The kittens are doing well! I'm still in the process of uploading my huge backlog of photos, but I'll get to the kitten ones as soon as I can. In the meantime there are these photos that my mom took on her iPhone. The calico girl is Ramona Lee, and the tabby-and-white boy is Oliver Lee. (I've decided to give them surnames a la the itty bitty kitty committee, even though I'm probably the only one who cares what they are.)

After sampling the kitty litter and then playing in it, they did eventually use the actual litter box for, uh, littering. There haven't been any accidents on that front. They are also eating and drinking regularly, which is GOOD because lack of appetite is one of the major warning signs listed in my fostering packet.

They hate taking their medicine (eye drops and this weird liquid antibiotic that smells like onions), but the good news is they are getting better. Ramona's URI was never too bad, but poor little Oliver came to me with audible congestion in his lungs, and his frequent sneezing fits sounded something like a duck quacking. Two days later, he's sneezing much less, there are no lung sounds anymore, and I'm pretty sure he's already less scrawny and more steady on his feet than he was when he arrived. He has a HUGE appetite, so hopefully he'll catch up to his sister in terms of size and hardiness soon enough. I wish I had a scale to weigh them. I'm so happy he's getting better.

I am a little worried about Ramona, though, because she's not very social with people. She's calm if you pick her up, but she never seems to seek out human affection, never purrs or wants to be petted. She's way more interested in chasing Oliver around. She seems to think my fingers are for eating, not for petting. Part of my job is to socialize them, but I'm not sure what to do if she just doesn't want to be social. I don't want to force petting on her, but they're six weeks old, and the first seven weeks are key for socialization. Then again, I have known kittens whose grown-up personalities were the exact opposite of their kitten personalities, so who knows.

The hardest part of all this is Hypatia. She HATES being shut out of the kitten room (my bedroom, where she likes to sleep), and she hates that I spend so much time in there. Kate has been giving her extra attention, but I don't know what to do tonight, because Kate is dog-sitting for her sister, so I have to decide whether to sleep in my own bed near the kittens or on the couch so Hypatia doesn't get lonely. The kittens would probably be fine without me, but I do like sleeping in my own bed.

Tomorrow is Nathan and Bridget's wedding! Yay! Mawwiage!

eta: Muskego? You fail, location detector.

Seriously, turn back now. Those of you who want something more interesting to read can read my thoughts on Twilight and cultural messages.

Hypatia, right now, is laying on the end of my bed, sprawled out and asleep. If I nudge her with my foot, she will get annoyed, but she will quickly go right back to sleep.

Remembering how shy and skittish she was when we first got her, I'm amazed at the transformation. It used to be that any small disturbance of her resting/sleeping place would send her running from the room every time. Now, she's become one of those intractable sack-of-potatoes pets that really, really doesn't want to move and will meow at you grumpily if you try. Like my parents' dog.

I'm so proud of this. It means she trusts us, that we're not going to do anything bad when we disturb her sleep, we probably just want to pet her or we need our legs for something. I've even accidentally rolled over on her in my sleep and she STILL STAYS IN THE BED.

When the Kitten Lady came over last week I expected Hypatia to hide, but she actually came out and walked over to the lady. She stayed just out of touching range, but she was curious instead of shy/scared. It reminded me of the first day I saw her--she just strutted into the apartment, all "What is this place? Does it have food?" I think she was too hungry to be nervous at the time.

I realize I'm one of those people who dotes on their cat like it's their kid, cheering at every milestone, but I don't think that's such a weird thing. I'm partially responsible for her well-being, and I feel proud and happy when I know I've succeeded. Plus, you know, I like her more than I like most people.

Anyway I'd better stop gushing over her because she is doing the Bored Cat Meow and I should find something to entertain her before she chews up the paper towel roll again.

We took Hypatia to her first visit with her new vet today! We had been putting off taking her back to the old vet for her rabies and distemper vaccine updates, because we didn't really like the old vet. The doctor was fine, but the clinic itself wasn't great about communicating with us when we took her to get spayed.

The new vet is the one my parents take their doggy to, and it's also much closer to our house. Miss H was kind of freaked out, especially when there were some barking noises coming from behind the door, and she wouldn't stay on the scale to be weighed so it was hard to get a reading on that. But she didn't cry out or even flinch when she got vaccinated, just shed black and white fur all over the place. The vet gave her a clean bill of health and said her new vaccines will be good for three years. She also said Hypatia has a great face. <3.

This gets me one step closer to my dream of fostering kittens, because now teh kitty is up to date on shots and certified healthy. I've been so depressed this week, though, that I'm finding myself going "They'll never approve me to foster kittens, my apartment is too small and how could I ever think I would be a good person to do that," and other defeatist messages. I have this vision of the humane society people coming here and scrutinizing my apartment with disapproving looks on their faces. And then they'll turn me down and also never give me a job there because they think I'm irresponsible.

I don't know if the depression is due to the medication change or the fact that for my birthday my parents are no longer helping support me financially so I have to find a full-time job with health benefits (that start RIGHT AWAY), like, tomorrow. I don't want it to be the meds because if it's the meds then my doc will probably put me back on the higher dose of wellbutrin which gave me heart palpitations and shortness of breath. I would rather not have to be on a med that makes me feel like I'm going to pass out. That's not one of those things like dry mouth that's annoying but tolerable. It's more... scary. I feel like I can't exert myself at all, and any little bit of anxiety triggers the not being able to breathe feeling.

(Either that or he will put me on a new med entirely and then I will have to get used to that. While job searching.)

But if it's not the meds then I'm stuck in this endless loop of, I'm super depressed, but i have to find a job, but I don't feel capable of doing that while I'm depressed, but if I don't get a job I can't afford my therapy and meds... etc.

Yay.

So I'm staying with Tanner this week while my parents are out of town. Kate is also out of town. Last year, when this same situation happened, I had to run back and forth between the dog and the cat, and the cat hated sleeping alone, so this year I brought the cat over to meet Tanner so I could take care of both of them. This has had mixed results.

The first time I introduced them, Tanner wagged his tail excitedly, and Hypatia immediately hissed at him and ran away to hide behind the sofa. Eventually I made Tanner go away so she could explore. She went upstairs and hid under my parents' bed. Tanner came and found her there, and he made motions like he wanted to play, but she puffed up (like this) and hissed again. She didn't calm down for the rest of the visit. Still, Tanner didn't eat her, which is what I had been most afraid of.

The second time I brought her over, which was the night before my parents left, I let her out of the carrier and she ran away and hid in the best hiding spot ever. Literally--we couldn't find her for three hours. We looked under beds, behind couches, under armchairs, behind the Christmas tree, in the Christmas tree, in closets, in the bathtub, etc., etc. She was nowhere. I even opened up some canned food, which is her favorite ever, to see if she would hear the noise and come out, but she didn't. I was getting kind of panicky, imagining that she had gotten outside somehow, and visions of a freezing-to-death kitty were haunting my brain.

Finally my mom had the idea of using the flashlight to look around, and she looked in the radiator and saw two yellow eyes staring at her. Hypatia was found! I was extremely relieved. My parents have these old-fashioned cast-iron radiators, and there's one of them under the window-seat in the front room. There's a little space behind the radiator, and since it's covered on top by the window-seat it makes an excellent hiding place. According to my mom, it's also where my hamster used to hide when I was a kid and she got out of her cage.

I enticed the kitteh out of hiding with wet food--she must have been very hungry, because I hadn't refilled her food bowl that day since I knew I'd be taking her to my parents'. She was covered in dust, so she looked more like a black/gray kitty than a black/white kitty. As soon as she was far enough out, I grabbed her and took her upstairs to the room I had prepared for her, with a litter box and food and water. I closed the door so she would feel safe. She hid under the bed for a while, but eventually came out and sniffed around and ate a little more food.

I kept the door closed that night, and the next day I put a baby-gate on the door so the dog couldn't get in, but she could get out if she wanted to explore. (Tanner probably could jump over the baby gate, but he doesn't because he's afraid of it falling on him. Scaredy dog.) She stayed mostly in the room for the next couple of days. She cautiously explored outside it, but if the dog got too close she'd run back in her room. She also FINALLY used the litter box, which I was getting worried about because she hadn't used it in almost 24 hours. Teh Intarwebs say cats can stop peeing if they're stressed out, though.

This morning I woke up to find that the cat wasn't in her/my room! She had gotten brave enough during the night to venture out onto the stairs, and she was looking over the downstairs foyer, while the dog was asleep on the couch in the TV room. I was so happy that she wasn't terrified of him anymore. She's still kind of alarmed by his huge (to her) size and jumpy movements, but she isn't frozen with fear anymore if she's walking around the house by herself.

When I left for work, Tanner was following her and nosing at her, and she was mewing with alarm, but I was about to be late so I had to close the door even as she followed me to it, possibly seeking rescue. I know Miss Hypatia can take care of herself, but I was still worried about how they'd get along. I spent my time at work imagining bloody animal parts strewn around the house. (My cat is kind of like my kid that way, in that I spend a lot of time imagining horrible things that could happen to her.) But of course when I got home they were fine, hanging out in completely separate parts of the house.

Now I'm sitting on the couch with my computer and Tanner actually came and lay down beside me while the cat was on my other side, and Hypatia didn't run away. Same room! Not killing each other! Woo!

They have a couple more days to hang out and then Kate gets home on Saturday, so I can move the kitty back home. I'm sure she'll be glad to be back with Kate and her own house, but I'm glad she doesn't seem to totally hate it here.