Zipper
She’s doing fine. Her playfulness is clearly demarcated from her cuddly times (which is very handy, because the kids know exactly when not to try to pat her), and is getting livelier as she grows in confidence (and presumably recovers from her operation).
Today she had her first visit to our local vet, who gave us a pack of kitten-oriented info, food, treats, and even a cool toy that is designed to have a treat inside that the cat has to get out (great entertainment and good for their brain).
Zipper handled the vet (and injection) very well, didn’t meow at all on the car trip (a positive sign), and even visited TJ’s pre-school class! I’d been toying with the idea of taking her for a visit, since she’s so good with kids and it’s good for kittens to be exposed to a lot of different people and environments.
She endured the children with perfect patience (I kept her in a pillowcase, held firmly with just her head poking out) and all but one of the kids (who wanted to tickle her a bit roughly) were very gentle and good. Some were very reluctant to go back to their activity, but I can hardly blame them for that because I’ve been known to completely ignore people in favour of cooing over their cats for any number of hours.
Zipper still tends to follow us from room to room, including to the bathroom. It’s a good thing I work from home, or she’d definitely be lonely. She’s gained weight since being with us due to to fact that I’ve never yet let her supply of dry food run out. The up side is that it means she never begs for food, which is awesome. I’ll be careful in my experimentation with limiting her to the recommended amount of food, keeping an eye on her weight (we don’t want her to lose weight either) and behaviour.
I’m toying with possible cat-run ideas so that she can remain an ‘inside’ cat but in a way that lets us stop bothering to deal with kitty litter/keeps her restricted to our backyard. It seems to me that she needs human company far more than a broad range, so it might be possible to keep her both trapped and happy.
My original observations of her (in the pet shop, with her brother and another cat) were that she was more tentative than the others. That holds true so far. She is both smarter and less curious than the average cat, which makes her less likely to get herself run over and less likely to destroy my stuff (at least, so far).
I bought Chris a bunch of flowers when he was sick last week. For the first two nights I put them in the cupboard overnight, but after that I left them on the dining table, and Zipper left them alone. That shows that (a) She knows the dining table is forbidden, and (b) She’s not the type to habitually disobey behind our backs.
So for a young kitten, she is VERY low-maintenance.
Felicity Banks 
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