I Can Has Kitten!

From Audrey - 7/13…

She tends to climb onto my lap and bat at the keys as I’m working, browsing the web, IMing, etc… She’s doing pretty well as of now. We went to the vet on Friday - I made the horrible mistake of walking there, though. It was 6 blocks, half+ of it on Van Ness, one of the busiest and loudest streets in the city. She was *not* a happy kitty, lemme tell you. But she calmed down pretty quickly once we got to the vet - she played a bit with the nurses (is that the appropriate term at a vet? Or is there a vet-specific equivalent?) and munched on a bunch of little crunchy treats the vet gave her. I was given anti-worm medication for her - my first attempt to get her to swallow the liquid med from the syringe failed miserably, but yesterday, I discovered that I could mix it with her wet food and she’d devour it instantly. Which is a positive, ‘cos worms? Ew. I also got a toothbrushing kit, but haven’t started that process yet.

She didn’t wake me up ’til 8:30am yesterday, which was great, since she’d woken me before 6am the previous two nights. And today, I woke up on my own (albeit at 8am) and she didn’t even start meowing for me until I’d gone to the bathroom. I did almost-sorta sit on her yesterday - I was reaching for a toy and she ran under my butt on the couch while I was half-up. I realized something was amiss pretty quickly, though, and she was ok and playing with me within minutes. She was FASCINATED by video games on the TV. I was playing one and she tried to grab at the things moving around on the screen. I tried to get a picture, but by the time I had the camera ready, she’d moved from her perch on the coffee table just below the TV. I do have more “Audrey With Books” pictures, though - the latest gallery is here.

Yeah, ew. Audrey was napping on me while I was working (as is becoming very, very normal for her) when I realized there was some random white gunk on my arm, which had been supporting her butt. I looked closer, and realized it was *moving*. Eww. Google did its magic for me, and I’m now fairly sure it was a tapeworm segment. Disgusting, but treatable. We’re going to the vet in a few hours anyway, so I’m glad I found this beforehand.

Also, I really need to upgrade my wireless router - because Audrey’s getting into nibbling on the ethernet cord while I’m working. I need the high bandwidth for my VOIP stuff for work, and my 802.11b router just ain’t doing the trick for that, hence the wired connection. I think it’s time to buy an 802.11g router so that I can ditch the ethernet cable and cut down on the number of possible cables for her to bite on/play with/etc.

From Audrey - 7/10…

Yes, she has a name - and it’s Audrey! Thanks, Esther, for the suggestion - it’s perfect. She’s adorable in just about every way conceivable - she did have a habit of pooping on my bed, but I dealt with that by moving her out to the living room/kitchen full-time, and she’s been fine out here ever since. She’s playful, especially obsessed with the cat dancer, a paper bag from the San Diego Zoo, the underside of my loveseat, and my flesh. She likes to climb and jump, though not too insanely as of yet. And she likes, not surprisingly, to sleep. Particularly, she likes to sleep on people - as I speak, she’s curled up on my belly dozing off. Earlier, when I was uploading her pictures and tweaking them a little, she was enthralled - batting at the pictures of herself on the screen. In general, she’s very fascinated by the laptop, and has tried to send instant messages to my friends. They’ve all come out as “ooooooopppmm ” or such, but hey, points for effort, right? =)

Anyway - I moved the pictures to Picasa at Google rather than local storage - it’s a lot faster, and, frankly, simpler. The top-level for my albums is at http://picasaweb.google.com/abayer1138, and the particular album this picture came from (and yes, she does have a tendency to crawl up above books on bookshelves like that. She’s done it multiple times, even.) is here, or linked to from just below the picture. This particular set ranges from when we put her to bed Monday night through her trying to eat my knees while I was working early this morning, Friday. Hope you enjoy ‘em!

From Audrey - Firs…

She does not yet have a name. I got her at the SF SPCA this afternoon. A name will be coming soon. In the meantime, look at pictures!