Its been a while since I've been on here, but Pooka just turned 2 yesterday so I thought I'd write a quick update!

This year was not as fun as far as presents go for Pooka on her birthday. I got her a crate pad and a big knee bone, but she got them almost a month early cuz I can't help it! So I let her eat a whole beef frank on her actual birthday =) I heated it up and we let her have it and first she ran off with it, then looked at us and set it down and licked it, not sure what to do. So I took it from her and started cutting it up (NOW she acted like she wanted it, jumping up and up) and she scarfed the pieces fast as she could. Yum yum.

A big piece of news I never mentioned was we got a kitten back in June. She was my birthday present! I come from a family with lots of cats but I knew with my husband I'd probably only get one, I so he let me get what I wanted. And I chose a purebreed Abyssinian. There are 4 colors to choose from and both my husband and I took a fancy to the blue, which is a little more rare. So it took a while to find a breeder in Texas who had a blue (we were hoping for a boy, but ended up with a girl) that would be available come mid-june (I have a very busy school schedule and I only had about a 2 week break for summer, which I thought would be nice to spend with the kitten). Also, cat's are expensive! Most people only breed siamese and persians and there just aren't that many breeders for other breeds. So you take what you get.

It ended up our breeder WASN'T very good. She never would send me pictures of the kitten or respond quickly, was reluctant to show me her cattery and the kitten kind've had the sniffles. She even made a comment that she's not real big on giving cat's medicine and that vets are always trying to give unnecessary drugs. [sigh] But we had driven 5 hours and it wasn't an easy choice to leave without the kitten. Turns out our vet found she had fleas, ear mites, and an upper respiratory infection that could last 3 months. And 2 weeks later, I got ringworm, which got misdiagnosed as pitiriasis rosea, until my husband and Pooka got ringworm and we solved the mystery. Overall an expensive and troublesome ordeal (had to give the kitten and Pooka 10 minute baths with antifungal shampoo for 2 weeks). and it took FOREVER for Pooka's hair to grow back in the spots where she had ringworm (nose, lip, eye, neck, forehead, ear, foot, haunch) http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogorainbow/4781806961/

BUT! the good news is, our kitten is great! She must have been socialized well or its just the nature of the breed but she's very good about not scratching when handled, very adaptive to new situations/outgoing, very playful and fun and likes to play with Pooka and very affectionate toward us. It took us probably a week to name her and we chose Zelda (other choices were Odette, River, Delta... I don't remember! =)) We were very careful about keeping her in her own room to slowly introduce her to Pooka after a few days and its worked just fine. Pooka does chase her a bit more than she should, but most of the time the cat is wanting to be chased.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogorainbow/sets/72157624980492369/
Also, on a gross note, the kitten rivals Pooka's stinky farts. I never had animals with stinky farts so never thought about hoping NOT to have them. But DANG, between this cat and dog, there are lots of not fun times for our noses!

School is very busy (I'm in my final year and I'm doing my rotations as a pharmacy intern at different types of pharmacies) but I have my wonderful pets and husband to keep me happy

p.s. we also got pooka a life jacket and she really liked getting to jump in the pool without her head going under, and swimming/fetching without getting tired =)