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 :)

Well, I just had my first class in Cat behavioral therapy this Friday. It was....interesting. The topic was normal cat behavior, with a heavy focus on the behavior of cats in the wild. That was especially interesting since it is a topic I only had limited knowledge on.

Overall, the teacher was very good but there were certain things she told us I didn't agree with. She did say at the beginning of the lesson that this might happen as we still do not know much about cats and what makes them tick and every cat colony is different.

For instance, apparently grooming each other within a colony is done frequently, and if you measured the amount of time and the frequency of grooming, you would notice that the dominant cat is the one getting groomed most by the submissive cat. Now, if that were always true, that Arwen would be incredibly dominant in my colony. She is getting licked by everyone! And she doesn't always like it, but if she were to resist, the other cat would put her right in her place and make her endure it.

Apparently, that is a very odd exception according to the teacher. Another one is the idea of shared dominance, although dominance is a very difficult topic in cat behavior and experts do not agree on this either. But, according to my teacher, you can tell that cats are dominant each in their own spot and at their own time. A kind of 'time-sharing' dominance.

Well...I invited her to come and explain that to our Prinny. Though she might not go often to the back, when she does, she is in Falkies territory. And although he does try to send her off, she will put him in his place if he makes too blatant a claim over the bed, for instance. Yes, it is his territory, until it is convenient for her to be there, then it doesn't count. I would label that as complete dominance on her part, but ok :P

Well, I just had a message from my friends on how our boy is doing and he is apparently taking over their house *grin*. He is racing around the house apparently one half of the time and the other he apparently lies purring in a little tent they bought him. Trust me, our boy is being pampered. The new owners already expressed their astonishment at how energetic he can be to which my answer was: well duuuuhhh, he is a kitten afterall and he just got a new playground...what did you expect?
All in all though they are apparently having a lot of fun with him, so things are definitely looking good.

And, Shadow even has a mission in life now. My friends have a clock that hangs high on a wall, and at every hour instead of a traditional bell-sound, you get to hear a 'Meeeeeehhh'-sound, and a sheep apppears from the clock. This sheep is apparently Shadow's new Nemesis and has him fascinated completely. I already warned him that that clock cannot hang high enough and that they should introduce the sheep to Shadow if they want to avoid having him jump at the clock when he gets bigger and more confident in his jumping abilities. I am sure we haven't heard the last of this.

No doubt, I will get more of these messages and soon I will have to babysit him for a weekend when his new owners go out to the countryside for the weekend, so to be continued, I am sure ;)

Well, that was that. Shadow has gone to his new home. And what a luxury life he will have *grin*. His new basket is twice the size he had at my place, he has a designer foodbowl, a brand new litter tray, a ton of toys and his own room.

The new owners are friends of mine. The guy has wanted a kitten for a long time now but the girl wasn't sure. They actually considered adopting our Arwen a year ago, but because of the practical mess kittens bring with them, the girl decided not to adopt a kitten just yet. But, every time she was here and I had a new lost soul, she was endeared, and when she saw her guy at one point happily playing with Shadow when he was here, she wanted to surprise him. They have been together for 4 years this month and she figured it would be a perfect gift. So, she gave me a call after learning that Shadow needed a home and that it would not be easy to find one because of his hipproblem.

I was over the moon of course, since this meant I would still have a part in his life. And so the hush-hush situation began. Hence also the not-blogging on the fact that he had found a good home. Last week my friends met here, and I played my part, and so did she. She told her boyfriend very adamantly no on the whole kitten-thing. So much even ,that he came to talk to me about how he would love to adopt Shadow but his girlfriend wasn't up for it. I told him not to worry, since Shadow had already found a great home and was moving there soon. I also comforted him with the thought that my house, knowing my life and the way it flows, would always have some kitten that needed a new home, in case his girlfriend had a change of heart. He was so cute, and so not aware of what was going on :)))

Arghh, Arwen has messed up my training schedule goooood.
Yesterday, I noticed that Shadow had the runs. So, what you do then is give him some Lacteol, and some yoghurt at the end of the evening as wel as take away his food for a while so his intestines get the chance to catch up. Shadow soooo did not agree.

So I put him in his little room at the end of the day, and usually he makes no probs of this as he gets his bowl of food then (he is able to eat from the grown-ups food during the day though so its not like he has a steady feeding schedule). This time, there was no bowl for him as I wanted to give his inside a break. Man...did he complain. Three freaking hours, starting 5 min after I put him there, he meowed. Long and complaining as if he was mortally wounded. Seriously, if ever anyone doubted that the love of a man goes through the stomach, believe it now! We ignored him, three hours long, before I fell asleep or he stopped meowing, I dunno what came first.

The thing is, Arwen has taught him that complaining and meowing will get you stuff. Whenever he did that when he was lonely, she would storm at the door and entertain him from the other side. This caused him to realize he just had to open his mouth to get what he wanted, although we never allowed that trick to work on us.

And of course, the first thing I hear the next morning, is the complaining of a Shadow who had heard my boyfriend get up. An hour and a half it took him to shut the f*ck up, so I could actually let him out. If I had done it earlier, that would have told him that his meowing caused the door to open and the food to be served. Siiiiiighhhhh. When he did get out, he sighed in relief and uttered another small meow. I get that he was hungry..but if he had just shut up before he would have gotten out as soon as I had gotten up, as we always do in the morning.

Well, it turns out that the two families that were interested in Shadow...are not anymore. I guess the whole recovery took too long for them, which means we need to find him a new loving home. So if you know anyone or are interested yourself and live in the vicinity of Antwerp...great, mail me ;)

So far, he is doing great though. He is blended in with the rest of my cats and is taking lessons in cat etiquette as we speak. He is being treated for ear mite some more, to make sure we got those nasty bugs, but other than that, he is ready for a loving, permanent home. God knows he deserves it after all he has been through. And although my heart will break when I have to give him up, I know it is the best thing for him. I really cannot keep six cats here in this appartment.

Considering his good nature and sweet character while being a big goofball and a bundle of enthusiasm and joy, I am positive this kitten will find a good home.

The question really is when...because, though I do not wanna really put it this way, the longer he stays with me, the less likely he is to find a home. His cuteness-factor is vanishing with every week he stays. People want cute little kittens...not bratty teenagers or worse..an adult cat. However unfair that is, this is how the majority of the people reasons.

Hopefully though, there are some people willing to look past the fact that he aint 2 months anymore, but is still a special kitten which will provide them with a lot of action in their lives.

On with the search!

PS I am working on those pics, I have them, but am having some technical problems with getting them online...

Well, Shadow had his check up yesterday. He was poked, prodded, vaccinated and checked out. The diagnosis of the doc? He is astounded that the wound is just about invisible, that all the hair has grown back already, and that the kitten is pretty much in good shape. He does still drag his leg a bit though.

He's advised me to let Shadow run with the crowd so he can build muscle in order to support his leg and hips, and try and keep him from jumping (yeah right!). So right now, Shadow only stays confined at night, but the rest of the day he is racing through my house. The other cats seem fine with that. Other than that, I was told to de-worm him once more and treat his ears some more since the parasite might have left some eggs.

All in all he is ready for a new home, as long as those people know about his lasting problem and give him at least 6 weeks more of peace and quiet. Concretely, this means staying indoors and preferably no jumping, nor rough children who would shake him about and stuff. Im gonna go and inform the potential new owners on Monday and see who is still interested in him. And hopefully he will get himself a permanent loving home then :)

For now though, he can enjoy pestering all my adult cats and wrestling with Arwen (I asked the doc and he said that that was pretty ok, though he would've preferred them to be the same weight class. It sorta evens out though, since Shadow is a lot more vicious than our little sweet Arwen *grin*)

Well, this is a little notice to let you guys out there know that I will continue writing articles and stories and examining breeds once I can again. Right now, I am in the process of starting my own business and it is a weee bit hectic around here these days, with going all over the city to get supplies, filling out forms, taking care of cats of ppl that are on holiday etc etc. And though I love all of it, I can only manage so many things at once.

But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The reason it is so hectic right now is because the start of the business is right around the corner...well... not right around the corner, but close anyways. I start in October. And, the other good news is that I am starting a course on cat behaviour in September, so I should soon be able to add another section to the site on this very important part of our cats.

For now though, you will have to be satisfied with my amateuristic efforts of running a rescue for stray cats, and the antics of both my own and special guest star cats. In other words, the blogging will continue ;)

Well, today I walked into our bathroom, and guess what I found: a purring Shadow, walking the edge of the bath tub, before casually jumping down. ARRRRRGHHHH. That cat cannot take a hint. No jumping and racing for three weeks, right? Wrong! This cat just does not quit.

So now...I am putting not only my tower-thingy in the bath tub so he won't climb it, I am also putting the shower screen in front of the tub when not using it to keep him from jumping up there. Lovely.

Oh well, at least he is feeling better, right? He is walking already better and is certainly taking his healing bones for a test drive, authorized or not. Only two more weeks....*sigh*