More Kitten News

Well, I think the little guy now has a name! A few days ago, I sort of had a conversation with someone (you know who you are!) which involved the subject of naming the kitty after an SF TV character. "Actually," she said, looking at the picture, "he looks like a Vir." And I thought about that, and eventually said, "Nah, he complains too much to be a Vir." (Which he does, too. If you pick him up when he's comfortable where he is, or he can't find the nipple on the milk bottle, or pretty much any other time he's unhappy, he lets you know about it with these little "Rrrrroww!" noises.) But, you know? She's right. He does look like a Vir. And, hmm... He's cute and cuddly. He talks a lot. He looks helpless and weak, but is clearly a strong little survivor, despite appearances. Cats are very like Centauri in their love of the decadent pleasures in life. Some of those little growly noises he makes actually sound sort of like "vir," which is too cute. And it seems fitting to name him after a Babylon 5 character, given that I found him "all alone in the night." Plus, when he misbehaves, I can do my best Londo impression and shout "Viiiiiir!" Which has got to be fun.

So. "Vir" it is, I think. After this guy:


(The Babylon 5 fans in the audience may now proceed to make jokes about ducks.)

Also, his umbilical finally fell off! I was beginning to wonder, as I thought it should have happened by now.

In less pleasant news, he's had some diarrhea for the last couple of days. I'm pretty sure the problem is that I changed his formula. The vet initially gave me some powdered stuff to mix up for him, but I went through it far too fast. Mainly because, although he was only eating tiny amounts, I had to fill the bottle more in order to be able to get enough liquid to the nipple without holding it straight upside-down. And since the instructions say not to re-heat it more than once, but to mix up fresh stuff instead, I ended up throwing a lot of it out. So I got this canned liquid stuff at Wal-Mart, which he seems to like. But, well, that's when the diarrehea started. Sigh. This stuff is quite a bit thicker than the other kind, so I've started diluting it, per instructions from this website. So far, it doesn't really seem to be helping. I may have to go back to the vet and ask them if they have any more of the first kind they can give me.