple bowls. Kate put some chicken in one bowl and used a warming spell to warm it up a little for the mother and then stirred in some kibbles for the extra nutrition. Then she handed her another bowl for water. "Take these to Jessie. Ask him to put some water in the empty bowl." Abbey nodded and went back out to where Jessie and Yu were.

"Gam say mama needs foods and water," Abbey told Jessie, showing him the bowl of warm chicken and the empty water bowl. "You help with water? Gam bring bankies."
Kate filled a kennel sized sandbox for the mother and took it and two warm blankets out to put into the stall for the mother, and Abbey ran back into the store room and opened a plastic tote and got out a couple of jingle ball toys and ran back and added those to the stall as well.

"Well, that was very thoughtful of you," Kate smiled at Abbey. "She's got everything she could possibly need now. Good job, Abbey."

"I wanna kitty," she told Kate.

"We'll have to ask your mama or your daddy first," Kate told her. "Which one do you want?"

"The orng one," Abbey said, still working on the word orange.

"Oh. The little orange one," Kate said. Abbey nodded. "We'll ask mama or daddy later." Abbey nodded.

Jessie listened to Kate and nodded as she spoke of how to care for the kittens. He did exactly as she mentioned to each kitten then smiled as Abby brought two bowls one for food and one for water " all right, and only if you want " he said and stood up taking the bowls he filled them with food opening a tin he let Abby put it into the bowl, Yu took the second and paced some clean water in it. Placing both down The mama cat drank the water and ate some food before settling down half on her bac so the kittens could feed. Yu smiled as did Jessie as he looked up at Yu.

He saw her bring over some toys for the kittens and smiled at her " so what would you name him?" he asked stroking the tiny head of the orange kitten as he watched the mother tend to the kittens. He clened each with the damp cotton bal to make them go bathroom then placed each back with their mother.

Angus and Andrew set out a wide variety of meats, cheeses, crudité, pickled vegetables, some eggs, some fruit, and a large platter of breads and crackers as a rather gourmet ploughman's. Angus asked Andrew to set out some bottles of beer in case someone wanted to be very traditional. Andrew also set a large steaming kettle of hot spiced wassail. Angus liked wassail in cold weather. It was one of his favorites. As a dessert, Angus made some large chocolate chip cookies. It was all finger foods, but it was still traditional comfort fare, and it let people take what they wanted.

"I no know," Abbey shrugged when they asked her what she would name the kitten. "Maybe Punkin."

"I wonder what the mother hurt her paw on," Kate said.

"Teefs," Abbey said, watching the kittens. "Big metal teefs."

"Metal?" Kate frowned. "Tell me about these teeth." Abbey moved her hands like a cat walking and showed her that the cat was walking, stepped on something and said the big teeth bit the cat's foot. "Like a trap?" Kate asked. Kate accio'd a book from the store room and opened it to a picture of a foothold trap and showed it to her. "Like this?" Abbey nodded. Kate looked at Jessie and Yulong. "If someone really is setting traps on our land, then someone is on our land who doesn't belong. You two had better alert Jack and the entire outdoor crew to be careful and to remove any and all traps they find. Brian does not allow any sort of traps on this property at all."

Jessie and Yulong watched little Abby as she motioned with her hands , Yu looked at Jessie and both men nodded. Watching Kate they looked at th picture and frowned " of course" Yu said and grabbed Jessie by his hand to walk outside and over to Jack where he proceeded to tell them about the trap the cat had hurt its paw on.

"hum.."Jack said then pointed to two men " you check the west wood and you the east, Jessie , Yu take the south and I'll check the north, and for the love of all thats holy be caeful" he added and each left to check out their assigned woods.

Ruby sat inside watching as the men lsft she smiled seeing the food layed out " this looks wonderful" she said placing down her book and looking at Abby " I think Pumkin is a perfect name for him." she said gently stroking the kittens head as it purred in Abbys arms.

Angus and Andrew put out the ploughmans and the wassail and the cookies. They knew everyone was busy right now, so, with a lunch like a ploughmans, everyone could drift in when they had the time to do it.

After setting out lunch, Andrew went upstairs to Angus and Ruby's room to finish taking out the last of their things temporarily and to clean it and ready it for Zoe, who was to arrive this afternoon. Nicky and Shannon were supposed to arrive with their two children after supper tonight, and Andrew had been working on getting their cabin ready for them. That was, for now, as good as it was going to get. Andrew was going to take some platters of the chocolate chip cookies and put one platter in the cabin to welcome Nicky and Shannon, and he was going to put a smaller platter upstairs to welcome Zoe.

Angus decided to make two large lasagnas for supper. He was going to make one with a bolognese, and the other, he was making with vegetables and an alfredo sauce, with a large caesar salad and some garlic breadsticks. For dessert, he had decided on a Victoria sponge. It was hearty comfort food meal that he could prepare in advance and let it just heat slowly in the ovens.

Kate came in from the barn, as Angus was taking a basket to go in and start gathering ingredients.

"Can I help you gather things?" she asked him. "What are we making?"

"A lasagna with a bolonese sauce and a vegetable lasagna with an alfredo sauce," he said. "And then I want to make a big caesar salad and some garlic breadsticks and a victoria sponge."

"Well, let's knock out the lasagnas first," she said. "I'll gather up the ingredients for those, and let's get them prepped. Maybe by then we'll have another hand for some of the rest of it. If not, I'm sure we can get it all done in plenty of time."