Creatures

Not too much has happened since grading finished that is not related to animals in one way or another (other than my ever-worsening addiction to Bones).

Firstly, on Thursday, I went with J to meet and maybe take home a ball of white fur. We had heard of 2 kittens at the home of the father of the boyfriend of a friend that were up for adoption. The idea was that J would take one home and I would or wouldn't fall in love with the other and have something to wreck my house and keep me company once again. I've been telling myself I should get a pet since it might keep me on some sort of eating/ sleeping/ being a reasonable human schedule (feed the cat= feed self, go to bed earlier as cat will wake me up at 4am regardless of what time my head actually hit the pillow). In theory it seems like a good idea, but I'm having enough trouble getting motivated to take care of myself, that having something else to care for might not have been ideal. It turns out that that was a good thing.

When we got to the apartment, the kitties were nowhere to be found, though after a while the mother was found and picked up, something which she kicked and screamed her way through until I was forced to just let her climb onto the roof. After a much longer while, the little female kitten was found and placed into the crate we had brought... she was NOT happy! There was miaowing, hissing, clawing, twisting and when she realized that no amount of running into the door of the crate would free her, she settled into the corner, made herself as small as possible and vibrated with fear and indignation. The boy remained hidden the whole time we were there.

Kitty 1 stayed where she was for the ride back to STU and for most of the afternoon even with food and water placed within easy reach. Clearly, she wasn't going to forgive the evil humans any time soon! As I hung out with J a good part of the afternoon we threw around names for the quivering ball of fur.  When I left to go make banana bread later, she still had no name and we still hadn't seen head, tail or even tip of ear move. 

One delicious banana bread made later, E and myself introduced D to Twilight, though our sarcastic peanut gallery-ness may have ruined the movie for him (if the acting, makeup and story didn't). I'm still practicing my "always in pain" face in case they come to Shantou to cast a future movie...

Yesterday morning came with the delivery of Boy Cat at J's house. Apparently he really missed his sister and cried until she was found hiding under the couch. Last night, I got to hear these cries for myself when I went over there to visit- it was heartbreaking! The girl (now named Fizz) ran under the couch as soon as the humans entered her territory, but her brother didn't see her, hidden under the curtain as he was. When the curtain was pulled back he freaked out and tried to claw his way up the wall towards the unfortunately slightly open window and onto the balcony and succeeded in reaching the ledge after several failed attempts, determined little furball! J then spent about 20 minutes trying to lure him back inside and away from the ledge of the balcony and potential death 2 floors below (boy cat appears to have bad eyesight and lack a few brain cells... poor dumb kitty!). My diagnosis of his cries: fear of being abandoned. Poor thing miaowed the whole time, but sounded almost desperate when J wasn't in sight. When he finally came in, we breathed a sigh of relief and promptly closed all windows to avoid a repeat performance! Eventually (after feeling more lost and miaowing even louder- J legitimately feared he'd damage his vocal chords) he finally was reunited with Fizz under the couch while we watched Harry Potter try to survive his way through the unaptly named "Triwizard Tournament".

I'm sure eventually Fizz and Boy Cat will learn that J is friendly and wants to help them, but when I left, they'd shifted their safehouse to a spot under J's bed behind a suitcase- they may not have liked the movie!

This all makes me want a cat and also be glad that we didn't separate them! I can't imagine how loud and unhappy Boy Cat would have been if he'd been adopted alone. I always suspected that kittens would be more fun in pairs, but this proves it beyond doubt: kitties are much like heads!

In other news, we have discovered a new inhabitant of the reservoir. We were joking about the existence of Rezzie, a friendly monster, but yesterday when E and I had reached and were resting on our favourite rock, I looked down to see something come out of a crack and aim towards the surface. It was like a thick plant with a bulb at the end. Then it disappeared back the way it came. A few minutes later, we both saw it and I was sure that it was actually a snake- coming out for air, fish or our lives, I couldn't be sure. E tried to lure it out of its hole by throwing little bits of twig into the water (logic of this is unknown by all parties involved) and while that didn't work, it did peak out later, long enough for us to agree that it was indeed serpentine in nature and to make us a little warier about getting back in. Let's just say that we wasted no time in aiming for the steps and way out once we carefully got back in. I think I'm glad I didn't know what was below me in there, but all the same, I may use the pool instead for a while! Shudder!