Well, this was a week from hell. I was a bit overwhelmed this week and the previous ones, and that kinda made it hard to keep track of the site.

So what have I been up to that has kept me away from you? Oh...your usual: setting up my own business, going mad with all the details that go into that, taking care of our beloved Shadow (yes, he is back!), and our Merry and Pippin (the brothers of Arwen, remember?), working at the clinic, in order to be able to pay for my daytime school to learn more about our furry friends, as well as actually going to class. So please forgive me ;)

First things first. Our little Shadow needed a babysit this weekend and I was it. Boy, has he grown! You can barely see that he ever limped, he races around like he owns the place, feels perfectly fine there and was very cuddly. And it is likely he will stay an only child since he is so independent. He loves playing with someone, be it cat or human (not sure about dog yet), but he is perfectly fine playing on his own if you aint up for it. He'll invite you, but if you give up, he'll go thumbling into his little sleeping tent (that thing isn't weighed down so it wanders through the entire room with him in it of course), or racing through to the house while playing football with his toys.

His owners told me he is always happy to see them, but the greeting takes a split second and then he'll take off again like a lightningbolt. So for now, he is way too busy enjoying life to be bored or lonely. Those people are lucky to have such a self-reliant kitty :)

Next in the list: I bought a new doormat, which is being eaten as we speak. Fun of it was that every cat took it at her/his own pace to get to know the new thing. Prinny was immediately taken with the thing and decided to mark it. Lulu and Trini first sniffed it from a distance, checked it out and pawed it before sitting on it. Falkie soon followed. And Arwen? Well, she is crazy about it now, but it took her three or four days to get used to it, and the days leading up to that moment, she spent sniffing it, checking it out repeatedly, and pawing it vigorously. Now, she is completely convinced that that thing is a fab toy ;)

What else? Well, we were taught another lesson on Friday. One of the topics was learning methods. The conclusion was: cats are hard to punish. Well duuuuhhh. All kidding aside though, it was very insightful, and it did enlighten me on how cats learn. The problem is that it is often very hard to stage a situation in which they learn, because of their power of association. They will very quickly realize that the reason something happens, is because you are in the room. Which makes punishing them very impractical. But we are learning on how to manipulate them, instead of being manipulated by them, in that class. So, yay for progress!

The other main topic was cat breeds, which proved more interesting than I would've thought. It also gave me some interesting ideas for the future. One of the people in our class is a breeder and her input was very interesting, which led me to the thought that it might be interesting to create some kind of 'orphanage' for stray cats and raise them as breeders would. Put time and effort into socialization the way a good breeder would, and have them chipped, vaccinated etc etc. And most of all: inform potential owners on why this is important and why it is therefore a good idea to get their kitten from you since you put in the effort to get them a healthy, well adjusted kitten. And that way, be able to get some of the expenses you have paid back, since people might be more willing to pay for their cat then. I know I am dreaming aloud here, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

One other thing we learned that I absolutely did not know, was the reason why you should ask to see the parents. The mother is obvious, since she did the rearing. But the father? Well, apparently they have done a scientific experiment with this and it turns out that if you have a litter which was fathered by a social father who likes humans, and well socialized, you will have a resilient kitten. While if you don't have either, aka an unfriendly father and no socializing, you will have a tough cookie of a kitten. But, take one of the two away, say friendly father with no socialization, or the other way around: an unfriendly father with proper socialization for the litter and the big surprise is: it cancels eachother out!

In short: if you socialize well but the litter had an unfriendly father, it will give the same effect as with a litter that had a friendly father and was not socialized! Talk about genetics! It also confirms something I was never willing to believe: if you have a litter of wild cats, however young they are, you will NEVER be able to socialize them enough to become domesticated, even if they were reared around humans.

Anycase, enough ranting. I will try and get back to you guys soon, I promise.