Ahhh progress...

I think we're making progress with Mr. Ray Lewis. Eddie has always been a snuggler - a "people cat" if you will. When we went to pick them out Eddie was the rambunctious one, playing with all the other kittens and being very sociable, while Lewis hid under large pieces of furniture for the majority of our visit. But Lewis was just too cute to pass up - we really loved his coloring and he had been the first one to catch our eye when we came into the vet's office and were checking out the kitten cage. I was a little concerned about his skittishness - he didn't want to come out until we got most of the other kittens out of the room (after narrowing it down to the two we have, we asked the lady to take the others out so we could get to know them without all the craziness - at the time we thought we'd be choosing between the two but THAT obviously didn't happen!). And even when we did get rid of the others, he was very hesitant to come out, backed away when you tried to pet him, and didn't particularly want to be held. Sounds like a kitten everyone's just DYING to take home, doesn't it! LOL :) But I tend to be a sucker for shyness, and when we finally were able to pick him up and hold him for a few minutes, he was very sweet. So we had hope that he'd come around. When we were deciding whether to take one or two, we were actually just going to take him and leave Eddie!

I will say that I'm SO glad we brought Eddie home, because having just Lewis would've been a little disappointing for a while - it's taken him a few weeks to warm up. I was very hesitant about taking two (financial reasons mostly - I was afraid to commit to two animals' worth of vet bills), but Eddie has already been worth his weight in gold - he's just SUCH a sweetheart. Despite the toilet fiasco (see post below). But anyway, back to Lewis, we're really starting to notice a change in him now. He's always first in line to greet me when I get home from work, and he's starting to jump up on the couch with us and let us just sit and pet him more. It used to be darn-near impossible to pick him up, but now he has no qualms about letting us pick him up and hold him for a bit. He even let me trim his nails!

But this morning was the most exciting progress so far :) It's not at all rare for me to wake up to Eddie in my face. Ben usually crawls out of bed a few minutes before I do and opens the bathroom door so they have access to the bedroom at that point (we've been keeping them locked out of our room at night so Eddie can't crawl all over us!). But today, when I felt the little paws land on the edge of the bed and looked down expecting to see my sweet little Squidward peering up at me (if you know Ben I'm sure you can track the progression of that nickname), I was shocked to see Lewey instead! I sat up and he came right up into my lap, purring his little face off and rubbing his head all over me :) He even laid down in my lap, which he NEVER does (he's usually far too active to sit still). I know this probably seems QUITE silly to the rest of the world, but it just thrilled me :) And Ben was very excited too - he's been very worried that Lewis is just going to be one of those cats that you never see. So I think we're making great progress with Lewis, and we're going to end up having two awesome kitties when they're all grown up!

Gotta go check my fish. I got in TWO experiments yesterday (LOTS of fishy babies!), but so far today has been a no-go. I was expecting this, given the unusual success of yesterday's breeding - Lord knows THAT can't happen twice in one week. Whatev. Today is my "farewell lunch" so I'm getting even more excited about my impending fellowship termination :) I know I still have 2 1/2 weeks left, but it's fun to start doing these "wrap-up" activities!