Category Archives: Kittens

Bye Bye, Baby!

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Bye Bye, Baby!

I’m finding myself a little more boo-hoo about the kitten being gone than expected. So easy to get attached to such an adorable little thing! She’s off to a good home though, and I’ll still get to see her growing up, so it’s all good. But still … waaaaah!

I cleared the living room of kitten tending goods, treated the rug and furniture with flea spray, have the bedding in the laundry, showered my cats with affection and playtime, and after a little bit of lunch, I do believe a nice long nap will be in order. I’m hoping that once my monsters have had the chance to share the sunny spot on the bed with me again, peace will return to the household. It hasn’t yet. Ronin is still being grouchy, and he’s making sure we all know about it.

I’m sure I’m not the only living creature in the house looking forward to the end of the hissing, growling, snarling, and whining. He can really be obnoxious when he feels put out, and it doesn’t take much to make him feel put out. The tiny interloper seems to have pushed him entirely over the edge, but I’m sure he’ll get over it in a day or two. He better. It’s becoming intolerable. LOL!

Well, time for lunch … and then cat cuddling and snoozing. I am seriously wiped out! I was wiped out pre-kitten, so I could definitely do with some sleep.

And cat cuddling. I haven’t spent much time with my own monsters for two days, and that’s really unusual. I miss my monsters!

Memories

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The kitten squeaked a few times, but she was quietly playing in the carrier, so I just left that be. She’ll get hungry shortly, and there’s no ignoring her when she’s hungry. She’s got a squeak that could break glass, and she knows how to use it. While I’m sitting around waiting to make some formula and feed the baby, I’ve gone back to the beginning of Ronin’s and Myu’s life with us. I can’t believe it’s been four years. It’s been making me smile to remember their early adventures.

The night before we went to pick them up, while I was frantically getting the house ready and making sure we had everything we would need for kitten safety, health, and fun, I posted this:

They may be perfect angels from the get-go and won’t need to be locked up often. Or … they could be total hellions who get into everything.

If ever there were famous last words, those would be them! I’m still waiting for them to become perfect angels. Ronin and Myu are both mental in their own unique ways. Ronin is Emo Cat, and Myu is Needy Cat. They can be perfect angels, but only if they really, really want something, and they didn’t fully figure out that method would work until Tora came along two years later. Tora is my Perfect Angel.

I better go check on the kitten again, and if she’s not ready to eat, I am going to go to sleep for a little while. There’s no chance of me sleeping through her squeaking, not with the carrier right by my head. LOL!

Because I’m feeling reminiscent, here’s the what Ronin and Myu looked like on their first night home:

And the first photo I took of Tora:

Ah, the memories!

Unexpected Kitten

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I would love to stretch out and close my eyes, but I know as soon as I do, the kitten will wake up and be hungry or require some other kind of attention. As soon as she is back to sleep after the next period of kitten activity, I will set my alarm for three hours, I will stretch out on the couch, and I will go to sleep. I got a few hours of sleep this afternoon, so I am not completely the walking dead, but I was already somewhat wiped out when I unexpectedly found myself mothering a kitten. I’m tired. Really, really tired.

In fact, I can’t remember the last time I was this tired. I think it was when Final Fantasy VII was released and I worked my full-time shift at my corporate job during the day and pretty much stayed up all night playing that game while simultaneously working on artwork. There are two good things about achieving this level of being tired: the calibration on my Tired Meter has been reset, and insomnia will likely not be a problem for a while. Always look on the bright side of life!

Then, of course, there has been the kitten. I can’t complain about the unexpected kitten. Stressful? Yes. Delightful as well? Oh yes. Especially delightful as soon as I knew she was going to a fantastic home where she’ll have a life full of adoration, love, and spoiling. At that point, I could start enjoying this as one of life’s interesting diversions. Memories. Sweet, adorable kitten memories.

Oh, right on schedule … I hear squeaking coming from the living room. Time to go baby the baby, and then … at least a couple hours of sleep.

Zzzzz.

Kitten News

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I’ve been on Kitten Time for an entire day now. About three hours of snoozing followed by an hour of semi-rambunctious activity. This system may work well for kittens, but it’s not working so well for the human who was already sleep deprived and physically under the weather when the kitten arrived. I’d bet good money that tomorrow afternoon will be devoted entirely to sleeping … in the bed instead of on the couch … without any alarms being set.

She’s finally eating better today. A little more than a teaspoon at each feeding, which is more or less about what she should be eating. She’s still not into eating from the bottle, so this last time I put the formula in a tiny little glass bowl and held it at an angle, and she went at it with gusto. I’m just glad she’s consuming more than she was yesterday, because I was beginning to worry. I also offered her some water in the little glass bowl, and she had some of that too. Yeah!

And we’ve finally had some poo. Not the healthiest looking kitten poo ever, but I’ve seen worse. Good thing she has a vet appointment in the morning. She may have a bacterial infection, and while I would be surprised if she didn’t have worms, I didn’t see any really obvious evidence that she did. I still wish I could do something about the fleas, but aside from the few I got off with the flea comb (ever try to flea comb a tiny wiggling kitten – ha!) and just picking them off when I see them, I’ve got nothing appropriate to use to deal with fleas on such a tiny little baby critter.

With the higher intake of food, the little thing has become WAY more active. She’s not a fast-mover (yet), seeing as she’s still not 100% coordinated, but oh she tries! This afternoon she’s been very playful, basically attacking toes, fingers, and folds in fabric … even trying to pounce, without much success (though totally hilarious to watch). She’s going to be a handful once she figures out walking, running, and pouncing. But boy … is this an adorable kitty.

Lin just got home and Ronin realized he’s been in the same room with the kitten. The silly cat has been in here with me for at least 30 minutes and even rubbing against my leg and getting head scratches without a single hiss. Lin comes home, pays attention to Ronin and then dares to pet the kitten. Nothing but hissing, and now he’s off in the bedroom sulking. I described Ronin as “24 pounds of emo” this morning, and that is possibly the best description of him ever. Silly moody (jealous) beast. We’ll have to shower him with attention all weekend so he knows Mommy and Daddy still love him best of all. LOL!

The other two cats have settled into their usual routine, and their method of dealing with the small intruder is to simply not acknowledge its existence. After all, their food bowls are overflowing, the water is fresh and clean, the litter box has been scooped, and their still getting belly rubs and ear scritches, so there’s really nothing to get upset about, right? Well, until the little dear squeaks at them and the illusion of kitten non-existence is broken. Then the two girls hiss lightly with little conviction and toddle off for a nap. Good kitties.

I need to start contemplating what to do about dinner. It’s pizza night, of course, but I’m pretty sure I am not up to making a pizza, though I did run to the store to get cheese this morning. I intended to make pizza tonight. Maybe I still will, just not right this minute. The kitten just woke up again and wants to play. Once she’s expended her energy and passes out again, I’ll tuck her into the carrier and try to get the pizza made. Then, of course, she’ll be hungry again too!

New Kitty!

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There is currently a tiny kitty sleeping in the pocket of my hoodie and cat mayhem reigns in my household. You see, a kitten was found at Lin’s office complex –a very tiny and young kitten– and now it’s sleeping in the pocket of my hoodie.

It’s not staying. I swear, I have to find it somewhere else to be. We just don’t have the room or the money for another cat. I called a bunch of shelters and rescue groups, though not yet all in the area, and no one has room except the city shelter, but their euthanasia rate is through the roof. I consider that a REALLY last option. All the same, I do need to find a place for this kitten to exist other than at my house.

In the meantime, Lin is off getting stuff to feed an unweaned kitten (doesn’t seem to even have a concept of what eating is), and I have an adorable kitten sleeping in the pocket of my hoodie … and my current collection of cats are annoyed about the whole situation. Once Lin gets back and can kitty-sit, I’m going to clean up the cat carrier (Sasha has been using it outside for sleeping in) and find a large box to use as a playpen. It’s got to sleep and exist somewhere until I find it somewhere else to be.

Today has not gone as planned. The kitten isn’t the only thing that wasn’t planned, but at least it’s adorable and snuggly, unlike the other unplanned things that happened. Every one of the unplanned things though comes with a whole lot of extra hassle, kitten included.

I cannot become attached to the oh-so-adorable kitten. I have got to find it somewhere to be ASAP.

[forgot to hit post]

Lin got home. I tried feeding it. It’ll lick the milk stuff off my finger, but no amount of coaxing will get it to use the bottle. I got some food into it. It fell asleep purring, so I guess it’s good for now. I’ll try again later.

I’ve got the cat carrier set up with loads of soft cuddly towels and blankies, and it’s in there now snoozing. My entire house is echoing with the sounds of Ronin hissing. Not hissing AT anything. Just hissing, because he’s annoyed. He’s always annoyed about something, so this really isn’t anything too terribly new. It’s very possible he will be sent to the bedroom for a timeout soon. The other cats are only mildly annoyed and actually don’t seem to care too much about the new small furry thing in the house.

Going to make dinner, eat it, watch some TV, and hopefully get the new kitty to eat some more later.

Flying Palmetto Bug Hell

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Just after midnight Monday night, I was peacefully sitting at my desk closing up my browser tabs and preparing to shut down my computer for the night and go to bed. Without warning, the largest palmetto bug I have ever seen flew from somewhere behind me, bounced off the side of my head, ricocheted off my computer monitor, and fell onto my mousepad. I would have screamed and/or jumped back from my desk, but I was, in fact, frozen in horror until the thing ran under the monitor of my old PC. And thus began 24 hours of Flying Palmetto Bug Hell.

Once I’d regained my senses somewhat, I turned on the light in the den, attracted the attention of my bug-hunting cats, and began poking the monster from hell out of it’s hiding place. Much squealing and jumping around occurred (on my part). Eventually, it relented and zoomed out of its desk top hiding place and headed straight for one of the bookshelves. The cats, always interested in fast-moving objects, began their chase.

Alas, the nasty bug didn’t make a sound or come out of hiding again, so the cats lost interest. I’m not even entirely sure they ever actually saw the thing. It was definitely a “bogey fast mover” of the highest order. I believe they were merely reacting to me showing intense interest in that particular bookcase. Surely had they seen it, they would have never calmly gone to bed without digging it out of its hiding place and eating it, right? Anyway, the end result was that I had to go to bed and sleep knowing full well there was an extra occupant that night, and it did not make me happy.

The next morning, as Lin was sitting in the living room watching the morning news and having coffee, there came a scream of horror. I didn’t have to ask what the cause was, I recognized it as the scream of horror any human would have upon seeing such a large and obnoxious cockroach flying around a room. Lin made haste out of the living room with anything he deemed important enough to save from the invasion, and the cats and I moved in to do battle. Well, this thing was quite proficient at flying. In fact, it seemed to prefer flying to walking. Anytime I got within three feet of it, it took off bumbling around the room in mid-air the way these things do. They may fly, but they never fly well. They aren’t terribly aerodynamic. Very erratic flight paths!

After a whole lot of screaming, cursing, broom-waving, and other activity, the vicious bug flew into the kitchen and headed straight for the boxes of craft supplies under my art table. The cats followed close behind and started keeping watch waiting for some sign of where exactly it was. I retired to the bedroom with a book and my phone, because I had about enough of dodging a dive-bombing cockroach from hell for one morning. Unfortunately, the cats gave up shortly thereafter and demanded entrance into the safety of the bedroom. I let them in and then avoided the kitchen as much as possible for the rest of the day. Eeeew. It was still there somewhere!

Last night, shortly after dinner, I heard the cats thumping around in the kitchen. I went to investigate, knowing full well the damn bug had finally come out from under my art table. As I entered the hall to go to the kitchen, I stopped in my tracks when I saw all three cats sitting on the kitchen table staring at a spot over the doorway. They looked at me and meowed. I went around to the other entry to the kitchen … the one that had a light switch by it. Turning on the light, yes there it was just over the door to the hall. EEEK! I grabbed the broom and prepared to do battle and kill the thing.

But no, it did not want to die, and so we went another few rounds of flying around the room trying to smack me in the head again (and me screaming and squealing through the whole thing). The cats did their best to help, but it refused to get anywhere near cat or floor level. Eventually, it ended up in the glassware cabinet. Oh just perfect! I opened the cabinet doors, left the room, and waited. It’d come out again. It had to, right? OMG EEEEW! My glassware!

About an hour later, I heard the cats being active in the kitchen again, so I went to see what the horrible bug was up to now. Apparently, I had done it some damage when going at it with the broom, or maybe it was getting tired and just made a fatal mistake, but it had somehow ended up at floor level hiding behind the fire extinguisher. Ronin and Tora were lying in wait for it to come out. I assisted by making damn sure the nearby cabinet doors were fully closed, and then I moved the extinguisher. It ran right up the cabinet doors and wedged itself into the crevice between the kitchen counter and the lower cabinets. Well, there really wasn’t anywhere for it to go from there.

I tried to get it out with the broom, but it just wedged itself further into the crevice. Since that’s mostly at cat level, and the cats were on the job and ready to get at the thing, I moved their stool over there to give them better access, and went and sat at my desk to keep an eye on the activity. Myu lost interest quickly, but the one leg and one antenna that was visible (and moving) kept Tora and Ronin very interested. Now it probably could have stayed where it was until the cats lost interest, but for some stupid unknown big reason, it left its mostly secure hiding place and ran into the pile of plastic soda bottles for recycling.

Tora and Ronin jumped in bravely, and within short order, I saw the two of them scurry under the table, followed by the usual sounds and activities of cats playing with prey. Fighting over it really, because it would make a tasty cat snack (at least those two seem to think so). A few minutes later, all the cats were lounging in their usual locations, so I figured the ordeal was over, relaxed and went on with my life. I expected to wake up the next morning to find some leftover bug bits somewhere in the house as per the usual cat modus operandi. NOT!

As I headed to the bathroom to wash my face and get ready for bed, I noticed Ronin and Tora at the end of the hall doing something. At first, in the dark, I thought they were just clawing at the bedroom door (which I’d been keeping closed to protect at least one room from Flying Palmetto Bug Hell), but no … when I turned on the bathroom like, Tora’s hunting movements informed me quite clearly that the thing was not in fact dead and eaten. Before I could close the door to the bathroom to cut off it’s only path of escape, it dashed along the wall and slipped into the bathroom, Tora hot on it’s trail.

Unfortunately, the cats have finally been trained (mostly) to leave the bathroom trash can alone, and so once it was behind said trash can, they didn’t want to go after it anymore. That was fine my me, really. I grabbed my broom, carefully moved the trash can, and smashed the thing into the corner as hard as I possibly could. EEEEEEW … BUG GUTS! I wiped up the residue, flushed it down the toilet, and then the cats and I enjoyed a slice of turkey for a job well done. Tora got a point for the initial capture, Ronin got a point for maiming the thing, I got a point for the death blow, and I guess Myu got a point for being calm and collected under pressure … and for being cute.

I’m just glad the horrible thing from hell is dead and gone. Unless you have experienced these flying menaces, you can’t possibly know how awful they are. With our winter and spring being as mild and wet as they were, there is an overabundance of them too. We’re getting one invader a week, and with an old house like this one, there’s really no way to cut off all the possible access points without just rebuilding the whole house. Usually the cats are much more efficient at their bug killing, but I will give them some credit on this one, because it was, in fact, a very formidable opponent. Once it stopped zooming around the house dive-bombing my head, they made short work of it. Good kitties! Let’s hope it’s more than a week before I see another of these things in my house, and let’s also hope the next one isn’t as large and lively. I don’t think my heart can take another 24 hour Flying Palmetto Bug Hell.