She's sweet, but there are some things that she just doesn't understand. Doors, for example. If she's standing in a room and the door is open an inch or two, she will wave her foot through the opening, but she hasn't figured out that if she pushes on it, it will open with very little effort on her part.
Here she is, not understanding a sliding door:
We have two litter boxes, a smaller one and a larger one with an odor-trapping clear plastic flap.
Smaller Larger
I had placed the smaller one in the hallway when I realized that she would only socialize with us downstairs if she was closed out of all the rooms upstairs. Eventually I switched the smaller one with the larger one because her poo had a mighty aroma.
Unfortunately, it turns out that her lack of understanding about doors also extends to odor-trapping clear plastic flaps. She took one look at the new setup, said to herself, "this is an impenetrable fortress!" and pooped on the roof.
I was pretty ticked for the first minute or so, but then I realized two things. One, it was actually really funny. Two, she did her best! She didn't go just anywhere, she put it as close to the right place as possible.
I don't know why you locked me out of the litter box at first, but I'm glad you fixed it and I forgive you.
Kuro is a 6-year-old spayed female, available for adoption through the Japan Cat Network. She is a little shy, but she is quiet and self-sufficient. She has lived in a family with middle-school-aged boys, but I think she would also be a great companion for a working professional, either as a single cat or in a multi-cat household. She doesn't need a lot of attention, but she appreciates it when she gets it. Because she is so quiet, she would do well in an apartment.
She's still a little on the shy side, but we've made some major steps forward.
Downstairs is scary. I'll just stay here, thank you.
Early in June, she spent most of a week sitting in the windowsill in the stairwell (having been closed out of every room upstairs to force her to socialize) or on the top few steps, but that was just a phase. I moved her food and water dishes a little bit every day, so over time they traveled from upstairs where she was alone most of the day, down the stairs one at a time, then down the hall to join the main food dish.
The second stair from the top is the most comfortable.
When I'm safe upstairs, I can lounge like people. I know how cute this is.
The first breakthrough was when she discovered the downstairs windowsill. It proved to her that there are some places on the first floor that aren't completely terrifying. It was important to get her to come downstairs because that's where I, my husband, and our cat spend most of the day. It's the center of activity in our house.
Okay, not as terrifying as I thought it would be.
The second breakthrough was when she would come downstairs on her own, even if she didn't stay long because she expected monsters to appear at any second.
The third was when she discovered my desk chair. This is significant because it's the first time she spent any time at all on something cushioned and comfy. All our floors and windowsills are hardwood.
It's downstairs, which is bad, but it's comfortable, which is good. I'm so confused!
The fourth was when she curled up at my waist and slept on the bed all night. My husband was out of town on a business trip, but when he came back, she curled up at his knees and still slept on the bed all night! For the last week or so, she's been doing that pretty consistently.
As of writing, she is happily curled up between me and the back of my office chair, snoozing. I put up a cat tree a few days ago, and she spends a few hours a day on one of those shelves.
If I go too high, Crooked chases me away. This is kind of nice, though.
She still doesn't let my husband pet her much, but at bedtime it seems to be okay. She still doesn't like Crooked, either, but we went from her hissing, growling, and running away, to this:
A week later, I took this:
For the first few weeks he gave her all the space she wanted. She growled, he left her alone. Then he got tired of that and now he chases her for a few steps once or twice a day. Someday she might realize he's playing with her.
They sniff, but they don't groom each other or really hang out. That's okay, though, Crooked and our late cat were never really good friends.
I get the distinct impression that they don't quite speak the same language. There is definitely some "I'm a cat, you're a cat," base level communication happening, but I really think they don't understand the finer points of each others' behavior.
Ba-dah-dah-daaa!
Sigh.
I hadn't thought about it before, but it makes sense. They're geographically separated with very little interaction, and American cats are larger on average. Crooked is a US-average cat at 9lbs, Kuro is a Japan-average cat at 6lbs (someone please tell me if I'm way off the mark, I'm only going by my own observations). Friends here in Tokyo have commented on how big Crooked is, but we had a roommate with an 18lb cat that wasn't fat at all. That is a big cat.
If there's a difference as observable as size, why not in behavior? I don't know how many people have a cat from the US and a cat from Japan to study how they interact.
It's getting to be less of an issue as they get used to each other and Kuro hangs out more, but I think that might have been part of her trouble settling in.
Kuro is a 6-year-old spayed female, available for adoption through the Japan Cat Network. She is a little shy, but she is quiet and self-sufficient. She has lived in a family with middle-school-aged boys, but I think she would also be a great companion for a working professional, either as a single cat or in a multi-cat household. She doesn't need a lot of attention, but she appreciates it when she gets it. Because she is so quiet, she would do well in an apartment.
Kuro is a 6-year-old spayed female, available for adoption through the Japan Cat Network. She is a little shy, but she is quiet and self-sufficient. She has lived in a family with middle-school-aged boys, but I think she would also be a great companion for a working professional, either as a single cat or in a multi-cat household. She doesn't need a lot of attention, but she appreciates it when she gets it. Because she is so quiet, she would do well in an apartment.
Toward the end of May, I arranged to get a foster cat through the Japan Cat Network. Kuro had started out in the shelter, but had been adopted by a US military family who had just fallen in love with her from photos. Unfortunately, there was a family emergency and they suddenly had to go back to the US, and wouldn't be able to have pets for a while. Instead of Kuro going back to the shelter, I picked her up directly and took her home as a foster. We don't plan to adopt her, but I hope we can find her a forever home before we leave Japan.
She was obviously freaked out and panicking. The first thing she did when we let her out of the carrier was climb the curtain, fall off the curtain, and claw her way into the windowsill. In the next five minutes, we clipped her claws. It hasn't been a problem since. Thankfully she didn't damage the curtain, and I think I can repair the claw marks in the wall.
She had a rough time settling in. The initial stress didn't last more than a day or so, and then I could sit with her and talk softly and she'd come over for me to pet and brush her as long as I didn't move too fast.
Part of her stress might have been caused by her severe gum swelling that made eating very painful. After a trip to the vet for some antibiotics, her whole demeanor started to change. She still saw upstairs as Safe, but she started moving around more and she was more open to getting affection from me.
These little Purr Monster sessions started to get more frequent, and she stopped hiding and sleeping all day.
She still likes to be brushed, it's kind of a bonding tool.
She's not very keen on Crooked, our other cat, and she still doesn't trust my husband, but we're making progress.
I'm helping a friend write short stories. The author has the ideas and puts them in a document, then I go through and eviscerate the spelling, grammar, and punctuation and make suggestions for better wording. We debate, we collaborate. It's oodles of fun.
In a story about a luchador, the mysterious masked hero saves the damsel in distress and walks her home. She spends the next several months trying to find out who he is, falling in love with him in the process.
The author wanted him to do all the talking because she was still in shock from being mugged. The original phrasing was something like, "As they walked to her apartment, he talked about how much he loves this city, how much he loves his country, and how sad the problems of today are."
Here's my two cents: if you list three things that he talks about, the last one shouldn't be how much the world sucks! And if that's the case, why would she ever want to see him again? That's DEPRESSING.
The luchador will save your life, but you will NEVER SMILE AGAIN.
By the time we finished discussing the luchador's terrible smile-stealing superpower, we were literally crying with laughter.
Fun fact: I also did the cover art photography and editing. It's not a perfect product (the photo is a little grainy because of my point-and-shoot camera and I didn't take the time to 'shop out the stripes on the shirt that show through the jacket), but I'm pretty pleased with the end result.
Do you have a will? You should. Every adult should. Parents definitely should (if you don't have one and you die, the state will decide who raises your kids). But it's uncomfortable to think about, so many of us just don't get around to it. I didn't until the big earthquake. Then, when so many military families were making that exodus from Japan, we were instructed to file a will and have our paperwork in order.
This is not to say you can't have a little fun with it. Here is an excerpt from my husband's will:
Choice 1: ashes shot into space. Choice 2: bear attack pose. Choice 3: Arlington National Cemetery.
This begs the question: if I took the taxidermy option, where would I put him? Would it be better to put him in a storage shed (because, let's face it, that would be darned creepy), or in the living room to deter burglars?
