another first

The kitten washed herself without warning. Never happened before. There seem to be a few milestones per day at this stage, which makes the exhaustion rewarding. For tomorrow I was advised by the vet to move in the direction of solid food and see what happens.

This is going to be a really pretty cat as well, I can already see. And her character is already likable.

If I’d left town for the break this would never have happened, and I am horrified by her likely fate in that case.

the most convenient thing about cats

This kitten barely even knows how to lick something from a plate, yet she knows exactly how to use a litter box. It’s something I’ve never understood about cats, but it’s certainly very convenient for humans who take care of them.

Wow, what an appetite too.

Let’s see how she handles a whole day of my absence.

hungry!

The iPhone camera does a poor job with anything in motion. But if you think of this as a Monet painting, it does capture the feel of Tamanya’s sudden hunger outbursts. When you’re only 0.3 kg and just had the cause of your anemia eliminated, you’re bound to have a huge appetite.

This big meal came after another incredible 6-hour sleep in the nest, suddenly a popular hangout. It could be even more popular if I could find a hot water bottle for sale somewhere in this neighborhood to put in there every night. Failed at that this afternoon.

laugh of the morning

I forgot to mention that the first thing they do at the vet is put every animal on a big digital scale. Everyone in the room laughed out loud when Tamanya’s reading appeared: 0.3 kg.

The vet and the receptionist today were both young Egyptian women, and Tamanya loved them both. She did hate their rectal thermometer, unsurprisingly, but otherwise seemed to enjoy her first visit to the vet. It’s a good thing, because it looks like she’ll be spending 8 days there in May, in the “hotel” section of the clinic. I went and toured that area and it looked good.

She’s now been asleep in her nest for 2 hours. I was gone for 90 minutes without my absence being noticed. This is progress. I’ll be away for something like 11 hours tomorrow and every other work day, so she needs to get used to it quickly.

vet report pretty good

Through the wife of a colleague I was tipped about a good veterinarian a 15-minute walk from my place. I phoned today and was delighted to hear they were open on this Egyptian national holiday (Sham el-Nessim, a Pharaonic-era holiday that has been retained).

Tamanya was so well-behaved as I carried her over there that I’m seriously thinking that daily walks might be an option.

On the whole, the vet thinks she’s doing very well for a kitten forced into such abysmal circumstances as a filthy alley without any friends. Her right eye is perfectly fine, despite my initial conclusion that she didn’t even have a right eye. (It was swollen so tightly that it looked like the eye had actually been removed.)

However, she is a bit anemic due to worms. They gave her the deworming medication in the vet’s office, and it must have been tasty because she gobbled it up. It looked like crème de menthe flavor. And she also needs to be syringe-fed two medications for the next 5 days.

Best of all, the vet can house and nurse her during my 8-day trip to England coming up. That was a concern. By summer she may be low-maintenance enough to leave with a friend on my longer trip, but in early May she would still be a full-time job for anyone.

On other fronts there is progress. She woke me again for feeding at 1:30 AM, which seems to be her favorite time. But after a good long feeding, she actually went into her box/nest and slept soundly there for 6 or 7 hours. And she continues to explore the flat more and more, though her hop-step running style remains comical.

But I’m going to have to watch out very carefully not to crush her accidentally. I almost sat on a blanket under which she turned out to have burrowed.

She’s also going to have to start dealing with my normal work schedule starting tomorrow.