the confident kitty...

at prada's second doctor visit, i was told that she is very confident... bossy in fact... 

once again she was trying to attack everyone, even me... she would sit on the exam room table, look at me and try to claw my arms... good thing that i still had my jacket on... 

the doctor was apprehensive too touch her again... she had to go get a towel to scoop her up in, as well as call for reinforcement... she had to look at her teeth using a tongue depressor because she was trying to bite... i thought that was funny...

i asked if they could do a nail trim... seems that she does well when she's not in the same room as me... so maybe she just brats out when i'm around.... 

i voiced my concerns about several things like her being so orally fixated and trying to scratch... the doctor said that because she is confident, she does these type of things when she decides she doesn't want to be bothered... 

she suggested a few things like maybe she'll learn manners from kolohe, scruffing her when she misbehaves and then ignoring her, and the good ol' fashion squirt bottle... 

i have been repeatedly trying everything... it works for a brief moment, and then she goes back to her regular self.... i think i need a cat whisperer...

spam...

not the email kind, but the kind that comes in the rectangle shaped can... before you get all grossed out, my family is originally from hawaii and we like our spam... 

so one night for dinner we were having spam and rice... my husband and i finished early, which left my son lazily finishing his meal... all of a sudden i hear him yelling for me and i see prada running around all crazy... 

she jumped up on the table, snatched a piece of spam right off of my son's fork and made a break for it... as she did so, she was growling all along the way... 

my son and i tried to corner her, but we ended up chasing her all over the house... she was not going to give up that worth anything!  she was still growling the whole time as well... 

i finally caught up with her... she was cornered inside my son's closet... i will admit i was a little timid to go in and scoop her up because she had this piece of meat in her mouth... i was thinking that she was going to scratch me as well...

i scruffed her... and she still wouldn't let go of that piece of spam... she was like a dog with a lock tight jaw... i shook her and she dropped it... 

sigh... 

box kitties...

i've been seeing a lot of pictures of kitties in boxes... prada is a box kitty too... she also likes to chew on the boxes... 

she also likes to go inside plastic bags... the noise does not scare her... the noise scares kolohe... so if she's playing in one, he gets all freaked out... 

today i learned that she also likes to play in brown paper bags... she walked inside, so i picked her up in it and carried her around... she didn't care... i think she even may have liked it... 

weirdo kitty... 

1, 2, 3, FIGHT!!

even though kolohe had grown up with his two brothers, they never played as rough as prada does... kolohe will tolerate her bugging him for so long, and then after, he just wants to get away... so he retreats to my room (she's not allowed in there)... 

i was petting my boy today and saw that his chin is kind of red and scratched up... i don't think it has anything to do with prada though... he does suffer from allergies... anyways, i watched them "fight" during the day and she loves to kick him in the face and chin... he tries to bite her where he can... but she's more flexible than him, so she can kick before he can bite... 

kolohe retreats... prada chases.... i used to think it was funny when she was smaller... she'd bug him.... and then he'd play.... then she would get mad and hiss.... he'd walk away.... and then she'd come back for more.... such a brat... 

now it's fight, kolohe retreats, prada chases and tries to bite his butt, and then kolohe looks at me with begging eyes to be let into the room...

the weekend report...

apparently prada is just as naughty, whether i'm gone or not... she did her usual naughty tasks, but ten times worse... and she was clawing everything... which means it's time to cut her nails... ugh...

she bugged kolohe to death and bullied him... but i think he's mad at me because he didn't want to stay in the bedroom with me tonight...

tomorrow, prada goes back to training with auntie jana... i take no nonsense!!

vacation...

you can see the red evil in her eyes... the little sneaky brat... don't let the heart-shaped marking by her nose deceive you... just kidding... it's just the blood vessels in her eyes because she has light blue eyes... 

the first time we left for vacation was during christmas... kolohe had to come with us because he was on medication that had to be administered to him three times a day, and it was a pain to give to him because he began to get tricky and not swallow the pill... 

so we had to leave prada home alone with a friend of ours checking on her in the morning and the evening... i guess she did alright, but she did learn some new tricks... 

we will be leaving again for a brief vacation, this time both cats being home... granted they won't totally be alone (the brother-in-law will be home), but they won't be under the constant supervision that they are usually under... 

no one will baby my kolohe...

no one will yell at prada to stop doing all the stuff she's doing like weaving in between the window blinds, jumping on the counter and table, clawing my rug, chewing wires, etc.... you name everything a dog does, she pretty much does too... 

so i'm hoping she will not learn anything new... and that she doesn't torment kolohe too much... 

meet mr. kolohe

kolohe is hawaiian for "rascal"...

kolohe is one of the many kittens that i have rescued from my grandma's backyard... i rescued him along with two of his brothers and one sister... unfortunately, his sister died (it being somewhat my fault- another entry)... i raised him and his brothers until they were about 6 months old and then i found homes for the other two... kolohe has a crooked tail and i didn't think that that would appeal to anyone, so he became ours...

he is a very sweet boy... a big boy... my husband says he's fat... i say he's big-boned... he likes to talk and he is a purr bug... i think he has been handling prada very well... all the chasing and pouncing she does on him, i'm surprised he hasn't opened a can of whoop-ass on her yet!  

here is a picture of him in the dryer... i don't know why, but everytime we take laundry out of the dryer, he likes to jump in... it freaks me out because i'm scared that one day he's going to get locked in there...

utterly fearless...

i was boiling eggs in a pot... steam and everything... stepped away for a bit... heard a jingling of a bell... 

nah, she wouldn't be up there... 

low and behold, prada, on the stove, with her head in the steam, seeing what was in the pot... 

i hope (of course i don't really hope) she burned her nose... the little brat... 

a scary sight...

you never know when it will happen... sometimes it happens at the most crucial time... no one knows why it happens... 

you have to go to the restroom and tend to business... you enter the doorway, walk towards the toilet and come upon this:

you pull at your hair... NOT AGAIN!!!  and why does it have to always be when you've just put a fresh roll out?!?  you try to figure out which kitty is the culprit... one just had its nails trimmed and is known to unravel rather than shred... the other, you can't trim its nails do to certain circumstances that will be discussed in another entry and is known to shred... 

why toilet paper?  it doesn't move... it doesn't sway... there's nothing, or we think there's nothing appealing about it... unless it's based upon the fact that once they touch it and it moves or unravels...

and they are never caught in the act... it is always found this way... with no suspects, you sit on the toilet for at least twenty minutes trying to figure out which way the toilet paper unravels with its new perforations... not being able to salvage at least a few feet as you go... 

prada and food...

as mentioned before, since we don't know where prada came from or her history, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about her and annoying habits that she has... one of them was that when we would feed her, she'd eat and growl... she would even put one paw in the bowl of food so that no one would get to it... not that we would want to anyways... sometimes she would swat at us... fortunately this has tapered off...

now it's with treats and other types of food... since she's my brother-in-law's cat, he likes to feed her fruit (which she likes) and man... you'd think we were feeding a wild beast.... he was feeding her apples one time and the first piece she took it and kind of ran away with it to consume it... second piece he held out, she growled, swatted with claws extended, scratched him, got her apple piece, ran, and ate it... 

i had the same unfortunate experience when i was giving her some treats... she even hissed at me... i was thinking, this is a good thing!  why are you so protective?  so now when i give her treats, i have to toss it to her like a zoo keeper tossing meat to the lions... i'm not taking anymore chances of being sliced open.... trim her nails you say?  oh, that's a whole other entry... you'll see... 

she must've really had to fend for her food or maybe she was the runt of the litter that got rejected and couldn't feed... 

i hope she gets over this food aggression... who would've known a small kitten could be food aggressive.... with this one, you find out something new each day... 

prada's first visit to the vet...

i've dealt with fractious cats in my vet career... fractious kittens?  not really...maybe a little upset... can you blame them?  they're so tiny and we're trying to stick big needles into them... 

i should've known that prada would be a problem child when i had to practically sit on her just to put a collar on her... she hated it... she tried to bite... she tried to wiggle away... when animals get like that, i don't mess around... finally i got it on her... she was annoyed... i supposed we'd be annoyed too with a bell jingling in our face too... 

i had to set up an appointment for her as soon as possible so that we could make sure she wasn't carrying any diseases that kolohe could catch... got her in pretty quick and off we went... she was fine in the carrier and in the waiting room... she was ok when we got into the exam room... took her weight, she didn't seem to mind... took her temperature, she minded... don't blame her again because it was done rectally... but it was hard to hold her by her scruff... she's very acrobatic and twisty... 

that's when she had had enough... she was growling, hissing, swatting... i've never seen a kitten at her age (4 months, we learned) be that vile... i think the vet was a little intimidated.... fortunately one of the techs wasn't and she just did her job like a good tech should... the vet believed that whoever had her first did not treat her very well, did not work with her on her mannerisms and that they probably gave up on her and ditched her somewhere... she's also surprised that for an abandoned kitten, she had great confidence, hence her biting, growling, and scratching... she feared NOTHING...

somehow they were able to get blood from her and gave her vaccines... she wouldn't let me or p touch her worth anything... fortunately the tech was nice enough to put her back in the carrier for us... i didn't want to touch her until she had forgotten the visit... 

i thought the vaccines would make her groggy, because for any NORMAL animal, they do... but not her... as soon as we got home, she was back to her wild, destructive self... 

the kitty expert...

i'd like to think i'm somewhat experienced with kittens... after all, a kitten was my very first pet... i thought i was getting a cocker spaniel and i ended up with a kitten... it didn't matter though, she was sweet... her name was neko, which meant cat in japanese... creative, huh?  anyways, to make a long story short, she had a litter... and the females from that litter would have a litter and so forth... then i had occasional single cats here and there, but they either ran away, died, got hit by cars, or just disappeared all together... 

then i became a vet technician and it seemed like kittens were starting to fall from the sky again... my grandma had a handful of stray cats that she liked to feed, and one in particular was friendly... i was able to trap her and fix her... but not until after her 2nd or 3rd litter... the cat i have now is one of her grandsons... he was basically hand-reared with two of his brothers that i also had...

all in all, i have been surrounded by cats and kittens... they are plentiful and it always seems like i'm rescuing them... most of them have been very polite with a nice attitude... until prada came along....

i entered my son's room and there she was, cute as can be laying in my son's down comforter... the comforter cover complimented her blue eyes... she let me come over and scratch the top of her head... i moved in to pick her up and she bit me... i didn't let it get to me entirely... i figured she was still adjusting... 

here she is looking innocent:

here she is stretching:

here she is yawning:

i observed her... she was very active and loved to play with the feather toy... such a good $2.99 investment...

she was very fast... i don't think i've ever dealt with a kitten or cat for that matter, that has the speed that she does... 

she was still a hearty eater and she strangely liked to put her feet into her water bowl... she'd dip her paws in and then shake them... or she'd dip her paws in and drag the bowl around... she kept knocking over the water so we had to use a heavier bowl... we used a soup bowl which is low and wide... this time she just walked straight through it as if it weren't there... i've seen few cats drag the water bowl towards them, but they weren't drawn to the water as much as she was... 

her with her bigger, makeshift water bowl:

stay tuned... the exciting first doctor visit is up next!

the rebirth of prada...

it was the thanksgiving holiday weekend and i was out of town... the husband calls me up telling me that his cousin found a kitten apparently going up and down a slide at the park near their house... she seemed friendly and they thought she was declawed, so they brought her home... they thought that we may want to take her since the passing of our akita... 

my husband and his brother (who lives with us) went to see the kitten and his brother immediately falls in love with her... i don't blame him... she is very cute... i received a text on my phone of a picture of her and i thought "how can a good looking kitten be abandoned?"  we checked to see if she was missing or if anyone had lost her- but no... it was like she appeared out of nowhere... 

but she had to have come from somewhere... she was friendly and let us pet her... she spent the first five days sharing a room with my son because i didn't want to put her with my cat, kolohe yet until she was vaccinated and knew that her fiv/felv tests were negative... 

she ate a lot... probably because she was starving and we didn't know how long she was out on the streets left to fend for herself... she looked so tiny compared to kolohe... then again... kolohe is a healthy, big-boned cat... she also had the worst, stinky poos... i mean, they were so big, i don't even know how it came out of her!

here is a picture of prada... it's not a very good one... it's the mobile pic that my husband sent to me, but it's the only one that we have of her when she was small:

now you may be wondering how she got her name... well, my brother-in-law is into high fashion, and because of this kitten's coloring, he decided to name her prada- i think it was for their fall 2008 collection, they had gradient purses with the same color as the kitten... so think of this:

and that's how this little kitten was reborn... and i still had yet to meet her... 

foiled...

today my husband sends me an email that he got from a friend, saying that he found 6 abandoned lab puppies on the side of the road while he was biking... there's a picture of them, they look so sad, so off we go on a crusade to try and save these puppies... i even called the animal shelter i used to volunteer at to see if i could get them in... 

after chatting with a friend of mine, i find out the whole thing is another damn email scam... another urban legend... damn you people who do these types of things...

i knew that when the email said that no rescue groups would take them, that should've been a tip-off... any rescue group, especially for pure breeds, would try their hardest to make it work... 

it also occurred to me that when trying to reach out to animal shelters with such a predicament, they don't make it easy... the found animals have to have been found in the city or area that the shelter supports... and what if that shelter is full?  what happens next?  there has got to be a better way... 

even though i feel silly at the moment for believing this email, i am glad that it's not true...

about this blog...

this blog will mainly be about a little kitty named prada who equals 100 kitties running around and making trouble... when she hasn't done anything out of the ordinary, i will write about my experiences with animals, those who have touched me, those who have driven me crazy, and be forewarned, the tear-jerker stories...