Thursday, September 19, 2002

A friend (K) called me and asked me to guess what she had found in her garage. Something told me "cat" but I didn't guess that right away. Sure enough, I was almost right. She had found three kittens! I really wanted to go over there right away but I wasn't able to so I had to wait until the next day.

Friday, September 20, 2002

Around noon, I went over to K's to look at the kittens. We had a hard time finding them in her garage (she has a lot of cardboard boxes in there), but we found one of them. We decided to capture them and take them into her bathroom, so we could care for them and domesticate them so that it might be easier to find homes for them. So we took that one inside. We went back out to the garage and found the second, took him in, went back and found the third and took her in.

At first they were hissing a lot (especially the second one we had brought in - K said he was a little demon and I said we should call him Damian, but that ended up being turned into Demon Spawn which seems to have stuck [Update - His name has been changed to Samwise]) but after a while two of them got more comfortable with us and we were able to have them sleep in our laps. We decided that we each wanted to keep one and try to find a home for the third one (which was the hissing one). We called around to see if we could find a vet to take us in that day and we found one (who turned out to be a really great vet) and had an appointment a few hours later. In the meantime, we ran out and got some kitten formula and kitten wet food to feed them. We spent the rest of the time up to the appointment petting them and trying to get them used to being touched by human hands. The appointment came and they were judged to be in good health (except for being covered with fleas). We still have to keep them separate from the other cats (K has a Merlin and I have a Merlin) until the kittens have been tested for feline leukemia, which we'll be doing next Friday. So until then, they are living in K's bathroom. We spent all Friday evening playing with them (except for the hour we spent watching Firefly) and another friend came over who might be interested in the third one.

Saturday, September 21, 2002

I drug J over to K's so he could see the kittens (have to talk him into letting us take one home *grin*) and we also brought a camera so we could get some pictures of them. J agreed for us to take one home on a trial basis after they've been tested for feline leukemia, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all will go well and that Merlin will get along with the new kitten. I had originally named her Niniane, but J didn't really like that name, so we talked over a few names and finally settled on calling her Arwen. K still hasn't completely decided on a name for her kitten yet, but she's thinking of possibly using Branwen or Willow. [Update - she decided to use Sorka]

And now for the pictures:

Sunday, September 22, 2002

Spent more time visiting the kittens.

Monday, September 23, 2002

Wasn't able to visit the kittens today because I had school and work.

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Went over to K's early (we were watching Buffy at 9pm) and played with the kittens. They are so so cute and playful. Damian is definitely the most curious of the bunch. He kept trying to get out of the bathroom, but he also was the most interested in figuring out who I was and why I was there. We took a nap together and I read a book (for a class) for a while while they slept. Then K and I watched Buffy and tried to keep a kitten in each of our laps, but they were being super playful and we couldn't concentrate on both the kittens and Buffy at the same time so we had to put the kittens back in the bathroom for a little while. During the last 15-20 minutes of Buffy we tried with the kittens in our laps again and this time they seemed to be much more content to just lie down and sleep. Of course then, after Buffy was over, it was hard to get up because it meant disturbing the sleeping kittens, but I finally did. I had to leave because I had to wake up early in the morning, so I spent a while saying goodbye and then I went home.

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

No time to visit the kittens today. :(

Merlin was acting very strange this evening. He's been extremely clingy lately anyway, but today he was even more so. Does he know that something is going on? How is he going to react to Arwen?

Thursday, September 26, 2002

No time to visit the kittens today either. I'm going through kitty withdrawal.

Friday, September 27, 2002

Vet appointment today. Arwen was the "test kitty" for feline leukemia. The test was negative! Yeah! We had noticed that Arwen and Damian had been scratching their ears a bit lately and found out that they have ear mites, so we have to treat them with ear drops for 10 days. They still don't quite weigh enough for their first set of shots, so we'll be going back to the vet next Friday to do that.

Since we got the all-clear signal, I brought Arwen home. Took her to the bathroom immediately and placed the carrier (still closed) on top of the toliet. I got out the litter box and fixed that up as well as a water bowl and a bed that I had bought for her. Merlin wandered into the bathroom and looked around, wondering what I was doing but seemingly oblivious to the carrier on the toliet. I went to the kitchen to get her some food and poor Merlin thought that I was going to feed him. Since he usually only gets fed canned food in the morning (dry food is out all day for him), it wasn't really time to feed him, but I decided that I should feed him anyway so he didn't get too jealous. So I got canned food for both of them and put Merlin's down in the door to the bedroom. I went into the bathroom and put Arwen's bowl down and finally let her out of the carrier. I sat down outside the bathroom (in between the two cats). Merlin and Arwen both started eating. Merlin stopped eating for a minute (had to take a breath *grin*) and he heard Arwen in the bathroom eating her food. He creeped around me and looked at her in the bathroom. Her back was to him so I don't think that she even saw him. He slowly backed up and trotted off down the hall. The rest of the evening, I spent most of the time outside of the bathroom petting and playing with Merlin (to show him that everything was still "normal"). Kept the bathroom door closed and Merlin kept creeping down the hall to investigate. No hissing or growling so I took it as a good sign and we went to bed happily (except for poor Arwen who slept alone in the bathroom).

Saturday, September 28, 2002

I knew it was too good to last. Hissing and growling started from Merlin this morning. I went to Petco and bought this stuff called Feliway that I heard about on some message boards. It's supposed to be a calming spray for cats. I also got this stuff called Good Cat that you put in the cat's water to calm them. It seems to be helping somewhat. Most of the hissing and growling has stopped except when Merlin actually catches sight of Arwen. So I although we've backtracked from last night I think we're still making progress. We'll see what happens.

Wednesday, October 2, 2002

Well, Merlin and Arwen aren't yet the best of friends but they are at least tolerating each other most of the time. I've been letting them both roam around the bedroom and get to know one another (supervised visits only at this point). They both stare at each other and last night they started to chase each other a little bit, but one would always back away. I can't tell if they're trying to play or if it's aggression that they are backing off from. I also got some more pictures from K, so I'll be scanning those in soon. And I should take some pictures myself of Arwen in her new home, with Merlin also.

Sunday, October 6, 2002

Now the cats are getting full reign of the apartment whenever someone is home. Both seem to be much happier with the arrangement. At night, we've been shutting them both in the bedroom with us. They do seem to be trying to play with each other - Merlin seems to be really interested in playing chase. But since he's so much bigger than Arwen, she is scared by him and hisses at him. So Merlin isn't the one hissing anymore. I think that as they get even more used to one another and especially as Arwen gets bigger, they'll both play together and it won't seem like Merlin is picking on Arwen (though she really loves to go after his tail!). I did get some more pictures this weekend:

Saturday, October 12, 2002

Merlin and Arwen have gotten into a couple of minor scrapes, but nothing too bad. I think Merlin's just trying to assert his dominance over her; however, Arwen is a really tempermental kitten and I think she's the one that wants to be dominate, which is where the difficulty lies. So one of them is going to have to back down. I think when Arwen gets a little bigger, it will be Merlin that backs down, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

We're still looking for a home for Demon. K was really undecided for a while about which kitten she wanted to keep (oh, she finally settled on Sorka - the name of my previous cat - for the female kitten with white feet) but she's finally decided to keep Sorka. The only problem with Sorka is that she likes to pee outside the litter box - there's a corner that she really likes as well as possibly her cat bed. So K's going to have to be working on that.

Friday, October 18, 2002

Arwen has just gone from bad to worse. I hate to say it, but she's just a bitch. She doesn't like to be petted, touched, or picked up. She's picking on Merlin. She's just not the type of pet that I want in my house - I want a companion - not just a cat that lives in the same house as us.

So since K and I still haven't found a home for Demon, I decided that I would try him out and see if he's better than Arwen. I brought him home today. Merlin wasn't tricked and realized that it was a different cat so he's been hissing a little bit. But I've been letting them both roam around the apartment to get used to one another.

J and I talked about names a lot. We tossed around several Arthurian names (to go along with Merlin) and went back to Lord of the Rings (since we had picked Arwen last time). I thought Frodo would be cute, but J has this thing about Elijah Wood (he thinks he's a whiny crybaby) and couldn't call the cat that because he would think of Elijah Wood each time. Now my favorite character from the books is Sam - I think that he's the real hero of it all. So we decided that would work. Demon's new official name is Samwise Gamgee, but we're mostly calling him Sam.

Saturday, October 19, 2002

I love Samwise. He's such a great kitten. Very affectionate (he slept with us all night long) and he always wants to be able to be with us (if we go to another room and he can't find us, he'll meow for us). Merlin has stopped the hissing and now they're carefully checking one another out. They did "play" a little bit in the evening. I think this is going to work out much better with Sam than it ever would have with Arwen.

Sunday, October 20, 2002

Everything is still going great. Sam seems happy, Merlin is adjusting a lot faster, and J and I are happy.

Sunday, December 29, 2002

Well, I don't have a lot new to report. As I mentioned last time, everything is going great. Sam and Merlin are getting along (they act just like brothers actually). Merlin loves to bathe Sam (especially his ears) and they play chase and pounce on each other a lot. They also like to fight over who gets to sit in my lap or sleep closer to my face. Sam is defintely learning a lot from Merlin; he follows him around and copies what Merlin does. The only main difference is that Sam can't jump up very high yet and Merlin definitely can, so Merlin has some places he can go that Sam can't follow. Oh, yeah, and Sam has a thing for ice cubes. When we're in the kitchen, he begs for one and loves to carry it around in his mouth and bat it around (and sometimes leave it to melt in our bed).

Monday, June 14, 2010

A quick update. Sam is still doing well. He's still clingy and meows when he's in another room and can't find us. He's a purr machine and just purrs so loudly. He and Merlin are still good buddies and snuggle together frequently. Sam's really big now but still behaves like a kitten, wanting to play (he loves to play fetch!) and eat a lot.