Harnessing the kitty power

One of the purchases that we were excited to make in the US and bring back to Bangalore with us this summer are harnesses for Mira and Chaya. When we return to the US we plan to fly them back with us and since we will have to collect them when we transfer planes (either in France or Germany) and keep them until we check in for our flight to Chicago we thought that it would be good if we could take them out of their carriers and not have them take off running through the airport. We figured that if we trained them to wear harness and could "walk" them around on a leash it would give them the chance to be out of their carrier for some time between the long flights but also give us the piece of mind that we won't lose them. So I bought two harnesses with matching leashes and once we returned to India in July we set about training them to get accustomed to both the harness and the leash. Let me just say that they were not (are still are not) thrilled to have the harness on but they have improved a ton. Initially as soon as the harness was put on Chaya she would fall over as though she had been shot and proceed to roll around in an attempt to get the thing off. She would get up, walk a few paces, then fall down again as though the harness had paralyzed her legs (have you ever seen video of those fainting goats, something like that). Mira, on the other hand, never fell over but would slink along the floor as though the harness was strapped with a fifty pound weight. In order to get them more excited about harness time I would give them plenty of treats but soon discovered that the best treat of all was letting them go outside, but only when their harness is on. Chaya loves to go outside and is pretty good at sneaking out when she is not supposed to so actually getting permission to go out is the best gift that I can give her. This past weekend we did some more training after about a month off (with Smoky's arrival I haven't wanted to stress them anymore and we haven't have time to do the training with all of the room switching and stuff) and I introduced them to their leashes. Everything went great, I took them up to the roof with their harnesses on and they played for about an hour until Mira decided that she wanted to go down to the ground floor and check that out. I put her on her leash and all was well, until Chaya showed up. I put her on her leash and soon learned a couple of valuable lessons about having cats on leashes. First, cats spook easily, and motorcycles are very scary when they are flying down the street. Second, one person can not handle two leashed and harnessed cats, this may be possible for dogs but I can't believe that it is for cats. Third, make sure that the harness is on tight enough that both cats can not slip out of it when they are trying to pull their hapless owner in half by going in two different directions. Luckily Eric ended up with only a scratch down his ankle and I spent 10 minutes trying to coax Chaya out of the gutter. Lesson learned, I don't think we'll be strolling down the street anytime soon. But don't they look cute in their harnesses?
Mira, wearing a Diane vonFurstenberg number in this season's hottest color, aquamarine.

Chaya looks gorgeous in her slimming Dolce & Gabbana cotton candy harness.

Strike a pose divas!

Will the Smoke ever clear?

This weekend will mark the fourth week that we have had Smoky with us in our home. It has been a really arduous and emotional month since we have grown to care for her so much but at the same time are so frustrated by her misbehaviors. She still urinates outside of the litter box though she has been a little better, but honestly she is generally kept in 2 rooms where we have put 4 litter boxes to increase her chances of hitting one. This week we noticed that she is spraying also, I am not sure if we missed this behavior since it is hard to notice or if this is just a new development. Her favorite places to spray and urinate are those spots that Mira and Chaya like to sleep so we feel that this is most likely passive aggression toward the girls. We have been keeping them separated but they still manage to fight at the door with Smoky attacking one side while Mira and Chaya bang away at the opposite side. Mira's diarrhea has persisted these four weeks and despite two different antibiotics, probiotics, and steroids, it is no better. We are exhausted with all of the stress that has descended on our previously happy little home. The girls are now so jumpy, even when Smoky is in her room, that if you try to pet them they jump a mile. Mira slinks around and they both lay just outside the door to Smoky's room, staring at it. We keep Smoky out in the house and the girls closed up while we are at home in the evenings but of course this means that we get no time with them which is really hard for all of us because they cry and meow because they want out.

Last night after I had a mini-breakdown following another door fighting session and two Smoky-sprayings I cried on the phone to my friend and cat-guru Yasmine and then had a talk with Eric about the situation. It just isn't getting any better but I am so hesitant to give up. We have decided to try one last-ditch effort: let them try to work it out (or fight it out) for themselves (supervised, of course). While we are at home we will let them be together and see if they can come to any sort of an understanding on their own. We will give it a week and reassess the situation at that time. In the words of Michael Buffer, "Let's get ready to rumble!" We started the grand experiment last night at around 8:30 or so. By 9:30 they had to be separated for the night because the fur was flying (literally, no joke, Smoky got a piece of Mira). We let them be together again this morning while we were getting ready for work and Smoky peed in the kitchen. So I guess so far everything is going swimmingly. Or not so much. It is going to be a long week I think. I wonder who will prevail at the end of the week? Judging from the pictures I would say Mira looks the scariest, Chaya's more a lover than a fighter, but Smoky is someone not to be messed with.

Our Bangalore Home

I have had a few requests in the past for pictures of our home in Bangalore. I found some pics on my computer today that I had taken probably in our first week in the place in November 2006 and was so impressed by how clean and organized it looked before we moved in and mucked it up I thought I would finally post them. Enjoy!
Our Living Room.

Look at our tiny TV!

This is what we now call Mira and Chaya's room (and Mom's when she visits).

This is what is now Eric's office and it is a huge mess compared to what this looks like!

Our bedroom, and I have no idea who Fiza is but we have been sleeping with her blanket for almost 2 years!

Our kitchen, with sink, our only counter space, our stove-top (with gas cylinder) and drinking water. And trust me, don't open the cupboard underneath...

Our nicely organized kitchen shelves (not anymore).

Dining room (and yes, that is our micro-washer).

Shower-head and geyser (micro-water heater).

Our Indian toilet, take a guess as to how to use it!

Naked!

Hi everyone. I have great news! After 10 months and 29 days I am free at last, yesterday I got my braces off! The entire process of first fixing the permanent retainers, braces removal, taking new impressions and photographing the final outcome took about one and a half hours, and my mouth was open at least 85% of the time so I was glad to finally be done. It wasn't really bad at all except for the removal of the glue that held the braces on. The brackets just popped right off but left behind a lot of icky glue that had to be ground off by what sounded and felt like a belt sander. It was pretty uncomfortable and the sound was just as disturbing as fingernails on a blackboard. But once they were polished I was all done and ready to see the final result. My initial impression was, "Are my teeth really that big?" They look huge since then have been mostly hidden by my brackets for almost and year and I feel like it looks as though I have too many teeth in my mouth. But they are straight, REALLY STRAIGHT! My teeth look pretty good naked. I got a chance to look at the impressions that were made just before the braces went on and I was shocked at how crooked they were. Not anymore! I will post some pics soon, maybe even those that the orthodontist took so you can really see the difference (if they aren't too graphic, close-ups of someone's mouth might be a little too much information). I am going to start using the white strips that we brought back from the US this summer tonight so in a couple of weeks my teeth should not only be astoundingly straight, but glitteringly white as well! I am not having any problems with the retainers that were fixed yesterday, I am just glad that they are not visible. The only issue that I have had is that I am lisping a little bit, my S's don't sound the best but hopefully I will be able to adjust to that and for my new and improved smile, it is worth it!

Where there's Smoke(y), there's fire...

I thought I would update everyone on how things are going with our new addition to the family. To sum it up in two words: not great. We had initially kept Smoky separate from Mira and Chaya for about a day and a half and found that Smoky was using the litter with no problem and there wasn't any serious hissing or anything going on so we decided to bring them together when we were at home (we have always kept them separated when we are at work). There has never been any actual fighting but we noticed right away that Chaya was showing a bit too much interest in Smoky. Chaya would just sit and watch her every move and when Smoky would get up and go somewhere else Chaya was not far behind. And when I say not far behind what I mean is that Chaya's nose would be around two inches from Smoky's butt. Smoky has a tendency to randomly break into a dead sprint and this simply induced Chaya to chase, which not surprisingly freaked Smoky out. With Chaya on her tail constantly Smoky has found it difficult to be comfortable enough to use the litter and she started urinating wherever she could. After a couple of days Chaya began to take swipes at Smoky whenever she managed to get close enough. After a couple of swipes and in combination with the litter problem that Smoky was having we decided that we probably needed to separate them again and try to acclimate them to each other more slowly. I have tried to read up on-line on how to address inter-cat aggression and we are trying a method that brings the cats together slowly during feeding and play times in order to try to form positive associations between the warring factions. We now have Smoky completely isolated from Mira and Chaya and we feed them on opposite sides of the same door so that they can hear each other eating. When Eric is at home during the day he lets Smoky have the run of the house and keeps the other girls sequestered in a couple of rooms and then at night we switch them. This is supposed to slowly reduce territoriality. The problems that we have had with this arrangement is that when Smoky has the run of the house she generally does okay with using the litter but she is still having accidents and you have to watch her like a hawk, which is hard to do. Secondly, when Mira and Chaya are out during the night they are constantly scratching and banging at the door to the room that Smoky is in which is irritating as hell to us and is probably very intimidating to poor Smoky. This behavior has been hard to stop as we are trying to sleep and nothing that we have tried seems to work (spraying with a water bottle and scruffing). Last night we shut them in our bedroom and then I had to put up with listening to them scratch and bang at my door trying to get out. Lastly, since we are feeding them at the door we have had to switch from free feeding to scheduled feedings twice a day. Mira and Chaya are not accustomed to this arrangement and I think some of their more recent bad behavior (all of the door banging) may be a result of this. Another problem that this has caused is that Chaya anyway has a tendency to eat too fast and not chew, and with the scheduled feedings she just overdoes it and then ends up puking. Oh, and did I mention that Mira has had horrible diarrhea for about a week and a half? If began two days after we brought Smoky home and we have been having to give her antibiotics twice a day (another fun task) which have not helped a bit. I need to call the vet again and ask what else we can do I but I really feel that she is just making herself sick with all of the stress of Smoky's arrival. I have also been very stressed as a result of all of the discord at home, I was able to fight off one cold sore, but this morning I woke up with another one and I don't have any more of my medicine so I have a feeling I am stuck with this one. We are just about at our wit's end and don't know what to do. I would feel better if I thought that anyone was comfortable with the new living arrangements but I know Eric and I are stressed, Chaya is aggressive, Mira has diarrhea, and Smoky is having daily accidents. So right now things are not good at our house and to make matters even worse it has been raining a lot which of course means that we are having very frequent power outages. Right now I just feel totally overwhelmed, helpless and hopeless. I hope it gets better, I love all three of the girls but the situation as it is right now is unsustainable. We have discussed giving it until late November/early December to improve but if this keeps up I won't be able to make it that long. If anyone has advice or suggestions, we are willing to try about anything at this point. I knew that it could be difficult but I was hoping it wouldn't be and I never imagined that it would be so bad that it would result in physical illness. I just miss the peace and quiet and harmony that we were living in just two weeks ago...

Third Time's a Charm!

Well, I had to write another little post today to celebrate a major accomplishment. I have spoken before about the registration process which I have to go through following arrival into India with a new visa and how painful and frustrating it is. You have to brave the traffic to go to the Police Commissioner's Office, then brave the bureaucracy, then be sent away because you don't have some form that they never even told you that you need in the first place. I have never completed this process in fewer than four trips to the FRO (nor has any other foreigner that I have spoken to about this particular form of torture so it is not just some deficiency on my part, I promise), something is always wrong with my paperwork in some ridiculous way or another and I always leave angry and frustrated. Today was the third time that I have embarked on the registration process and I was hopeful, though not too hopeful lest my spirits be crushed, that I might get registered in the minimum two trips to the FRO after my significant amount of experience. I went armed with more paper than you'll find at a printer's shop and I emerged victorious! I had all of the paperwork that I needed, all of the passport photos that were required, the correct number of copies, and everything filled out correctly (to the disappointment and dismay of the smug government officials who relish turning away inexperienced foreigners). Tomorrow afternoon I can go and pick up my brand-new registration certificate and that will be the last time that I ever have to deal with that horrible, awful place. Hah! Suck it Bangalore Police Commissioner's Office, I WIN!

Up in Smoke

We never intended to expand our family; we have been quite happy with our lives the way they are. But as often happens, fate seems to have a different plan for us. When we picked up Mira and Chaya from Yasmine and JP last week they mentioned a friend of theirs, Pami, was looking for a home for one of her Persian cats. Pami is a breeder of Persians and one of her beauties, Smoky, was having a hard time being accepted by her 17 other cats. Poor Smoky has had a tough life. She was involved in an accident several years ago which nearly led to her death but resulted only in the amputation of one of her hind legs. Due to her disability she was partially spayed, meaning that her uterus was removed but her ovaries were left in order to attempt to prevent excess weight gain that is sometimes associated with sterilization (I and Pami, in hindsight of course, believe that this was a mistake as poor Smoky suffers through her heat, but is unable to conceive). Either due to her disability or her sterilization she is not accepted by Pami's other cats who tease her mercilessly. Smoky was placed in the care of an elderly lady who loved and spoiled her until her own infirmity caused her to relocated to the US, leaving Smoky back in the care of Pami.

After hearing Smoky's story Eric and I made the decision to bring her to our house to try to integrate her into our family with the hopes that Mira and Chaya will be more accepting of Smoky. I was initially worried not only about Mira and Chaya's reaction to Smoky, but of my own. I hoped that I would be able to feel for her what I feel for Mira and Chaya, who have been with us for over a year since they were only four week old kittens. On Saturday we picked up Smoky from Pami and were greeted by a gorgeous grey lady. She kept to herself but seemed friendly enough. We packed her up in a basket and set out for the one hour auto ride home, braced for a long hard ride (Chaya hates travel and wails throughout the trip so we were prepared for the worst). To our surprise, Smoky was quiet as a mouse and sat calmly in the basket until we reached our apartment. She is such a good and sweet girl. We are keeping her separated from the girls and for the first 36 hours we just let them smell and hear each other, but not make visual contact (though there is not much to hear from Smoky except for her purring like a Porche). There has been some hissing and throat growling though the door, but I guess that is to be expected. This morning we made formal introductions which went as well as can be expected, Mira and Chaya were on edge wondering what in the h-ll we are doing to them, slinking around and getting a look at this new creature and Smoky paid them little attention. It was as though she was thinking, "Hey, what's the big deal? I'm here now, it's my house too so get used to it already!" Smoky is a quiet and sweet girl but I am quickly getting the impression that it by no means suggests that she is timid or scared. I am falling for her and her adorable face and constant purring, and I hope that Mira and Chaya do too! Wish us luck because if she is not accepted then we will have to take her back to Pami, and that would just break my heart. Just look at those gorgeous eyes!