So at like 1:30 this morning, I'm fast asleep on the couch (since I'm too preggers to be comfy in bed) and am woken by a hidious scream not ten feet from where I am.

Apparently one of the bastard neighborhood strays is aggrivating my Piffy by sitting outside the screen and staring at him.

I try closing the window--doesnt help.
I try locking Piff in another room, but he's still upset and vocal about it.

I let Piffy back into the living room and gather supplies. I open the window. Piff yowls at the intruder. Intruder leaps at the screen.

Janelly splashes the tuxedo-marked little grey bastard in the face with a coffee-cup full of tap-water.

Stray picks somewhere else to be.
Piffy is smug.
Blue comes out from hiding under the bed.
All is right in the world.

We went to Central Market today and brought home our groceries in two paper bags. 

Piff?  Gets the bag.  He hides, he plays, it's all good.

Blue?  Not so much.  He slides it.  He gets tangled in the handle.  He sits outside of the bag looking desperately perplexed. 

I'm almost embarrased for him...almost.

So. Probably the last "Piff update," just because he's a happy and healty kitten with all prospects of growing into a happy and healthy cat.


He's incredibly affectionate.  Not so big on sitting in your lap if you're sitting, but I can lay him over my shoulder and he'll just hang out there as long as I'm standing or walking.  

The only problem with the kitten at all is that his day starts sooo much earlier than ours.  He cries to be let out of his room, and if I let him out, he meows hello to everything.  Hi scratching post!  Hello toy! Hey there, table-leg!  I let him out this morning and he was so noisy that I chased him out of the bedroom.  So.  Like a minute of blessed sleep, and then he bripps at me again.

I look down, and he's got his shoestring in his mouth, and he looks up with me, all wide eyed like "YOU CAN HAS STRING NOW! I SHARE!"

Fucker shouldnt be allowed to be so damn cute so early in the morning.

Can anybody think of a kitty-toy that he could play with by himself that he couldn't choke on or strangle himself with?

New family member, hope he makes it through the night.

So a few days ago, Kendra found a kitten in a field near Austin, probably a pet that someone got rid of.

Sweet little black thing.  her friend told her to take it to the shelter in Richardson, that they'd check it out and stuff.  So we went back today to get it, and they hadn't done anything, no idea if it had FIV or what.  So we picked him up and took him to the vet.

He's got a hidious upper respiratory infection.  He's skin and bones, and severely dehydrated.  The Richardson animal shelter is beyond shitty.

We aren't willing to invest the $225 for the full regimen of treatments and tests and what-not when we don't even know his FIV and Lukemia status and we've only had him an hour.  We got him de-fleaed, picked up the antibiotics, and the Vet's assistant slipped us some of the high-calorie-protien-vitamin stuff in little syringes (for free). 

I'm hand-nursing him for a few days to see how he's gonna do.  He's already more responsive than when we picked him up, trying to drink water on his own and purring through his snot.  I've never seen a cat make snot-bubbles before.  When he tries to eat or drink something besides the syringe, I think he's suffocating so he's given it up.  He seems pretty happy to have me hand-nurse him. 

The FIV test takes a couple days to come back.  Figured we'd make sure he'll live before we spring for it.

Anyways,