untonuggan | Chance is home! (Reply)

Chance explores some of his perches near his window to the birdfeeders (at night, blinds closed); he also wonders what an iPhone is so he is standing at the edge of his table perch and is leaning towards the camera. He has golden/greenish eyes and a white spot or threeish on his chest/belly (only one showing). Otherwise he is all black. He is fairly small, we think maybe 9-10 lbs but have not weighed him yet.

I was going to post all the Chance things, but I am sleepy for some reason. It couldn't have to do with night-time kitty petting sessions. Nope. Nor could it have anything to do with Sarge attempting to ingest wild mushrooms/toadstools about five minutes before Chance was due to arrive, and having to call his vet to find out the dose of hydrogen peroxide necessary to induce vomitting just to be on the safe side. Or, you know, the results of the inducing vomitting. (Bonus though: my mom talked to the vet assistant while I was talking to the cat rescue people, and as a result the vet assistant is going to talk to the vet about the possibility that Sarge still has Giardia. \o/ Also it appears that we *did* get all the mushroom out of his mouth before he swallowed any. However, hydrogen peroxide is better than accidental mushroom poisoning.)

Chance spent a fair bit of time under the bed, surveying things. Good for him. :D However, he gradually came out of his shell as we gave him space alone in the room and also lay on the floor talking quietly or just being quiet. As a result, we got some lap time before bed. It was at this point we realized that he licks people.

The cat rescue said Chance does not usually play. We think he was deferring to the other cats or just overstimulated. At one point today I was petting him and he very gently guided my hand with both paws down to the feather toy to indicate that he wanted another chase the feather stick session. He is also interested in laser pointers, and catnip tends to make him more outgoing.

We were very pointedly instructed to PET HIM PET HIM PET HIM several times last night. He had a circuit worked out which included walking over our pillows, and he also lay for a bit in the hollow between us.

As mentioned before, he likes grooming people back. Maybe he thought I was filthy and stank of dog? Or maybe it was just affection. I don't know! Places he groomed me: face, hands, hair, and the edge of my armpit. Later on I had a t-shirt on and he was disappointed that he could not reach. I have decided that for the sake of avoiding kitty-poisoning I shall just have to go deodorant-less for awhile.

He has also marked me as his human with face-rubbings, and rubbed himself up against various pieces of furniture.

We are gradually transitioning him from the food the rescue was feeding him to the food we plan to feed him (assuming he will eat it; we got small bags to start). For breakfast he got 3/4 their food and 1/4 the new food. I think he likes the new stuff, because all of that is gone and there is about 1/2 of the old stuff still left in the bowl.

Obviously, he hates it here ;)

Partner's mom is going to come over sometime today to meet him, along with partner's aunt. They are both SUPER CAT PEOPLE. We had to restrain them from coming over yesterday because, um, mega-change for Chance and he needed to settle in a bit. I should mention that while they knew this intellectually they are so cat-starved that their desire for kitty-time was overriding common sense.

Even though I did not sleep continuously or for as long as I might have desired, I do not have the bags under my eyes that I have had all week. (They were getting ridiculously huge and puffy). They have magically vanished! Now I just have dark circles. Also, my fingers and feet are less puffy this morning (perhaps due to kitty play/petting at night) and my feet were only dark red in the shower instead of purple. WIN. Obviously a cat is now a medical accommodation for my POTS. Not just any cat: Chance <3

And now off to nap like my cat is doing, or perhaps just squee a bit more that KITTY.