How come cats like boxes?

11 December 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 30 August to 13 September

Compared to his kitten time, just after he came to our home, Hachitaro really became better looking.
To tell the truth, we thought we had never seen such a not-pretty kitten before: he looked like a transformed (returned?) ‘Humanoid Monster Belo’! What a surprise! He now has big eyes! Oh, you became prettier, Hachitaro!

13 September 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 29 August 2007

It’s an extra report.
Hachitaro often adopts this pose,
and we think there’s something odd about it.
What do you think?
Hachitaro, are you a chicken!?

29 August 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 20 to 28 August 2007

Dancing Hachitaro!
And Hachitaro met Ryo who is (maybe) his father through the window for the first time!
Until Kyoku came to join him, Hachitaro was challenging Ryo thoughtlessly.
(When Kyoku spent his time outside, he got along with our neighbourhood boss cat Ryo. We suspect Kyoku also has a blood relation to him.)

28 August 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 6 to 19 August 2007

It has been hot every day (the other day it got up to 36 or 37 degrees in Fukuoka), and Hachitaro seems to be casting about for the best place to have a nap.
But it seems everyday routine is also important for him: he goes into a closet upstairs in the afternoon (where the temperature goes up after lunch), and goes upstairs and sleeps alone on the wood floor after supper.

19 August 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 1 July to 6 August 2007

Compared to the other two cats, he is still more playful than the others: he plays by himself when the other two are sleeping.
He seems to especially like mouse toys, and he probably has his own rules for playing with them.
He usually throws a toy and catches it by himself.
His goals (as in goalposts) are under the refrigerator and under the dish cupboard that used to be an audio rack.
After he scores a goal, he tries to get the mouse by himself, but it’s impossible for him. (He only gets some dust.)
So he appeals to us to get it for him.

6 August 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 31 May to 30 June 2007

He started to live in our house on July 16th last year, and his weight was 312 g (0.7 pounds). He fit in the palm of our hands. His eyes weren’t open yet, and his walking wasn’t steady. At the time, the vet said to us he was three weeks old, so we secretly decided his birthday was the same day in June as one of our friends. (She still doesn’t know, though.)

30 June 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 29 April to 30 May 2007

We think Hachitaro isn’t the kind of cat who is really drawn to us. Kuro, his half brother (from the same mother), almost always purrs and draws near to us. Kyoku, who also may be his half brother (same father?), doesn’t come to us except when he’s cold and the other two are not around him.

30 May 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 7 to 28 April 2007

There is a toy that Hachitaro has liked since January. We coudn’t choose the design, but it was only 39 yen, and it even had some catnip inside. We bought three, which all happened to be different, and (we don’t know why) Hachitaro likes this one most. He tosses it in the air and catches it by himself. It got worn out but he still seems to like it.

28 April 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 13 March to 6 April 2007

We changed scales, and are using a human scale to weigh cats. It shows every hundred grams, so it seems the cats’ weights haven’t changed these days. Their recent weights are: Hachitaro, 4 to 4.1 kg (9 pounds); Kuro, 5 kg (11.2 pounds); and Kyoku, 4.2 kg (9.2 pounds). They have been pretty stable.

6 April 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 9 to 12 March 2007

What should we do for him?
4 kg (8.8 pounds), which means it’s better for him not to gain any more!? He moves around a lot, but Hachitaro has the best appetite among our three cats.
(Actually, we try not to feed chubby Kuro so much, for the sake of his weight. I feel it’s troublesome, but I feed him dry food one at a time.)

13 March 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 1 to 8 March 2007

One week has passed, but our cats don’t change all that dramatically. (However, if they change somehow, it usually gives us some kind of trouble.)
As usual, their power order hasn’t changed: top, Hachitaro (3.9kg), middle, Kyoku (4.2kg), bottom, Kuro (5kg).

8 March 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 2 to 28 February 2007

Recently, it seems our house cats have settled down in their power order.
No.1   Hachitaro, who cares about, and is afraid of, nothing.
No.2   Kyoku, who has dignity.
No.3   Kuro, who gets scared of many things.
When Hachitaro was small, Kuro was his rough big brother, and Kyoku was his protector. But now that all three cats are close to the same size, that time might have passed.

28 February 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 23 January to 1 February 2007

Even though that (private) part now looks like a pickled plum, Hachitaro is very healthy. Finally, the day came to remove the stitches! In the morning, about an hour before we went to the animal hospital, we made him take a pill that we got after the surgery. He was groggy because of the pill, but otherwise the procedure went without a hitch.

2 February 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, 28 December 2006 to 22 January 2007

Well, well: Hachitaro topped 3.8kg (about 8.38 pounds). Finally, it became his surgery day. The day before, he didn’t get any food after 5:00 p.m., and he couldn’t have water after 9:00. If he understood his situation, we could explain things to him; but of course he is a cat, so he didn’t understand why he couldn’t eat and drink.

24 January 2007 | Text

Hachitaro News, December 13 to 27

We thought that Hachitaro’s weight gain had slowed down, but he has already become almost 3.5kg. He is about half a year old. Thinking about this past July, when we had to start keeping Kuro in our house for his injury treatment, Kuro weighed 3.85kg in a net on the vet’s scale. We think Kuro was about a year and a bit old at the time.

28 December 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 9 November to 12 December

I was going to make a Hachitaro News ‘Congratulations! 3kg!’ page… but well-grown Hachitaro has already topped 3.2kg. He got his second shot on 21 November and has been doing well as usual. (They say kittens have to get two sets of shots in their first year.)

12 December 2006 | Text | Comments (1)

Hachitaro News, 1 to 8 November

Friday (Culture Day), 3 November, we got a toy for cats at the hundred yen shop. It was unexpectedly popular with our three cats! The first day, even Kyoku (who might say ‘I don’t ever play with childish toys’) joined in, and our three cats played together for a long time.

9 November 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 30 and 31 October

It got to be two months later than we planned, but we finally took Hachitaro to the animal clinic for his shots. We couldn’t tell if Hachitaro realized where he was going, but he was very quiet in the net bag in the basket. (The bag was used for Kuro and Kyoku when they went to the animal clinic. They tore it in some places, so I fixed them and we’re still using it.) For about twenty minutes on foot, he miaowed only once…?

31 October 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 2 to 29 October

In August, while I was in the hospital, Hachitaro topped 1 kg, and he got to be over 2 kg when I had to stay there again in October.
A kitten sure can grow. It’s like he doesn’t want anyone to call him a kid. (Still, he is only 70% the size of Kuro.) He has big feet! Which means he will be a big guy in the near future, right?

30 October 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 19 September to 1 October

I wrote before that Hachitaro’s eyes were blue. But I was wrong: that was the case just after he came to our house; the colour has settled down now, and I could say it’s amber. Among the three cats in our house, he has the darkest eyes.
‘Coo–lululululululu…’ Hachitaro says, like the sound of a wooden sliding door that’s hard to open, as he runs past. He never miaows like regular cats!

2 October 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 7 August to 18 September

While I was in the hospital for a month, little Hachitaro’s weight more than doubled: it became 1601g. He became more than five times heavier compared to July 16, the day we rescued him. At first we could hold him in the palm of one hand, but now I have to use both arms to hold him.

19 September 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 1 to 6 August

Today, Kuro and Hachitaro met their mom (Moku) through a window screen. Kuro has done it many times so he may feel it’s nothing, but it was the first time for Hachitaro to see her in half a month. He may remember her even though she left him alone in our yard: he climbed half way up the screen to follow her. It’s a little painful, isn’t it.

7 August 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 25 to 31 July

Did Kyoku have a chance to be playful with other kittens when he was a kitten? When I was watching him, I thought that maybe he doesn’t know how to treat a kitten. Hachitaro has been playing with his rough brother Kuro recently, but even Kuro sometimes get tired of playing and he leaves him alone. When that happens, Hachitaro goes to Kyoku and asks to play with him, but usually Kyoku almost tries to play with him but then walks away from him without doing anything.

31 July 2006 | Text

Hachitaro News, 21 to 24 July

When I used my computer and let Hachitaro sleep on my lap (if I wait until he sleeps, I can’t do anything for myself; even so I have to use the keyboard with only one hand because he chews my fingers until he sleeps), and Kyoku came on my chair between my back and the back of the chair, and went to sleep.

24 July 2006 | Text

Thursday, July 20th

After feeding morning milk to Hachitaro, I cleaned the dried milk on his cheeks and chest with a warm wet towel. (It was hard to remove!) And I tried to wipe around under his tail, too. And I also tried putting him in the litter box. He peed. And – how does he know? – he suddenly dug the litter.

20 July 2006 | Text

Wednesday, July 19th

Today, too, I fed milk to Hachitaro from the morning. He pees well, but didn’t poo yet. Is he constipated? I studied about it, and it said that a three week old kitten still gets its poo taken care of by the mother cat: the mother licks the kitten and stimulates it so it wants to relieve itself. We are not mother cats so we have to pat his anus with a tissue or warmed wet cloth, or massage his lower abdomen, to make him poo after milk feeding.

19 July 2006 | Text

Tuesday, July 18th

I’m busy nursing Hacchan from the morning. (We bought a can of powdered milk for kittens.) Our vet said a syringe is easier for feeding than a nursing bottle; however, he moves so much it’s hard for me to nurse him. He tries to push the syringe with his foot, which has sharp nails, and he soon sticks to my fingers or hands. The syringe easily slips from his mouth, and it makes lots of trouble for the fur around his mouth. It’s really messy!

18 July 2006 | Text

Monday, July 17th (national holiday: Marine Day)

We have been giving antibiotics with wet food to Kuro after he got fixed. When Chris invited Kuro to feed, he called me after opening the door.
‘He opened up his injury again!’
We heard the sound of cats fighting in the garden across from our house: that was Kuro. He was scratched by Ryo again.

17 July 2006 | Text

Around 8 p.m., Sunday, July 16th

‘Bring the eye drops!’ Chris said to me from the entrance hall. I thought he wanted to give it to Kuro, so I brought it to the entrance hall… then I was shocked! He was holding a kitten that still couldn’t walk well! Its eyes were covered by dried eye mucus and couldn’t open, and he looked weak. It seems his mother cat Moku abandoned nursing him so he was crying in our front yard.

16 July 2006 | Text