9 posts tagged “ham”
...get that feeling when you're falling asleep like you are literally falling, and then you kind of jerk yourself awake?
Clio and Ham seem to be figuring out their respective opinions on the living arrangements. Clio stays up higher than the wily kitten, and the wily kitten responds to occasional rrrrrring by getting pouncy. He doesn't actually pounce on her yet, but he definitely stalks and plays and thinks about it.
Miraculously, the rrrrring radius is shrinking. As long as food is not involved, Clio does not rrrr if she figures she is out of his reach. You can't "see" it, but in this photo, she is not rrrrring.
By contrast -- in this photograph, not only is she rrrrrring, but she is yeeming with impressive precision.
but my excuse is that I have been entertaining a lot of children and animals. I ought to license myself as a circus.
I'll have to catch up on the 'hood tomorrow. However, tonight I just wanted to share some prime snorgling material.
We had a busy weekend of getting to know the wee one, and now it's time for a little update. First -- pictures!
The state of things in the land of Fiendish Glee:
- Clio is not fond of the interloper, but she is not openly agressive. Just rrrowly. She is eating and she sleeps with me, so I will take that as good enough for now.
- Ham does not like being rrrrowled at, and he gets very needy and nibbly after it happens. In fact, he gets very needy and nibbly a lot, usually when he is hungry. If I set him down in front of his wet food he will eat it, but only if I stay in the room with him. Otherwise he comes running out to find me, yells at me, and nibbles.
- I've been giving him half a can of Science Diet kitten food in the morning and half a can at night. He has access to kitten kibble all day, and water, but he mostly just plays with the kibble. At least I know he is eating now.
- He is having to spend some time by himself when he gets too bitey and aggressive. It has been 15 years since I trained a kitten, but I used to maintain the old usenet rec.pets.cats FAQ, and I find myself going back to my posts and assembled knowledge via Google Groups to see what I had to say lo those many years ago. Good thing I took notes. :D
In general, he is a sweet, loving, funny, playful, and brilliantly social little beast. I took him to work on Friday and he played with everyone -- and when he began scratching around in corners I took him outside on his leash and he actually used the flowerbed like a perfect angel. Can't complain a bit.
Truth in advertising, people -- I swear by it.
Tonight has been a challenge, kitten-wise. Ham is a bit more upset tonight about the fact that he lacks his mother for nursing -- I think he is well and truly hungry, and despite what the vets believed about his physical capacity to consume solid food, he hadn't really been doing it as a primary source of nutrition before we brought him home last night.
It has been a slow evening of him desperately clawing, snuffling, and nipping while we take him to his food/water bowl combo dish each time and he painstakingly eats a few bites of crunchy kibble and sips a bit of water. I think he just cannot get that satiated, full-belly feeling he got from momma's milk, and it is troubling him.
On the plus side, he's smart -- it took a few hours of repeatedly setting him in front of his food when the nuzzling started, but now he nuzzles and nips for just 30 seconds or so before he heads to his food dish of his own accord. I just left him crunching and purring in the boy's room, where he had been asleep. I hope he goes back to snoozing when he's eaten his fill.
Enjoy the vid. Belleh!
...that is, an IKEA bedspread.
Edit: I'll add answers to your lovely comments in here.
Ham the Wee is adjusting brilliantly -- though he did get up for a spot of Kitten Krazies (tm) at exactly 3:00 a.m., driving the sleep-addled boy into my room for a couple of hours.
Clio seems to know the kitten is in the house, but she is totally unconcerned. I don't know if it is because of my brilliant plan to house the kitten in the room where she never goes, or if she knows his smell now from their meeting the other day and has decided she can tolerate it. Frankly, I keep waiting for a mushroom cloud or something. It can't possibly go this smoothly, can it?
Many thanks for all your well wishes and encouragement, each and every one of you -- I have to attend the big annual company meeting today, so no video until tonight when I can piece the grainy bits from the boy's camera together. :(
Fortitude and fluff to you all in this day of CO downtime...
Goodness. Sorry I've been around so little -- it has been preparations for kitten and then, this evening, the wee one himself arrived.
He is so tiny, and he yelled so ferociously in the car on the way home from the vet's office, but as soon as he started exploring in the boy's room he settled right in. He purred, he ate a few crunchies, he explored his litterbox, and then he played in earnest.
When it was time for bed, I worried a little bit -- he was very nuzzly and insistent about looking for a teat. First he came to me (we were laying on the boy's bed bookending the kitten), snuffling and licking all up under my chin and trying to get inside my collar. Eventually I got up and he decided to snuggle up under the covers with the boy, which turned out to be good -- it means he accepts the boy as a warm body and his source of comfort. The boy, of course, is delighted. Now they are both sleeping happily.
Pictures and video tomorrow. Now, I too must sleep.
I am not awake at 1:09 in the morning cutting together this video. Sweartagawd.
With all apologies to They Might Be Giants, who are my favorite band in the whole wide world.
Oi! hello, front-page peeps. There's lots more about Ham the Wee in here -- just click on the "Ham" tag at the bottom of the post, and thanks for visiting!. ;)
So, tonight we took Clio to the vet (at this moment she is probably stewing a hairball to plant in my underwear drawer or something) and we met our new kitten, who will come home with us Wednesday evening. The boy has named him "Ham," and I accept this, because he is the boy's kitten, but I still think his true name is Pantalaimon. :)
Obligatory pictures -- and I promise to post straight-legged, straight-tailed spronking video when I can edit it all together.
Why, yes. He is asleep in the hood of my sweatshirt. No, I did not want to take him out. No, he did not want to come out (and became mewling velcro-kitty). But he had to go back to momma for another few days.
Clio, in her carrier, mrrrrrrrrroooowwwwed. Ham was nonplussed and just kept looking in at her. This bodes well.
