Done with the Hibernation Period

As Lucky gains more and more strength, she has become very active this past week. She'd run to the garden, exploring and chasing weird animals. She'd want to play with us, though often when we did play with her, she'd run to the garden again hoping that we'd run after her and do the hide-and-seek game. She'd love to do the camouflage spy game, thanks to her black fur, and attack animals (or us) when least expected. She'd climb the stairs and jump onto the top of the bathroom wall, peeking at us when we took a shower.

Lucky, on top of the water heater compartment,
not able to come down on her own.

This weekend will be the first weekend she won't be spending time with us. Vincent and I are off to Lembongan for a relaxing anniversary weekend (we've been JUST together for 4 years this week). My sister is going to housesit my place, and she'll be bringing her puppy along. It'd be interesting to see how Lucky reacts to other animals, but unfortunately we won't be there to see that. I hope everything goes well.

In the mean time, check out the newest video of my favourite cat channel on YouTube.

First Bath and First Kill

Lucky jumped from the stairs on to my computer desk, then onto my laps this morning, like she always does. As I petted her I saw that her fur was getting worse and worse everyday. It was like it'd just undergone some bad hair curling treatment or something. Then I started examining each string and found that there were flea eggs in every single hair! No wonder she scratched herself so often and suffered from the itch!

I knew that the vet told me not to bathe her because she was too small and weak. But I thought if it wasn't the worms inside her stomach that were eating her food consumption (and trust me, she ate so much but never got any heavier since the time we adopted her), it must have been the fleas. I googled what made it dangerous for little kittens to be bathed before certain age. It seemed to be the tendency of getting hypothermia after the bath.

I gave it more thought and then decided to bathe her anyway with warm water. As I rubbed the flea shampoo for kittens on her fur, the knocked-out fleas got stuck on my hands and I've never ever seen so many fleas in my life! Some of the survivors ran to her face, which obviously I wouldn't wash, but the eggs were easily washed away. Lucky was fine at first, but her fear built up as I let the shampoo stayed on her fur for 5 minutes (as the instruction said). So the bad kitty bit me.

Anyhoo, when I finished bathing her, I made sure she was dried up properly. I roughly dried her with a towel, then used a hair dryer (in quite some distance, like 20 cms far) to warm her up and dry her fur. Then I let her sunbathe in the garden. She actually seemed like she loved it when I used the hair dryer. She almost fell asleep as I groomed her. :P

After that, I left to my belly dance class. Guess what I found when I came back 2 hours later.

Lucky, sitting on a long snake! She was meowing to me and proudly showing me her first hunting achievement. But I was too shocked to be proud!

My little skinny black kitten and a dead snake!!! Did the snake bite her?!?! 

I called my boyfriend and asked him if it was an emergency case. Then I called the vet asking if it was an emergency case. Both told me to see how she was doing in a few hours. If she showed any weird sign, I should get her to the clinic immediately.

Luckily, Lucky was lucky. She didn't act anything weird, except hating me and refusing to be near me for the whole day for taking the headless snake away.

YES, HEADLESS!

Apparently she already ate its head.

Oh, well, I guess I had to be proud of her. Awesome cat!!!

Scratch

Yeah, keep scratching me while you sleep. :P

Lucky's First Visit to the Vet

I took Lucky to the vet this morning to see what her overall condition was. I saw last month that that the best veterinary clinic in Bali - Listriyani and associates - just had another branch open 5 minutes from my place. It was just a good timing for Lucky's first visit to the vet.

When I met Listriyani, I hugged her. I thanked her for what she had done for Mouche during her FIV sickness, and I told her that I meant to visit her sooner but my heart broke if I had to go to that clinic again. I was almost choked in tears when I said that. In reply she said, "Oh, it's okay. I understand. It was a hard time for you. I'm so very happy to see you now, moving on." She must have seen little Lucky on the examination table.

Another vet checked on Lucky. From her observation, she found:

• Lucky was experiencing a slight hypothermia, though not bad either.
• Lucky's gum was so pale when it was supposed to be pink when healthy.
• Her nose was not as bad as other stray cats, which meant it would be easier to get her back to the healthy state.

Yay!

She gave me two pieces of super small pills to treat the worms in her stomach and a vitamin to give every day. She approximated that Lucky was about 2 months old, though not exactly looking like one due to the malnutrition. In about a month, the kitten is expected to gain much more weight and strength, thus is ready for her first vaccination.

Lucky was so well-behaved at the vet clinic. I put her in the green Carrefour bag, lining the bottom with Mouche's baby cushion, and she just stayed calm there. The only time she expressed a dislike was when the vet inserted the thermometer inside her anus. But other than that, she was such a good girl!

If she is a girl. Can't determine a cat's gender at her age yet. But I have a feeling she's a girl.

Lucky, the Black Baby Cat

I was at Seminyak Square having some coffee with my sister that evening when an SMS from Eleonore, Vincent's friend, came in. She told me that she just took a very skinny little black kitten from a street near her office. She asked if I wanted to adopt the cat. I told her I'd talk with Vincent first about it.

When Vincent came back from his poker tournament, we talked. I was pessimistic about having another cat, since after Geisha and Mouche (then Zizou who filled our life shortly before he went missing), I was almost convinced we were not meant to have a cat pet. Even though all the incidents that took the cats' lives away were not our fault, it just seemed weird that the ones with us never had a long life.

However, we decided to go to Eleonore's to see the kitten.

She was telling the truth. The black kitten was super skinny and weak. It'd die if she didn't find it and take it. You could go through his spine and ribs, you'd feel nothing but bones. Lovely long, thick fur, though. Ele was half-pushing us to take the cat because her cat and dog hated the kitten and she couldn't keep it herself.

It didn't take us very long to decide that we were adopting the baby cat. We couldn't just leave it like that. So we took the kitty home.

Eleonore's is just a few blocks away from our place. But other cats would struggle if we took them on a motorbike. This cat didn't. It immediately got comfy inside the shopping bag and fell asleep there. As Vincent was driving away from Eleonore's, he said,

"I already know what name we should give to the kitty. Lucky. Because it is."

"I agree. She also needs to be lucky to be with us, too."

So Lucky it is. Meet Lucky, the newest member of our family.