Aki is curled up on the study floor, purring in his sleep. Loudly.

So cute!

Aki climbed under the covers this morning!!!

This is the cat that thinks my hand is an evil invader from outer space, mind. He does not snuggle usually. His usual pattern of seeking to be petted involves thoroughly scent marking my hand with his tail before allowing it to touch the rest of him. And then if I try to go for two hands to scratch his head with before getting the the other one scent marked as well, he startles and runs away. This is as recently as last night.

It's gotten colder in the last week, though. Even with the thermostat set to a nice cozy 68 degrees, and his long fur coat, he's felt a little chilly in the mornings when he came up on the bed for attention. The last week he's been more willing to invade my personal space, though, and today he actually crawled under the covers. He started out curled up between my arm and my chest with his head sticking out of the blankets, purring like crazy. Then he started exploring, and ended up tucked down near my feet, with his head contentedly resting near my knee, and his butt resting in the curve of my ankle. I mentioned he's a big kitty, yes? One year old this month, as best I can tell, and still growing. :)

Of course then Tyler noticed movement under the covers and started batting at the blankets...Aki flew out like a shot, and went to console himself by gnawing on his current favorite chew toy (a paper towel roll. He stole it out of the pantry himself. It was sufficiently chewed by the time I came home that I really didn't want it back).

Today is going to be a good day. I'm working from home...Tyler is snuggled up next to me, and Aki is grooming himself in front of the balcony door.

Happiness is snuggly cats in the morning.

I woke up this morning and both the cats were on the bed with me. Tyler, being a shorthair, was snuggled under my arm for the warmth, but Aki was actually on the bed too. He was lounging just out of arms reach on the edge of the bed, but that's still the closest I've ever seen him hang out when he wasn't actively demanding attention. Usually he sleeps on top of my dresser or on the windowsill.

Aki weighed in at 12 pounds, double the size of Tyler. He still doesn't look like he's done growing yet.

He's going to be a big big kitty.

Everyone survived. The new vet is wonderful.

Aki is now microchipped and vaccinated, and is free of vet visists for the next year, god willing. He started hyperventilating when I put the carrier in the car, but he was a very good boy at the vet's office, and didn't fuss at any of the poking and prodding.

He's hiding under the sink right now, and will hopefully come out later.

Everyone's blood work came back negative, so that's all good.

Tyler has to go back in for his last booster shot today. Since Aki hasn't seen the new vet yet, I figured I'd take both of them in.

It turns out that the old vet failed to give Aki a rabies shot. He did send Aki's old records over to the new vet when asked, but they were...sparse. They failed to include relevant things like Aki's age, description, or his complete medical history. Fun. I'm so glad I'm never going back there.

Dr. Mel at the Stanford Pet Clinic in Palo Alto, in case anyone cares, is a very very careless vet. He's cheap, though, and he's good at teeth cleaning. Never ask him to diagnose anything, and never expect his office to accurately save any kind of information. He's the sort of vet I don't recommend going to unless you know exactly what you want done to your animal, and you're willing to stand over his staff to make sure it gets done. Bad bad vet. Never take a sick animal there. However, if the illness is a known chronic condition (like renal failure), he's a cheap source of supplies and medication.

The new vets are competent, nice, friendly, and actually remember things about my animals from visit to visit.

Getting Aki in the carrier was festive. I eventually cornered him in the bathroom, where he had curled up in a little ball and proved that really, even though he has more than doubled in size since coming to my home, still fits in the sink. It would have been adorable if he wasn't so scared. From the sink he walked into the carrier very politely, having finally accepted that he was cornered.

We're off in a minute, and hopefully the new vet will be as nice to Aki as the old vet was mean.

I woke up this morning to the kitties running races around the room and roughhousing with each other.

Aki broke that off when he noticed I was awake to jump up on the bed and demand breakfast, but then he went back to playing with Tyler when he'd gotten enough skritches.

Life is good!

Aki was yowling at me this morning, so I let Tyler in to distract him while I was trying to get ready for work. Tyler bounded in, inhaled Aki's water dish (must remember to check Tyler's dish twice a day instead of once), and then sniffed noses and tails with Aki.

We still have no hissing, and they are now actually acknowledging each other's existence. Yay! I'm going to be in Maryland for a training class next week, and I think I'm going to ask the cat sitter to let them run around together. I think Aki is starting to accept the new kitten in the home.

Tonight I lured Tyler into the kitchen with milk (goat's milk...his favorite thing in the world) and then left the bedroom door open while I petted Aki. He let me keep petting him when Tyler finished the milk and came in. Then they sniffed noses some more (Aki lowered himself flat and sniffed up at Tyler to make himself look smaller) and then Aki came back for more petting.

I think I have a gamma and a beta trying to figure out who the alpha is. It's kind of funny, in a sad way. I'm glad they're getting along, though.

I'm back, and my kitties are very glad that I'm home. Aki was beside himself with delight, and insisted on being brushed for an hour to make up for the two days he didn't get brushed at all. Max and Mara were absolute angels and came in and fed the kitties on absolutely no notice, but they can't brush Aki if he won't come out of the closet when they're there.

Since I was out of town, a friend of mine took Tyler in for his first vet appointment, which was cool. Because he was a rescue, the first visit was free, although the followup in two weeks will not be. It turns out that Tyler is heavier than I thought, weighing in at four pounds, and younger than I thought. The vet says that he can't possibly be more than 10 or 11 weeks old. The vet also says he hasn't been fixed.

Festive. I'm going to wait until he's about four months old or so, and then schedule an appointment to get him fixed. I'm not quite sure what, if anything, I should say to the rescue organization I got him from. They honestly believed he had been fixed before they gave him to me. It's probably better this way though, since fixing kittens that young really isn't good for them.

I let Tyler into the bedroom last night, because Aki was looking at the door expectantly, and acting really lonely.

They didn't fight, but it was still...disappointiong. Aki bounced up to Tyler, chirping loudly and basically saying "Hi! Nice to meet you? How do you do?". Tyler completely ignored him. He walked around the room, he drank from Aki's water dish, he checked out the litter pan, and then started playing with Aki's scratching post.

If Aki got in his way, he would touch his nose to him, but otherwise completely ignored him. Didn't acknowledge his existence at all. Aki went from trying to block his path to following him, to sinking as low to the floor as he could to make himself look the same size as Tyler (which in a cat his size is pretty much impossible to do) to just hiding on the other side of the room and looking sad while Tyler played with his toys.

I tried to pet Aki to reassure him, and he skittered away from me. When Tyler jumped up on the bed and stretched out looking quite pleased with himself, I said "That's enough of that" and kicked his furry butt out of the room for the night. Fifteen minutes of coaxing later, I had a purring Aki on my bed looking sad and confused but happy to be snuggled and brushed.

I have to go out of town this weekend, so any further integration efforts will have to wait until I get home.

Aki has stopped hissing at the door, and is instead trying to play with Tyler through the door. He's also taken to talking to him through the door, making low trills and such when Tyler starts crying to be let in.

I'm hopeful that I can actually introduce them later this week. All I need to do now is get Tyler into a vet to be retested for FeLV and FIP first. (Me? Paranoid? Oh yes). I'm sure everything is negative, but I'd rather have the test results in hand than rely on a shelter's assurance. Besides, it gives me a chance to get him microchipped while I'm there.

Thanks to the talents of the wonderful cadhla, I now have a livejournal icon!

Here's a link to the full image:

http://www.midgard.net/~jeanne/jenny.jpg

Isn't she cute?

This morning Aki was sitting on his petting shelf, and not coming out. I brushed him and fed him there, and then went to spend time with Tyler. Tyler apparently slept in the hall, leaned up against my door. I'm not clear if it's because I was in there or Aki was, but either way he wanted to be in with everyone else.

I'm going to make an appointment with a vet on Monday to take him in for a physical and to get him microchipped. After she gives him a clean bill of health then I will start introducing the two kitties together in much more controlled circumstances.

Aki has never had his nails clipped, never gets stuck to the carpet or furniture, and never scratches me or the furniture. He's a very well-mannered cat. He gets to keep his nails, at least until he trusts me enough to let me clip them, and probably even then unless he starts destroying my couch or getting stuck to the carpet
.
I really had meant to not cut Tyler's claws either until after he and Aki had settled things, just to keep things equal. However, Tyler really doesn't know what to do with his claws, and keeps getting stuck to things (like me. Or the carpet). After the fourth (or maybe fifth) time this happened, I threw up my hands and clipped his nails. He can grow them out again when he learns to velvet his paws. Meanwhile, he's walking around flexing his paws with a very perplexed look on his face. I guess having short nails for the first time feels kind of weird.

It's been over a month, and still no Aya. Since Aki has been driving himself (and me) nuts with loneliness, this meant I needed to find him a friend.

Which is how I found myself heading out to the local kitten adoption fairs yesterday. I held out through the first one, although there was this adorable little blue cream torbie that was just too shy to take home. She let me hold her, but she really looked like if I took her home she would disappear behind the couch and never be seen again.

So then I hit the next one on the list, hosted by Towncats, and met Tyler. I couldn't help it. He was cute and snuggly, and born to be a lap cat. And he started purring as soon as I took him out of the cage. How could I say no? I really had meant to get a girl, since that was what Aki was familiar with. But Tyler is a sweety, and he loves sitting on my lap and purring.

We have had our first accidental meeting, which went well. I had intended to break the news to Aki gently that he was no longer the only cat in the house. Unfortunately, he came sauntering down the hallway headed for the kitchen when Tyler was exploring the living room. Tyler arched his back and puffed up his tail, neither of which managed to conceal the fact that Aki outmasses him 5 to 1. Aki did what any self-respecting gamma would do when faced with something that small. He ran like hell and hid behind the couch until he had a clear line to his bedroom. He then went into the depths of the closet and sulked for the rest of the evening. There was no hissing, which I was pleased by, and gives me hope that they will get on well.

Aya is still missing....at this point I've given up. Aki is going slowly stir crazy, though, so it looks like I'll be hitting the adoption fairs this weekend.

Well, I have officially been hired back to co-head the Operations division for my local regional anime con, Fanime. This means that I need to gear up for the most obnoxious part of my job, recruitment.

I'm looking for folks to staff the following departments:

* Security (called Ops Rovers)
* Con Ops
* Volunteers
* Tech
* Logistics

Anyone that is interested in working the con, whether in ops or not, please e-mail me at operations@fanime.com with contact info and any prior experience you may (or may not) have. If you're not interested in any of the ops jobs, I promise to forward your info on to the relevant department.

All offers of help are gratefully appreciated.

Aki has been on sort of a hunger strike since his sister went missing. Some days he eats very little, other days nothing at all as near as I can tell.

Tonight I sat down to try and cajole him into a eating a little bit of dry cat food, which I know he likes. The stuff is like junk food., I went to where he was hiding in the clsoet, and he hissed at me, but didn't run away. Well and good. I plunked the plate down in front of him and he glared at me mutinously. I then scooped up a few pellets of the dried food and offered it to him. That got me a twitching nose and an interested look, but no eating.

When I put them down in front of him, he ate them. So then I offered him the plate, and got another glare. Pellets I tossed to him got eaten though. About halfway through this he paused briefly sprawled out on the floor, and started purring.

He'll only eat if I put the food on the floor in front of him. I have to hand touch each piece, but he won't eat it off the plate or my hand. Feh.

After consuming maybe an eighth of a cup of dry food he decided he was done with this game and walked away, still purring. Still, it's a start, and I can hunt him down later and try again.

I wish Aya would come home. She hasn't been brought in to the humane society, and the flyers haven't done any good. The food I leave out is being eaten, but I have no guarantees it's her. Aki is in a waiting state. Every noise he twitches, wondering if it's her in the other room. It never is, but we keep hoping.

The kittens are getting less scared of me...

I kicked them out of their new hiding place in the bathroom, so they opened the door to get back in. I don't know how. I've got Max and Mara coming over on Sunday to permanently close up that hole, but in the meanwhile the door is shut again and there's a towel stuffed in to block the space. See if they can get through that.

They then woke me up at 6:30 AM to feed them. I think I preferred it when they were scared of me, and ate when I fed them and didn't complain. Of course, as tired as I've been, maybe the reminder is good. I could have done without Aki jumping up on the bed and whacking me on the ankle, and then running out to the kitchen when I sat up, though.

I really need to figure out a way to explain to Aki that my feet are not cat toys. I'm favoring the water gun approach.

Earthquake tonight.

I was sitting at dinner with a friend of mine when he asked me if I was shaking the table. Then we looked at the table next to us, and realized the entire restaurant was shaking. Fun. We kind of looked at each other with this look of "should we be getting under the table? Should we get in a doorway?" and then just waited the earthquake out. Luckily for us stupid people, it was really mild, even if it was long. It felt like it lasted 30 seconds, although it was probably shorter than that. Long enough for us to notice, though.

I got home to find a few knocked over knicknacks, but no real damage. Aya was in her usual "waiting for food" lurking spot, and Aki has hidden himself but good. It occurs to me that this was probably their first earthquake.

So I was in the guest bath putting away towels this morning when Aya wandered in, hunkered down, and acted like she was going to jump into the underside of the bathroom cabinet.

Then she looked where she was going to leap, looked at me, and walked out. Huh. I opened the cabinet, and confirmed that there were no holes there. Then I looked at it more closely, and got down on the floor and looked up.

Good morning Aki. All I could see was his eyes and the tips of his ears, but he was tucked in there. I'm guessing this is a one cat hiding place.

There's a kitten-sized hole into the walls of my condo where the bathroom cabinet doesn't quite hit the wall. I never noticed it before because the way they built the cabinet, it looks flush unless you lie on the floor and look up.

*sigh* Time to buy more bricks...