First, a kitty update. She is merging into the family well. She was quiet all last night, much to my surprise. The first sound I heard this morning was of her in the litter box.

She sat with me today while the dogs sniffed her. Merlin has decided that she is okay to stay and not a threat to his status in the pack. He’s even been a bit protective of her. He often comes and sits by me, waiting until I look at him and the deep concern in his eyes, then he looks back at the crate like it’s time for me to go check on the kitten now.

I put her in the smaller crate today so she could watch me while I worked for a bit. She was either playing or watching me, then started to meow at me when she needed to go back to the bigger crate. Then she slept.

The cats, however, are another story. I still think we are coming along. Coville hissed and snarled many times, especially when I’d pick him up and he’d smell the kitten on me. Oh so not happy with me. Bella, who had been guarding their food and kitty litter yesterday, decided that it was useless since the kitten had her own and wasn’t allowed to wander. Bella hasn’t been as snarly today. Both cats came to explore the kitten a couple of times. Coville even got right up to the crate, but he started hissing and ran when he lifted his head from sniffing to find the kitten staring at him. “Whatcha doing?” And he and Bella have been growling at each other today as if challenging the other that they can dislike the kitten more.

Kitten, meanwhile, is happy as a clam in her crate. She’s got toys, her litter box, food, water, a blanket, and a scratch box inside. What more could she possibly want. Oh, and she had some sunlight today. She plays until she falls asleep. Once today, I caught her doing circles in her litter box. Then she’d stop and go the other way. It was as if she wanted to create her own dust devils. I worried about her getting kitty litter all over the place with her play, but she didn’t; it all seemed to stay inside. She would love more freedom of the house, but she’s also very happy with where she’s at, knowing she is safe.

She has the most triangular head of any cat I’ve seen. Part of that might be due to the severity of the plane on the side with the missing eye. I didn’t realize how much rounded a simple eyeball made for a cat’s face. She’s very intelligent. I can see her trying to puzzle things out. And she’s a typical, playful kitten.

She just hasn’t told me her name yet. And not for lack of trying. It took me awhile to get Kreeli’s name too. I was lead a lot to names that meant “princess” and I didn’t want to call her a princess. I finally came across Kreeli, which means “sweet and charming.” That fit her perfectly. I think Kreeli has always been pleased with it too.

We didn’t name Coville either until he was 6 weeks old since we weren’t certain he was going to live. And Bella didn’t get a name until we got her back from the vet. She showed up on my door with kitten fever so badly her eyes were crusted shut and I could tell by picking her up that she had a fever. I got some fluid into her and got her cleaned up. Then she became so lethargic that I thought I was loosing her. I rushed her to the vet, who said that she was actually recovering well and was just so tired that now she knew she was safe, she was sleeping. They wanted a name for her when I checked her in, so I initially called her KitKat on the spur of the moment. The next visit to the vet when I took her back to get spayed, I had a hard time convincing them to change it from KitKat to Bella. I’m sure the right name will come along for the kitten too.

Well, that ended up not being a very short update like I initially thought.

Maybe I’ll just leave it right there for tonight.

Until next time, cheers.