The Triumphant Return

It's been quite a long time since my last blog post, so let me give you all a quick photo-assisted recap. This'll be a chance for me to go through my old pictures, which I've been meaning to do for months.

I. THE CAT(S)

Our little cat has grown up. We did name him, incidentally, after one of my favorite comic strip characters: Hobbes. I think it suits him, but naming him Stinkums would have been good too. If only Ariel hadn't shot that one down ...

We nabbed ourselves a second kitty about three months back, and though the first few weeks were a little rough, the two of them have bonded fairly well (i.e. they tolerate one another's presence). Moments like you're seeing in the picture to the left are a little bit more rare, but I always manage to capture them with my camera.

Getting a second cat nearly killed us financially ... we ended up taking making multiple trips to the vet in those first few weeks. The new kitty (hereafter called Cookie) had caught a nasty upper respiratory infection while she was at the Humane Society, and despite our best attempts to keep the two of them quarantined until she was over it, Hobbes came down with the same thing. Cookie ended up getting her medicine in a dropper until she was better, but the vet told us that Hobbes was a bit too big to respond to the same medication. We were given pills for our twelve-pound cat ... you'd think the bigger cats would get the easy-to-administer medicines, to save our poor arms some clawing.

To make a long story short, Cookie recovered first, then caught it again from Hobbes as he was starting to get better. She was sneezing so hard and so often that we were noticing blood, so we took her back to the vet again for more medicine. Hobbes ended up going back a few days later when his eyes started became swollen and leaky. One vet trip would have been fine, but four seperate visits were a bit more than we had planned for. We managed it, but only with a great deal of juggling on our part. Both cats are happy, healthy, and getting a little bit fat (more on that another day).

Hobbes has gotten used to sleeping on the bed with me during the day. It helps me sleep sometimes when I'm having a hard time. There's something about a cat purring that konks me right out. For someone who never had cats before, Ariel says I've taken to it like a pro.


II. THE HAIR

I got myself a haircut (finally!). No more long hair for me!

Ariel had told me, "Please don't chop off all your hair! I like you with long hair!" I said it was too long, and that I needed a change.

I talked her into going in with me, and I convinced her to get one as well. She hadn't been to a professional since she was very young, but she was pleased with how well her cut turned out. I think we look good!

III. KIM'S GRADUATION

You know what? I'm going to give this one a separate entry, since I think it's important enough to warrant my undivided attention.