Kitty was always very shy with or afraid of strangers and would run off to hide in the furthest corner of the house, nervously eyeing the intruder, ready to scurry off to someplace else if approached. Well, this is how she treats us now.

We went to Kitty's new family's house in Chiba today, and after just two months she seems to have completely forgotten who we are. Or were.

:-(

Did I mention we brought a video camera to capture the joyous reunion?

Give food to a cat, and she knows you her slave

PS: Patai, the household's other cat, was not any friendlier, either. Impressive hair, impressive hiss.

The first report from her new home:

Kitty is already very comfortable with the new environment and checked all corners of the house. She also tried to be friendly with the other cat, but the other cat is nervous about the newcomer and too stressed to eat. So Kitty happily eats two cats' portion of food now.

Queen of the Hill, that's my girl. Just hoping that she does not stretch her welcome too far and gets kicked out. She did venture out by herself on Tuesday morning, but was recovered soon thereafter.

Patai, the other cat, is also a girl, and seven years old. There are pictures, but not with both of them together, because they are never together.

We have given Kitty away to one of Cissy's co-workers.

This is probably a more momentous event for us than it is for Kitty. Her new family already has another cat, and will certainly provide her with a nice home. If anything, one has to worry for them, or the other cat, in case Kitty misbehaves and turns into a house-wrecker. If that happens, we will have her back in a week or so. If not, we will go visit them sometime later. Not sure, which outcome I prefer.

The results of Cissy's allergy screening are not good for Kitty: Out of the sixteen allergens in the test there were measurable reactions to house dust (slightly elevated antibody levels of 1.5 UA/ml), to the botanically inaccurately named Japanese Cedar (unhealthy 9.37 UA/ml), and to cats (an even higher 15.5 UA/ml). We'll see if it gets better if we keep Kitty out of the bed and study rooms, give her showers more frequently (that is always a spectacle), and clean the house more often.

The Comin Calendar Company says they do not need this picture for next year's series of cat calendars. What gives ?

Cissy has been struggling for weeks now with a very obstinate cough that just refuses to just go away. Today the doctor mentioned the possibility of a cat allergy. Now, he may be just grasping for straws because his medicines did no good so far, but it is a scary concept for cat people. Next week will be an interesting experiment with Cissy in Shanghai for business and hence cat-less. On the other hand the famously not-so-fresh air there might just make things worse.

Kitty, whose first birthday must be just about now, has officially reached the 4kg mark.

The Tokyo Pet Show covered three halls of the enormous Makuhari Messe convention complex, and was almost completely a dog show. A wide variety of vendors displayed the offerings of pet food, canine apparel (including shoes, accessories and even wigs), animal-friendly interiors, bath tubs and washing machines, medical procedures (such as DNA extraction and storage), breeding consulting, remote monitoring (with a live video feed to your mobile phone that can also be used to talk to the pet and release food rations), and cleaning utensils. A large chunk of floor space was taken up by Honda, who displayed their ideas how to make car rides comfortable for dogs. Unfortunately, they managed to do so without the help of any campaign girls, as seen on motor shows and video game fairs. Other attractions included a petting zoo with cats, dogs, rabbits, and marmots, an exhibition of animal-inspired art, robotic pets (not Aibo, who has been discontinued, but Paro, the therapeutic robot seal, whom I already met at the 2003 Robot Exhibition), and doga (dog yoga).

Kitty took flight yesterday night: We left the apartment door open for a few minutes not to let the cat out, but to let some air in, and she used the chance to slip out. A search of all fifteen floors (for once I was thankful for them being illuminated so well all through the night) turned up nothing and we were worried if she could find back (cats are supposed to be good at that, but all doors basically look the same here) or if a potential finder would know where to return her (Kitty does not wear a necklace or tags of any kind). Fortunately Cissy discovered her on her way to work in the morning, hiding behind a nearby air conditioner.

Kitty returned tonight from a weekend at the animal hospital, where she had her sterilisation. It order to prevent her from ripping through the bandages over her shaved belly, she has to wear a protective plastic collar. She now walks mostly backwards, which is really a strange sight to behold, and occasionally rams her shoulder into walls, door, tables, or furniture in an attempt to get rid of it.

Update: Half an hour later. We took off the collar and stuck Kitty into a knee-warmer that tightly fits over the bandages and that she hopefully cannot pry off.

Kitty spend the afternoon vomiting into strategic locations throughout the apartment. I can only hope that I have found everything, but at least she seems to be done for now. The good news is that this is most likely not related to yet another health issue (she is still on her liver-friendly diet). She apparently only tried (successfully) to rid herself of one of Cissy's elastic hair bands. Why she would have eaten that in the first place remains a mystery, though.

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There goes the yoga ball.

Is Kitty trying to ridicule us, considering that it happened during the night right after we cut her nails?

During the week that we spent travelling in China, Kitty stayed at a friend's house in Chiba, where she also met (and almost ate) the resident hamster. That was probably a little too much excitement for her: A blood screening yesterday in preparation for her sterilisation operation showed up highly elevated enzyme readings that usually indicate stress (or liver malfunction, but from what we can tell Kitty has no drinking problem).

More cat pictures for you. Isn't that what blogging is all about ?

I'd have thought them too salty for that, but Kitty just had a bowl of Nissin tonkotsu ramen (well, not the whole bowl). She even slurps them in the way they are meant to be eaten. I can never make myself do that.

Kitty likes to dig her claws into furniture. Our inflatable sofa turned out to be particulary vulnerable.

Kitty (whose Chinese name is Mimi) is doing much better now. The cold and eye infection are not completely gone yet, but the medicine is definitely working. Kitty is much more active now and has also gained more than 200 grammes, which she puts to good use when trying to avoid being fed her medication. Other than that, she is quite well behaved, gave up scratching the wall papers (at least in front of us) and figured out how to use her toilet.

The next thing to take care about are these suckers. After that, blood screening to see if anything else nasty is still in hiding, and once Kitty is healthy all around the full round of vaccinations.