Cat update (you were too polite to ask)

We have brought our cats with us to Europe for four months. Because we are crazy people. Because two transatlantic trips with a cat were not enough for one lifetime—we needed to add two more, this time with TWO cats, just to keep things interesting. Because I have repressed most details of the first time around. (Although I do have a hazy memory of walking the mewling Bossy Cat (in her carrier) up and down the plane aisle like I'd seen mothers of fussy babies do. Possibly that was a dream?)

You may remember the Bossy Kitten from such posts as this and this (#tbt). Man, was she adorable. And still is…in her way. But also very bad. She bites with what feels like increasingly sharp teeth, she swipes at us as we walk by, we have to cover her claws so she doesn't destroy the furniture (we figured this out too late for our own stuff, but just in time for subletting, yay), she hisses at children. Also, on a road trip this summer, and I can tell you this now because we already sold our car no questions asked to a Kia dealership, she emptied her apparently very full bladder in the way back, staring panicked into my eyes as I screamed for her to stop. That was a rough day. We have grown fond of referring to the cats as The Fat One and The Bad One. My mother tells me this is not good parenting.

One thing that helps on the plane: sedatives. For the cats, too, haha. We have now mastered the art of scruffing the cats and shoving a pill down their throats. Although one thing I don't recommend, if the pill wears off and the kitten starts crying, is teaming up with your husband to take her into the tiny airplane bathroom together, letting her out of her carrier, and trying to do the whole scruff/pill shove maneuver a second time in there. Also I don't recommend flying with your cats to Europe via Istanbul, where your second flight will probably be delayed, and which is technically not even on the way to where you're going, although it is on the way to everywhere when you fly Turkish Airlines, which is the airline where they give you Turkish delight almost the minute you come on board.

After we got through the TWENTY TWO HOURS of travel time to get here, it took the cats a while to settle into their new life in Vienna. We had to try a few different kinds of food before we found one they liked, we got them a toy that has become their obsession, we invested in this magical substance, and after about ten days all was back to normal.

But in the past week, The Bad One has transformed into a whole new cat. A BED cat. In Houston she used to sometimes sleep on CM in the mornings, but now she's in bed through the entire night, often curled up on or against CM (someone's a daddy's girl...). If I sit in bed during the day (it's the warmest place in our chilly apartment—CM calls it my "office") she sits in CM's spot and falls asleep. I've taken to sending picture messages to him at work practically every day: "Look who won't stay out of bed!" "Somebody's a sleepy bed cat...." etc. I don't know if it's because she's rarely been cold in her life (Texas girl) or whether she's just enjoying being where we are, but it is the cutest thing that has ever happened since this. Sometimes we're both in bed with a cat on each of our respective chests, and we just look at each other and laugh and say THIS.

Because we are crazy.

Here is a grainy shot of the Bossy Kitten sleeping in the crook of my knees. Couldn't you just die?

She gets her talent from her dad

Look! Look what Lola can do.

6 seconds of pure gold, am I right?

Our own cheetah

CM sent me this amazing video from the Houston Zoo. I love it so much.




It reminds me a little of this other video CM sent me. See the resemblance?

I always wanted a pet cheetah.

Lazy day

Today's our free day (last one before I leave in a week!!), so of course we've spent the whole day in workout clothes. A trip to the recycling center (yes, we're very exciting), then IKEA, then Argo (so great!), then the first step for the barrel-aged negronis (approximately 4 weeks until they're ready), then the end of Homeland Season 1 (holy stressful amazingness). CM's grilling us a gorgeous steak and we're whiling away the evening.

Oh, and then there are the cats.

Sigh. I'm wishing I never had to leave.

Bossy kitten update—2 weeks!

I took Lola to the vet yesterday for her first shot, and the vet pronounced her in perfect health and told me we were doing a great job (cat mommy gold star!). Also, she weighs 1 pound, 5 ounces, which is more than TWICE what she weighed at her first visit 2 weeks ago. She's a big girl.

She loves all cat toys, and also she thinks everything is a cat toy. Particularly cables, nice shoes, and other things we don't want her to touch.

She goes up and down the stairs now like it's no big deal. She's also figured out that she can climb anything made of fabric (beds, couch, chairs, pants) by clawing her way up.

This is why we can't have nice things.

The Bossy Cat is getting used to her. There's still a bit of hissing going on, but not nearly so much. She's very interested in the idea of playing with the kitten, but she isn't quite sure how to do that yet.

I think we'll keep them.

All photos by LMB or CM

Bossy Kitten update

Lola has been living with us for a week, and it's hard to imagine life without her now. She is the cutest, and sometimes when she's doing something amazing and adorable our hearts get full and we look at each other and say, “What's it going to be like if we have a baby?” Surely a million times worse (better).

She's getting stronger and smarter every day, and she's a curious little monkey. She knows how to jump off the bed to get to her food, and when she's in the right mood she can go down the stairs with a lot of coaching and encouragement. She's too little to go up.

Because she's so young, and really too little to be away from her mama, she can't eat regular kitten food yet. So we warm up cat milk replacer (basically baby formula for kittens) and mix it with baby cat food. For the first few days she was putting her front paws in the dish every time she ate and then tracking milky footprints all over, but she seems to have learned not to do that. She's very good about using her litter box.

She spends a large portion of the day sleeping, and when she gets sleepy she will happily fall asleep in any position, particularly next to or on top of a warm body. She loves getting under the covers in bed. For the first few nights we kept her in the guest room and switched off sleeping with her there. Then we left her in there alone for a couple nights (we missed our bed), and she slept through the night tucked into a blanket without making a squeak. On Saturday she was hanging out in our room around bedtime, so we decided to try having her in there, and she slept on the rug next to our bed without waking up until morning. (The Bossy Cat sleeps on that rug as well, but as far away as possible from Lola). We'll keep her with us at night for the foreseeable future.

As for the Bossy Cat, she's starting to relax, but she decidedly does not like the kitten. She can tolerate Lola being in the same room, as long as she doesn't get too close. When the kitten gets too curious, she gets hissed at (and once, swiped at). The Bossy Cat is a bit of a bully. It's getting better, though, and we're holding out hope that eventually they'll be friends. In the meantime, we're mostly keeping them apart, and marveling at how enormous Lucy seems compared to Lola.

It's going to be hard to say goodbye to my sweet little family in a few weeks, so I'm trying to enjoy every moment of being home.

All photos by CameraMan

Introducing... the Bossy Kitten!

Yesterday morning we were lazing around in bed chatting and checking our phones when CM said, “You do not want to know what I’m looking at right now.” Obviously I knew it was kittens. I've been campaigning for a kitten for the better part of, oh I don't know, our ENTIRE relationship, and he always has a lot of very practical reasons why it's not a great idea.

I guess he changed his mind.

Friends, I’d like to introduce you to Lola. By the vet’s estimate she’s about 3 or 4 weeks old, and as the runt of her litter she weighs a whopping 10 ounces. A friend of a friend of ours found her and her 5 brothers and sisters under a bush in his backyard Sunday morning. She’s quick to purr and quick to squeak, and she's already figured out how to lap up formula from a dish, though that doesn’t stop her from rooting around trying to find a drink when she’s sleepy. She has already charmed us and everyone who has met her, including our dinner party guests last night (the key to a successful dinner party is obviously a tiny kitten navigating the obstacle course of glasses and dishes on the table at the end of the meal—so entertaining) and every single person we encountered at the vet’s office today.

The Bossy Cat doesn’t know quite what’s happening yet, and we’d like to keep it that way for a while, as she gets used to the smells and sounds of a kitten in the house. We’re trying to pay her lots of attention and give her treats whenever she asks for them, lest there be any doubt that we still love her.

It’s crazy that when we woke up yesterday we didn’t know we were getting a kitten, and now I can’t imagine not having her here. Did you do anything unexpected this weekend?

Photos by CameraMan