Adulting

Phoenix continues to grow and develop. It's fun watching him grow, but he truly is a "little terror" at times. Nguyen and I are in for some "fun" times ahead of us, especially as Phoenix becomes more and more mobile.

Phoenix has been steadily making some achievements in becoming an adult cat. He now consistently poops and pees on his own in his litterbox! This has been a huge relief and has made things significantly easier for us to handle. He's pooping regularly and overall he seems to be doing well in this area. Not going to lie though, I keep worrying I'll find a random puddle unexpectedly one day! But it seems that generally upgrading to his new litterbox and moving it to the new corner was the change he needed! The picture on the right shows the newly rotated setup (with Phoenix sitting atop his scratch pad).

Phoenix continues to work on eating solid foods. Right now, he's eating his wet food with just a tiny bit of water added into it. Starting this morning, I've introduced a bowl of water as well, though he hasn't tried drinking from this yet. I'll continue to offer it though, and he should pick up soon. I'm less concerned about the hydration since we're still supplementing Phoenix's meals with formula. Unfortunately, it seems like we'll be forced to buy one more small container of KMR (kitten milk replacer powder) to get us through this period. He actually eats a good amount of the solid food, and he seems to be drinking less of formula each time.

Phoenix also ran for the first time yesterday. Or at least first I've seen. I unfortunately didn't catch it on video... but he walked into the door stop and it made a noise. He spooked and took off down the hallway. His tail colors are also becoming more pronounced; I think it's fairly clear that there's some hue of orange in there somewhere. It's definitely not gray. Maybe not the clearest picture, but I think you can see the color difference in the part of his tail that's showing here.

I also happened to get a picture that shows the eye color! It's becoming easier and easier to see! Since we think he's Siamese, we expect his eyes to stay blue. Not the best photo, but it does the job!

Phoenix has also developed the ability to retract his claws! I noticed this sometime this weekend but forgot to share. I mean, considering all the scratches I have on me, it wasn't something that I really noticed right away.

Little Terror

Phoenix's energy is growing, and he moves all over the place. I've been leaving part of his pen open to let him roam around the room. Though as he continues to get more mobile, I may be forced to keep him in there more frequently. Today, he successfully climbed up my pant leg and into my lap while I was getting some work done. In fact, the cover photo for this post was taken while he was playing around in my lap. He would alternate between sleeping and playing in my lap, until I finally put him on the floor where he slept most of the day.

Since yesterday, he's taken to sleeping next to my chair on a cow blanket. It's actually a bit of an accident that he ended up being there. I had a box that had the cow blanket laying over it. Next thing I notice, in the middle of a meeting, is that Phoenix is standing on the box. He had climbed up the blanket onto the box. I didn't want him to jump down, so I grabbed him to put him back on the floor... but he took the blanket with him. So I left him on top of the blanket that was now on the floor. And since, he's taken to sleeping there majority of the time! Here he is sleeping until I woke him up to get his dinner.

Of course, with him so close by, you can't help but check-in and make sure he's still there and doing well. A few times now, I've looked down and realized he's gone! For a kitten who's so chatty, it always scares me when he somehow relocates himself without me knowing. But what he's been doing is getting up and sleeping in his shark! I can't quite explain why, but this makes me insanely happy every time I see it. That shark is by far my favorite kitten purchase (and COVID purchase?), and I'm so glad that Phoenix uses it. Here's to hoping that he sleeps in that shark into adulthood... because I don't think I'll be able to give the shark away 😂.

Cute, right? Don't be fooled. He's a little monster in disguise! I mean, look at this post-meal face. Terrifying!

So why do I call him a little terror? He's just being a little kitten. He has a ton of energy and he enjoys playing with me. Or more specifically, on me. Here's what I imagine must go through Phoenix's head:

Jump on Mom's leg!
Get to the shirt, and climb towards the top as fast as possible!
Go for the armpit and try to bite!
When Mom grabs me, hold on for dear life.
Optionally, attack Mom's finger.
As soon as she puts me down, repeat!

I really do need to look into cutting his nails though. I keep getting stabbed around my neck. When I'm on the floor during feedings, he'll sometimes decide to climb up my back. Earlier today, I was chatting with a friend of mine while finishing up a feeding with Phoenix. Shortly after, this happened.

I'm sure Phoenix will continue making debuts like this. As much as I call him a little terror, I'm obviously quite happy in that photo. He brings a lot of happiness to my life, and I'm glad that he has the energy that a kitten should! It's hard to believe that 5 weeks ago, we were hoping to just try to make it through a week. And now I'm in a position where I need to follow up with the vet to get vaccines on the calendar and figure out what age makes sense to get him neutered. But one step at a time for now.