it's a big black sky over my town
Took the kits to the Humane Society today for their check-up. The consensus: Oliver is still too sick and too small to be adopted, and while Ramona is over two pounds, the vet wants to make sure she's absolutely recovered from the URI before sending her out into the world. She did say that Oliver had gained 9 ounces, though. Go Oliver! All that eating paid off. He is now 1 pound, 12 ounces.
Oliver keeps being up-and-down, health-wise--one day he'll barely sneeze at all, then the next day he'll have several fits where he can't stop sneezing. He seems OK otherwise, just sneezy and full of kitten snot. So the vet upped his antibiotic dose and we're going to see where he's at next week.
As for Ramona's behavior problems, the vet said female cats and especially those with orange coloring (calicos and tortoiseshells) have a reputation for being temperamental. So... there's that. She said to keep working on socializing her. As far as the biting of me personally, I've found the best method is to say "ow!" in a high-pitched voice, like I'm another kitten and she's playing too rough with me. That worked almost right away and she's been gentler since I started doing that. She (and Oliver to a lesser extent) still tries to bite and claw things she shouldn't, like cords, and I'm not sure what to do about that, since the clapping method no longer seems to make her stop. Maybe I'll move to time-outs in the cage next, although I'm not sure if she'd consider it a punishment.
I bought her a scratching post to take out her scratching needs on, and a crinkly stuffed toy to bite and wrestle. She hasn't shown much interest in the scratching post yet. After getting over her initial "crinkly things are scary!" reaction (that I saw earlier with the metallic fish toy and the sparkly ball), she gave the toy a good thrashing.
In non-kitten news, Milwaukee is getting destroyed by weather. The interstate is flooded, there are tornado warnings everywhere, and there's a GIANT SINKHOLE at an intersection VERY CLOSE TO MY HOUSE. O_O Seriously, click that link. THERE IS A CAR IN IT.
Oliver keeps being up-and-down, health-wise--one day he'll barely sneeze at all, then the next day he'll have several fits where he can't stop sneezing. He seems OK otherwise, just sneezy and full of kitten snot. So the vet upped his antibiotic dose and we're going to see where he's at next week.
As for Ramona's behavior problems, the vet said female cats and especially those with orange coloring (calicos and tortoiseshells) have a reputation for being temperamental. So... there's that. She said to keep working on socializing her. As far as the biting of me personally, I've found the best method is to say "ow!" in a high-pitched voice, like I'm another kitten and she's playing too rough with me. That worked almost right away and she's been gentler since I started doing that. She (and Oliver to a lesser extent) still tries to bite and claw things she shouldn't, like cords, and I'm not sure what to do about that, since the clapping method no longer seems to make her stop. Maybe I'll move to time-outs in the cage next, although I'm not sure if she'd consider it a punishment.
I bought her a scratching post to take out her scratching needs on, and a crinkly stuffed toy to bite and wrestle. She hasn't shown much interest in the scratching post yet. After getting over her initial "crinkly things are scary!" reaction (that I saw earlier with the metallic fish toy and the sparkly ball), she gave the toy a good thrashing.
In non-kitten news, Milwaukee is getting destroyed by weather. The interstate is flooded, there are tornado warnings everywhere, and there's a GIANT SINKHOLE at an intersection VERY CLOSE TO MY HOUSE. O_O Seriously, click that link. THERE IS A CAR IN IT.