Lucky dozes

Kitten update

A week-plus after moving in with us, Lucky has been eating Kitten Chow like a champ, and has visibly grown in the week and change she’s been in the house. Hanna, on the other hand, still seems to want milk — she gently bites our fingertips and then licks them, in a vain attempt to get them to lactate — and has remained a little overwhelmed by her new home, although she’s coming around, even if she’s not the affection monger Lucky’s turned into.

On the other hand, Hanna is also turning out to be the extreme sports athlete of the kitten world, including amazing flying one-paw grabs of the scratching post, followed by her swinging her whole body up atop it. And this from a kitten who, seemingly just days ago, couldn’t reliably climb it. I pity the first mouse, bird, frog or lizard she comes across.

I’ll be taking the pair of them to the vet this morning for their first-ever vaccinations and a check-up.

• Post-vet update: The kittens are settling in well.

  Lucky has pretty much accepted us as her family, and is a total attention whore and just enjoys being around us in general. She got her first set of vaccinations yesterday, and the stress and the shots sort of upset her — she threw up last night and was sort of dragging otherwise, but she’s back to normal now. She’s also visibly grown in a week, and the Kitten Chow has added about an inch and a half to her length, muscle is covering up her little bird bones and her coat is turning from fuzz to fur.

  Hanna took a little longer to get used to us, but has discovered the whole world is fascinating and plays, plays, plays. She hasn’t gained the size that Lucky has, and still seems to want to nurse, with gentle nibbles followed by licking of the fingertips a regular thing. She’s from the same litter as Lucky (and is, in fact, the other half of the litter), so there’s no reason I can see for her to be behind in this regard. I’m hoping she’ll catch up by the time the next vaccination appointment rolls around on December 17.

  Oh, and these two are perhaps the most savage kittens or cats that I’ve ever come across. In addition to tearing apart two pulling toys, they’ve ripped open two furry mice, which I haven’t even seen adult cats manage.

What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation

As previously mentioned, our plans for Wednesday evening were to go see the new Harry Potter movie at Ontario Mills, dining at Chevys earlier. The funky smoky (chipotle?) salsa at Chevys was better than the movie, which wasn’t bad, but certainly not nearly as good as the third movie, which I found to be a magic-realism masterpiece and the only Harry Potter movie to really capture the sometimes ominous tone of the novels. (The Mikey For President t-shirt Britt will eventually be wearing on his home page is Jenn’s/our gift to him for his birthday.)

Thursday was spent at the Ellis’ house, getting spanked by my Britt in Perfect Dark Zero, the one game he owns for his new X-Box 360 console. (Jenn laughed that I played the PVP game the same way I do with my hunter in World of Warcraft: Find a good spot with my back defended and wait to pick off anyone who sticks their head up. Works for me, but Britt’s superior knowledge of how to use the somewhat funky controllers made him the clear winner.)

After much food, we retired home for television and kitten-based comedy in a tryptophan haze.

And now … I’m back at work. Next year, we’re definitely going out of town for the holiday, traffic be damned.

One month until Christmas!

Get cracking.

And if you have more money to burn than most, Guitar Hero for the PS2 sounds awesome.

Happy birthday, Shylo!

A big happy birthday to Shylo Bisnett, the smartest person I’ve ever worked with, which is why she got away with coming into work in pajamas.