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.