kitty

LOL

Muffin likes to walk around and then suddenly flop over onto the ground.  Lawrence thinks it makes her look like one of those whores that sit in brothel windows - "look at me, look at me!"

Kitty Update

I thought I posted about this but I guess it slipped my mind...we took Muffin back to the vet when we told them that she wasn't eating anything and had not passed any poop. Lawrence took her to the vet (I had to go back home when I was halfway to work because he couldn't get her into the carrier, haha). They gave her an enema and she passed 8 meatball-sized hairballs. I wish I could have seen them.

She still wasn't eating much after that (I don't blame her, it was probably pretty traumatic) even though her temperature is normal, so on Monday the vet gave me some multivitamins and an anabolic steroid to give her. This steroid apparently does not damage the liver and will stimulate muscle growth, which will cause her to have a voracious appetite. They said it works very well but they couldn't get it for a few years because humans would abuse it. When I woke up this morning, all her food from yesterday was gone so it looks like things are getting better. :) Once she's back to normal I'll be able to take her in for her vaccines.

Not-so-smart cat?

Lawrence and I joke sometimes about Muffin being a rather dumb cat. If I leave the bathroom door slightly ajar, she doesn't know how to get out. She'll just stare at it and mew at us.

Yesterday, Lawrence got the idea to try sticking the medicine in her food. He mixed in the laxative paste and put the pill in the food. She ate it all up...and there we had a stupidly easy solution to the problem of medicating our cat.

I love my kitty...but she is definitely not the brightest. :)

Muffin pictures

Here are some pictures I took of Muffin.

Sitting/sleeping on the star-shaped blanket I crocheted:



Playing with the bumble bee toy I knit:

Mobile kitty bed

...is what I've become - not that I'm complaining. Who doesn't want a furry feline master who has deigned to make you her resting place?

I wake up at 6am to the pressure of paws kneading my boobies, non-stop. I don't want to disturb her while she's showering me with such affection so I hold still while I try to fall back asleep. What makes it difficult is the weight of her hind legs digging into my bare stomach, a constant reminder of the claws that may unsheathe at any moment.

If I lie on the couch to watch tv, she trots over with a rare single-minded purpose. After kneading my boobies, tummy, then boobies again, she'll slowly curl up on my torso as she blocks the tv I'm trying to watch. I pet her and scratch her behind the ears. The way she closes her eyes makes me smile, until I remember that she may suddenly decide with a quick bite of my hand that she's had enough petting.

If I sit at my computer desk, she'll hop on over and settle into my lap. This can be dangerous because if my thighs are too far apart and she starts to slip, she could bring out those hind claws for support. Once she has fallen asleep, a gentle nudge will not be enough to convince her to get off. I must gently but quickly swoop my hands under her and lift her to the desk before she decides I need a nip of discouragement.

Thus I am Muffin's mobile kitty bed.

Inner Turmoil

I feel so conflicted. There are so many things happening at once!

First, I find out I have to give up my cat. Then, I decide to hire a personal trainer to get my butt in shape. Finally, there's a chocolate fair this weekend that I'm excited about!

I hope Xin takes Muffin. I don't think my parents will, and if she goes to a stranger I'll never see her again. :(

my kitteh is teh awesome!!11!

She is being much more social now. She'll run around and explore the apartment, jumping up onto things and rubbing everything. She'll rarely run under the bed, and when she does, she comes right back out. Right this moment, she is sprawled on our rug, sitting on a plastic bag, licking herself. Before, she avoided stepping on the rug. It's funny, but she really likes the plastic bag. She deliberately sits on it. It also seems like she has certain modes. Sometimes she's in a very determined "I must mark everything with my scent"-mode where any attempt at engaging is completely ignored. Sometimes she's in a "Oh YEAH, rub me there, that feels sooo good"-mode where she closes her eyes and lets you know where you need to rub her.

Cat!

Cat! Cat! I got a kitty cat!

My aunt's friend was going to get rid of her because after she had a baby the cat would pee on the baby's things. My aunt couldn't bear to let her friend take the less than 1 year old kitten to the pound where it could be put down in a couple days.

Unfortunately my aunt Jennifer already had a cat - a very territorial and aggressive cat who would chase the new kitten until the kitten would constantly hide under the bed. Whenever my aunt left her apartment, she had to keep the kitten in her son Hauson's room so that the other cat would not be able to chase her around. She asked if I would take the kitty so that it could live in a better environment. I was ecstatic but I knew it wasn't only my decision to make. To my surprise, Lawrence agreed! :D Granted, we have her for 2 weeks as a trial period. At the end of 2 weeks, we (Lawrence) may decide not to keep her.

Yesterday we brought her home to our apartment. While we were bringing up her stuff from my aunt's car, we let her loose in the apartment. After we brought everything in, we started looking for her and she was nowhere to be found. We looked in all the closets, under the bed, under the couch, we were seriously starting to get scared. I even walked down the hallway in case she got loose without us noticing. Nowhere. I tried to stay optimistic and decided to clean up stuff a bit in the hopes of finding her behind something. I tried to pick up a plastic bag that had a towel in it...and lo and behold...the kitty was hiding in the bag, underneath the towel. :)

After finding her, she left her bag to find a new hiding place. Eventually she settled on the space underneath our bed, in the process picking up all the dust and hair that had accumulated there. It was impossible to get her to come out from under the bed so Lawrence took a nap and I worked on the computer. Eventually though, she came out on her own....only to run and hide in the closet. Luckily she's easier to reach in the closet than under the bed, so I picked her up and put her in the bathroom. Apparently cats need a safe secluded place when they move to a new place, so I put her travel carrier in the bathroom and urged her into it.

We picked up Phillip and went out for dinner. We also stopped by Petco to get some things for the cat - a poop scooper, some canned cat food, some cat treats, and some catnip. When we got home, we all crowded into the bathroom to play with the kitty but none of those things had any effect. She ignored everything! Maybe she still needed to settle in? By the end of the night however, she seemed much more at home. She would still try to get under the bed (we blocked it off) and into the closet (we closed the closet door). She would jump up onto the bed and she even sat on Lawrence's chest.

Early in the morning, I grogily woke to see her sleeping with us on the bed. When I actually got up to get ready for work, she was gone. I found that part of our barricade to the space under the bed was disturbed and I could hear her little bell tinkling under the bed. I wonder if she's running under there because she still feels insecure in our apartment, or does she just need a safe dark place? Is she still traumatized from the other cat chasing her around? I hope she will eventually stay out in the open and we will not need the barricades.