I feel like I've gotten my cat through a Helen Keller moment. She's just hanging out, sitting on the couch with me! Progress! Plus, the baby gate is no match for my James Bond kitten.
Jake and Shannon
So let me catch you up on the kitten story.
I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted another cat. My house is big.. very big and I have plenty of room. Ashley has the full run of the house and she loves it.. and I thought it great if we had a 3rd body here. But travel and such would really be mean to a kitten, so I waited until I got back from Tahoe.
Saturday and Sunday, Marni took me to a couple kitten repositories that she volunteers with and we visited with and played with them to our heart's content. Tuesday, Marni suggested we visit Lollipop and I was all up for that, since that's where I adopted Ashley.
Our visit went swimmingly. We met a few sick kittens, and then they also said there were a couple grey kittens that had just been spayed and neutered. This kitten pair had been found on the side of a road.. and neither had been socialized with people yet.
It was quite obvious. The kittens were very afraid and the girl even hissed at ya when you tried to touch her. Perfect. I love difficult cats. And I figured any effort on my part for us to overcome this apprehension would actually bond us further. However, with dinner plans and errands to run, I didn't want to get her just to leave her in the car. So I made plans to pick her up Wednesday.
Last night I brought her home from the shelter. We had a slight issue with her getting "out" while we were getting ready to depart Lollipop, but in the end, she was put into a box with a blanket, and the crew said goodbye to "screamer" their pet name for Shannon. Great, she's a screamer. And a sneezer. She's been sneezing off and on since I got her.
I spent the next couple hours, on and off, holding her, petting her and just talking with her as we watched TV and just looked at each other. Okay, kinda creepy, but hey, kitten bonding is very delicate. She also tried to hide in my recliner (unsuccessfully) and also wedged herself under my radiators. She still hisses every time I went to touch her, but I've set her up with a very nice pen with toys, food and water and a litter box all her own. Marni came over later and visited while I continued to socialize the kitten off and on.
Once Marni left, the kitten would look at me through the door glass and meow. Ashley would then look back at her like an animal in the zoo. The night was quite long. She slept in her new box in the downstairs door foyer, and me with Ashley up in my bed. But the howling woke me up several times in the night. I didn't sleep well.
Today we've made remarkable progress. When I finally got home after working late AND going to the market, she was pretty apprehensive about being touched. Hiss hiss... but never any threats beyond that. I held her, talked to her and played as best as I could since it was one-sided. She still tried to jump and run away, but after a bit relented. I let her be alone for a bit while I did yard work, and after Jake got here to watch a movie, I brought her back out to hold.
While holding her, something very much a mark in progress happened. She licked my face. More specifically, my eyelid. I admit I haven't washed my eyelids in awhile, and she found them incredibly dirty. She also sneezed promptly in my face. But after licking me, and then licking my finger, she settled down with me holding her in my lap. She also let me roll her over and she snuggled into my arm.
Mind you, she's no angel. She's still hissing and she's very jumpy. But with just over 24 hours under our belt, we've made great progress. Plus, she's snuggling with my finger.. rubbing her nose and mouth on it when I stick it in front of her. Before, she was uninterested in even smelling it. I've put her back in her pen, and she meows... loudly, as before. However, when I go over to visit her, she hisses but she walks up to me hissing. I'm not sure she even knows what hissing is for.. but it's cute to have a cat hiss and walk up to touch your finger.
Ahh.. kitten adventure continues...
Got a new kitten. Picked her up from the shelter today. She's a screamer. Named her Shannon. We'll see how it sticks.
I don't remember it being this hard last time... I'm adopting a kitten... Where is my Laura to help me out?
Had fun at the final dinner tonight... said goodbye to everyone....
There was some gettin' jiggy with it....
We had an AMAZING time on the lift to the top of the mountains today. Clare and Judy were funny and fun to hang out with, plus I made them laugh nonstop. Always a good thing! I even made snowballs. There was snow everywhere.
Walking back from the beach.. barefoot and sunned
Up higher and higher! We got up over 10,000 feet above sea level. Thin air!!
Gorgeous mountains.. beautiful skies... the smell in the air was pine and nature.. loved every minute of it.
Clare took this picture after spending about a minute figuring out the camera. She caught me laughing at her incompetence.. and it came out nicely!
A full review of some of the scenery from the top...
Last night I took a walk to the beach and stayed for a bit. This afternoon, I plan to go up the gondola with Clare. Should be a blast. We're also going out to eat and seeing a comedy show in the showroom. Already lost some money in the casino. Hmm...
Been traveling since 6am after a mishap made us leave Rochester 90 minutes EARLIER than expected! Yikes. But we got bumped up to first class which was AMAZING. I want free wine and food and cookies on every plane flight now. Ha!
Flying to Tahoe from Dallas over Colorado and Arizona? 
View from my room!
I'm off to Lake Tahoe for work for the week! It promises to be an amazing time! I will be posting pictures as they happen. Talk to you soon!
Jake has suggested I get this horror collection from Best Buy of 250 vintage movies. Coming in just under $100 and just over 313 hours, it might be just worth doing.
Assuming that we slept/peed for eight hours a day, we could muscle through it in 19 days, 13 hours, and 39 minutes by my calculations. That would be a serious exercise in stamina. I'm in.
Had an amazing morning of graduation events and a big party at my house! And so many gifts! It was so amazing. Thank you everyone! It means so much to me.
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