And here we went again...to the vet. Arwen had surgery a week or two again, and the medication they used...well it didn't do the job. Result: tunnel-vision. Everything had grown together again.

So today, I brought her once again to the clinic. And I abandonned her...once again *sigh*. I picked her up around five and got the medication. The tissue grows so quickly that they have now decided to use the medication they use with cancer-patients. I am to drop one drop a day in her eye, wearing gloves to make sure I don't touch the stuff. It's just precautions, but still.

I really hope she will get better this time. Including her sterilization, she has been under the knife four times in like not even six months. She is home now, but is still wobbling all over the place. It doesn't help that she is so tiny and that the sedation lasts that long. She has slept several hours on my chest by now, and is lying exhausted and hardly conscious on my carpet right now. She is starving for food, yet I aint allowed to give her any since she might choke while vomitting then.

It just makes you feel so helpless. I really really hope this is the last time. She has been through enough by now.

We have invented a new groove, Arwen and I, and Prinny is our first follower.

You see, I am trying to get into the habit of being healthy. That means eating different and including exercise (yes I am actually typing the nasty word) into my daily life. Now, to keep it at least somewhat interesting, I picked a sport that is not really a sport in my eyes, but makes you sweat anycase and can actually be enjoyable: Dancing, with the focus right now on belly dancing (though other styles are occasionally used to keep me from going utterly numb from boredom.)

I have however, been doing the same kind of routine for the last two weeks and it makes you do 'the robot', aka auto-pilot. Now, Arwen has gotten most intrigued with this routine, and has enjoyed taking part. Now how does a kitten, as flexible as they are, belly dance? Well, she doesn't really. But she provides a very nice distraction from the moves I know by heart by now, while inventing her very own game. Sometimes though, it is such a distraction that it is hard to keep going.

Examples of her involvement include: sitting on the back of the couch while I am dancing next to it. When I do my arm movements, one of them is always near the couch and on the same height more or less, so she has learnt to beg for cuddles during this phase. Others, during the warm-up on the floor, include walking under me while I press up my body, and rubbing against me while I am lying on the floor. More inconvenient ones are during the stretch moves, where I have to touch my toes and stuff. She will actually try walking under me, but since my legs are in the way, she just lingers under my face and the result is breathing difficulties on the account of a pile of fluff in my mouth (aka her tail).

Yesterday I went yet again to see my friends at the clinic. Arwen's eye was not looking too pretty after the surgery and I was worried. Her other eye was infected as far as I could see and the one that had undergone surgery was more than half closed so I was not able to see if it was infected. So off we were....

Once there the vet ran some tests to see if the eye was damaged. Though nothing serious she did find some damage and suggested an ointment for the next couple of days till she had had the chance to discuss it with the eye expert, which should be monday.

Once back at the reception, a woman with a dog came in, a golden labrador. Luckily the dog was used to cats and therefore more interested in the treats he was getting from the vet. Arwen though, cat as she is, started hissing and growling. Kinda cute considering she was residing at that point in my sweater and therefore barely visible. Suddenly there was growling and hissing coming from this tiny ball of furr.

The dog completely ignored her and found new ways every five seconds to get to the treats which were standing on the desk. I stayed there on purpose. I don't often get the chance to have her get used to a dog that does not care about cats, and one of my future plans is to get a dog, maybe two, so this was nice practice.

My sweet doctor btw knows that this has been an expensive year kitten-wise already and gave me a break. She is great that way.

Trip-time to..you guessed it, the vet. Hopefully this time they will fix Lulu permanently. I also took Arwen with so that the vet could check the progress on her eye. But when I stepped outside, it snowed. Now, it has been unusually warm here during the winter so this is the first snow this season. And the carrier I was using is open on top. So Lulu and Arwen looked startled at these white things falling into the carrier. I quickly put my poncho over the carrier to make sure they wouldn't get soaked. Arwen started meowing in a panicky voice. She has never seen snow before and it has been a very long time for Lulu as well.

After dropping Lulu of at the vet, there was the trip back of course, with Arwen in my arms. I had her harnass with so it wasn't a problem. Of course, the snow made it a problem. She was shivering all over and I had no clue if it was out of fear or because she was cold. Since she kept shivering when we were outside but stopped when on the bus, I figured she was cold, and took of my sweater. It happens to be her favorite, she loooooves pawing it and sleeping in it. So that made her purr, while shivering. Not sure what to make of that, but at least she was willing to stay in my arms and get comfy.

Eventually we got home though, and she didn't seem as bothered by having that white stuff on her face anymore by then. She did however meow in excitement at the sight of the door, and when I unhooked her harnass she raced up the stairs to meow at our living room door till I opened it.
Ahh, there is no place like home *grin*

Well, we have been testing Arwen now for a month on food allergies. This week I switched back to her normal food but now, seven days later, she has diarrhea again. I guess that confirms it. If I give her D/D feline from Hills she does a lot better. It is made from ingredients that are not commonly found in cat foods, so she has not been able to become allergic to them yet. It might also be that she does not have any problems if I were to pick another brand of food, preferably a more expensive one. But for now, I will give her D/Df since she clearly tolerates that food just fine.

I was dreading doing this, since it means feeding them seperately, but it works pretty well, since Arwen sort of has been used to eating seperately since she was a kitten, and the other cats are used to her having her own food. They still try to steal some, of course. They are cats, afterall. But it works pretty well, most of the time.
Oh, well. One more feline problem solved :)

Well, now that his paw is fully healed it shows: yes our Falkie still plays with our Wen-Wen, however not as much. This morning they had a bit of fun, but you can tell that it is changing. It was a lot more serious in nature with a lot less hopping about and racing. It was more of a circling and anticipating the next strike kind of thing. I guess our kitties are growing up, and of course, that is the idea. Still going to miss it though ;)

They do still play, but its a lot more individual now, pawing a mouse here and conquering a ball there. In relation to eachother they are onto the semi-serious catfights adults have. They cross each others borders a lot quicker and there are a lot more borders in place nowadays. Arwen still occasionally tries to have a bit of a racing game going. But Falcor has gotten so big and strong, she is put in her place in no time and ends up defending herself against a circling Falcor. Game over.

Good news is though that Arwen has broadened her range of playmates. Lulu and Trini are sometimes more than willing to have a bit of fun with her and even Prinny will sometimes be up for a game. So she is no longer that dependent on the Falkie. Still, considering the bond they had, it is unfortunate to see it be less strong. Maybe it is time for Falcor to move on. I always said it was good for him to stay, since he and Arwen could benefit from each others company, but that no longer seems to be as necessary. We will see though :)

Today I decided to fix that skirt that had been lying around for like forever to sew up. The chair I used at my last job tended to ruin my skirts occasionally, and this time there was much repairing to do, which is why I had been putting it off.

And while I was all focussed on how to stitch up the damage (I am not exactly skilled at this, but I can do the basics), an Arwen popped her head from under the table. She noticed the yarn going up and down, while I was sewing. Although first playing to be an innocent bystander, she didn't keep that up for long. So she jumped up on the couch with me to 'observe' this yarn some more. And suddenly there is this little paw, without claws though, I have to say, that is pawing my yarn as it is moving. It didn't stay this way though. The next stitch, she did use claws to catch it. Luckily, a little tap on her paw unleashed it again.

I finally just cut her her own piece of thread from the skirt, which I was going to do anyways since it was hanging from the dress, and put it on her head so she could play with it. Content with her very own piece of yarn, she let me get on with my work.

And this is how you sew with a content kitten right besides you, people!