In the absence of real children I write about our two cats. A new point in their relationship has been reached recently, and it is a beautiful thing to see. They still play and wrestle, but now I don't hear as much of the growling as I used to. They have not started taking their cat naps yet, but they are working up to it. It has been a bit of an emotional journey as we introduced Phoebe to Louie. We were worried they would not get along, and at first it seemed they might not, then it grew that Louie accepted Phoebe but she was still cautious of Louie. That has all changed. She chases him about as often as he chases her and when it comes to the wrestling they each take their turn.

The newest thing is the licking (I hope it's grooming). For weeks Louie has been licking Phoebe, and she has accepted it. He will clean her head for her and it has been very sweet to see, but he never accepted reciprocation. That has changed, and just a few minutes ago I got to see Phoebe lick Louie's head while he licked one of her paws (the licking degenerated into a wrestling match on our bed, and surprisingly neither one has been thrown off yet).

If cats have a rite of passage, or milestones along the way to maturity, our cat Louie has passed yet another, leaving only one that we can think of. He has done all the cute kitten things, graduating to catching and eating bugs. His next hurdle was the all-important tree-climb (with the obligatory “getting stuck” phase). This was accomplished on Saturday.

My wife has been feeling guilty about keeping him inside, especially when he sits at the window and stares out, meowing on occasion. We have begun to let him out in the backyard when the weather is nice, and usually on the weekends when we are home. He has loved frolicking in our backyard, flitting from bush to bush, and making valiant leaps in the air to catch a passing bug. The big advantage for us is he is exhausted when he is done and will sit on our laps and sleep, which is rare for him on regular occasions.

Today I had to ask if our cat was worth another visit to the vet. He was not acting normal, which means he was being a good lap cat, and I was actually enjoying time with him. My wife made the decision and called the vet (called three vets in fact because our regular vet was closed). When she took him in they discovered he had a fever (he was 2 degrees warmer than he should be) probably from the same virus that we fought off earlier. He was given a shot with some high powered antibiotics and we have some oral medicine we need to give him every 4 days. He's back to his "wonderful" self, clawing and chewing on us, thankfully the vet gave him a complimentary nail trimming.

So, how much is a kitty worth? I guess he was worth another vet visit, and it's nice to see him healthy again. I really don't want to see him die prematurely. But my budget is not happy with the little guy.

We have finally named the cat. He is now officially known as Louie, named after the protagonist from Rune Soldier. The name seems to fit; the character in the anime is a fun loving guy, who loves adventure (despite his profession), and does not always think before acting. If we could add in a dose of "cuddliness" we'd have our cat, thus he is named.

Louie saw the vet yesterday and got some medicine. I have both positive and negative feelings about this. On the plus side he is feeling better as evidenced by his energy and perk. On the down side, he has tons of energy and is full of perk, and he was getting into more trouble today than I have ever seen him get into. I'm quite glad he is doing better, now I need to spend more time preventing him from causing problems. That will mean I need to close off more cabinets, hide our wires, move my cable modem and wireless router out of his reach, and keep a spray bottle handy.

I'm looking toward the future when he will be calmer, trained, and well behaved.

Our yet-to-be-named kitty has been a bundle of curiosity and playfulness. He has poked his nose, his entire body, into more places than I thought he would, causing me to play warden and even bodyguard more often than I care to remember. He is rather fond of getting himself into trouble, yet for a baby cat I doubt it is malicious, only investigative. Sadly all this activity has wore me out, and having to guard and watch him when I am home has left me little time -- no time actually -- to do anything else. To be truthful I have had moments of regret, but only when I am trying to go to bed for the night and the little guy cries and cries wanting company and wanting to play. At all other times I am glad to have him, because he's cute, fun, playful, and quite amusing. Regardless, he is a source of change in our lives, a minor one compared to others I can think of, but a change to our lifestyle nonetheless.

Yesterday my wife brought home a new addition to our family. We now have a small, seven week old bundle of cat fur. He is black and white, timidly curious, playful, and loving (for a cat). We have not yet given him a name, as we want to wait and see what his personality is like and find a name that fits. After this our next step will probably be a puppy (my favourite pet), and if neither of these prepares us for children nothing will! :) It would be too funny if I got a puppy for my birthday.

We took some pictures of our "little monster" last night. Enjoy!