Chouchou is full of energy today

Momo and Chouchou are enjoying their lives

Chouchou's favorite spot remains the cats' tree...

(and if you compare this picture with a picture taken earlier in June, you can see that Chouchou often sleeps in the same position...)


While Momo discovered that the space behind the living room (where we store unused futons, etc) is really nice: not just comfortable, but very easy to see if anybody is coming (=safe). And it is high too.

Yearly injection

We went to the vet today to have Momo and Chouchou get their yearly injection. Chouchou had a bad allergic reaction last year, so we were extra careful and had the vet inject first an anti-allergic shot. One hour later, she got her normal shot against 3 different cat issues. Since both cats are indoor cats, they don't need the other option, against 5 different health issues.

Both cats seem to do much better this year, compared to last year. I remember Momo being really tired and sleeping a lot. Now, he is just a little more quiet than usual.

It was difficult as usual to catch Momo. DH tricked him and now, Momo is looking at DH with suspicion. Hopefully, he will trust him again soon.

end August update

Momo and Chouchou are still doing very fine.

MIL is now back home and we all eat together in the first floor. A few weeks ago, we started to let the cats come downstairs (there is a door between the first and second floors). At first, they were a little uneasy, among others because of MIL (they did not know her). Now, they feel at ease. So much at ease that in fact, they came to realize that while we are eating, we don't play with them, etc. So that it may not be quite so interesting for them.

Because of safety reason, we only let them come to the first floor in the evening. All doors and shutters are safely locked and there is no risk of getting out of the house (we are just next to a very busy national route).

Momo found a new favourite spot in the corridor behind the living room, on a pile of unused futon.

 

 

Chouchou still loves her cats' tree and her sleeping plastic box. Since it is hot now in summer, wood feels fresh and she enjoys wooden surfaces (tables and others).

 

  

 

 

We will need to go to the vet for yearly injections.  This is not an enjoyable activity, with Chouchou's allergy (she had a pretty bad allergic reaction last year) and Momo being scared of sudden movements (us trying to catch him to put him in the transportation cage).

mid June update

Momo and Chouchou are still doing very fine, thank you.

Chouchou is enjoying the cats' tree in my room while Momo rediscovered how comfortable the sofa is. 

Rainy season has not yet reached Fukushima. This means that temperatures are still bearable without air con.

 

  

 

  

 

 

Begin June update

Momo and Chouchou are doing very fine, thank you.


The cats needed barely hours to get very comfortable in the new house. Maybe because DH was returning from Fukushima every weekend with his clothes impregnated with PIL’s house smell.

Momo and Chouchou are enjoying their new home. Our new house has lots of windows and both cats are enjoying the view. They can observe cars, people and, sometimes, even birds. The cats also enjoy the soft carpets, the large stairs—and their cats’ trees. They even greet FIL and let him pet them.

Chouchou has always been very sociable. But Momo seems to improve every time he goes through new experiences. He was very scared of everything when we were living in the Kitayono manshion (until end of January), but became much more sociable recently.

Here is a short summary of their daily lives:

• Momo wakes me up pretty early every morning, in need of petting and affection (sometimes, fresh food or clean toilet). His miaou is high and loud and cannot be ignored.
  
• Once I am up and awake, ready to tackle the day, Momo decides to go into hiding in the corridor behind DH's study room. This is the space were we temporarily store FIL's many unused futon. Momo found a great spot that we can unfortunately not find (this is the fun part for him). 
• Momo spends most of his day in the hidden spot (see above)
• Late afternoon, after hours of relaxing in the hidden spot, Momo comes out and miaous laudly. He needs affection, fresh food or clean toilet. Or just company and undivided attention.
• Chouchou, on the other hand, spends a lot of time awake. If she really gets tired, she would sleep on her favorite cats' tree. She rarely goes in hiding. She rarely miaous and is in fact pretty quiet.
  

I don't recognize my cats...

I just don't recognize my cats.

Momo used to be afraid of everything.

Now, he even goes and says hello to my father in law (FIL), on the 2nd floor.

Chouchou is always between the 2nd and the 3rd floor. She would probably go to the 1st floor if we let her.

It is difficult to believe how quickly the cats are getting used to our new home and new life. Maybe because they smelled the house's smell on DH when he was coming back to Saitama from Fukushima. Or maybe because of the incent used on the portable shrine. I suspect that it contains ingredients similar to "mata-tabi", the herb that makes cat a little crazzy.

Momo is having a new bad habit: waking me up very early in the morning (before 6am). I am not happy with this...

Moving again...

Yes, you read it correctly.

Momo, Chouchou and myself will leave greater Tokyo and move to the country side.

My mother-in-law is sick and the family needs my help.

DH and I will bring the cats to our new home on Sunday.

Momo is sooo not going to like it. But after a while, he will get used to the new home. It is more spacious. And also has stairs. Momo loves stairs, now that he discovered how fun they can be.

Moving and cats (pictures)

As I wrote in an earlier post, Chouchou is very confortable with boxes everywhere. Momo, on the other hand, does not like it at all, because he feels big changes coming up....

Moving and cats

DH, the cats and myself will be moving on February 1st.

Chouchou, who loves action and anything new, is very happy to jump from one card box to another. She loves to see us pack items.

Momo, who hates changes, is spending some time in the bedroom closet, wondering what is going on and why we are so busy doing this and that (packing, etc).

Two cats... two different ways of seeing life...

The moving day will be hard (with DH, we figured that the best spot for them was the new home's bathroom area, since there is nothing to bring there).

Maxu passed away on January 1st, 2009...

We said goodbye to our cat Maxou on January 1st, 2009. She died peacefully at our home, surrounded by DH and myself.

Maxou was 16 1 /2 years old and had lived with me in Switzerland and Japan, in five different apartments. I adopted her about one week after I had adopted another cat, Titi, who passed away a couple of years ago. At this time, I had just moved into my first apartment, after having found my first job after graduation. New everything.

A friend of the village where I was living told me that the village cheese maker had kittens to give away. Because I was out most of the day, I felt that it would be better for Titi to have a friend.

I went to the cheese maker's home and chose Maxou. Why ? Because she was a red hair cat. It is usually said that red hair cats are male and I found interesting that Maxou was indeed a female.
The first week was pretty difficult for Maxou. She had to adjust to a new home, new food, new owner and another new cat. Maxou and Titi fought for a week. Then, they decided that they liked each other and became best friends.

Over the years, Maxou and Titi went through a love and hate relationship. There were times they adored each other. And other times they resented each other's presence.

It is difficult to describe my relationship with Maxou. Her personality was a little difficult: she did not play (did not enjoy it at all). She was stubborn. She did not always like Titi. She hated Momo and ignored Chouchou. And probably never understood WHY Momo and Chouchou suddenly came into our lives.

She was also a lovely cat. She loved to be petted. And her favorite sleeping spot was a basket near my head, with my hand touching her, either as a cushion or a cover.

Maxou had a hard time health wise. First, the sterilization. In those days, it was heavy surgery. She needed a good week to recover. Then, she had teeth troubles. The different vets I had in her early days did not pay enough attention to her teeth. At the end, many years ago, most of her teeth had to be removed.

When I moved to Japan for the second time, cats needed to spend two weeks in quarantine. This time away from me was very hard on Maxou. She probably thought that I had abandoned her. She started overeating and once weighted about 8 kilos. That was very heavy for her small frame. She eventually developed diabetes. The vet suggested first a very strict diet with a special food for diabetic cats. We did not want to even consider the worst option, daily insulin injections. Luckily, the diet food helped stabilizing her weight gain.

A couple of years ago, during the yearly health check, the vet discovered that Maxou's heartbeat was irregular. Some further checks were done and we realized that Maxou's heart was enlarged. This explained why Maxou had sometimes had troubles keeping food. The vet suggested to have her take medicine daily. Maxou was stubborn and would not be tricked by hiding medicine in food. She hated being forced to take medicine. After a very short and uncomfortable trial period, we had to admit that it would not work out. DH and I decided that we would rather have Maxou enjoying her life for a shorter time rather than adding more stress to a slightly longer life. We stopped giving her medicine.

About two years ago, she started loosing weight, slowly but surely. At the end, she weighted barely two kilos.

One week ago, she got weaker. She was gone in less than two days.

DH and I had originally planned to leave for our yearly visit home on January 1st. The airline canceled the flight on that day and our departure was postponed to January 2nd. We unexpectedly found a new home in December (moving in February) and decided to cancel DH's flight. As fate would have it, Maxou died on January 1st,, with us nearby. DH had her body cremated on January 2nd, after bringing me to the airport.

Maxou is now happy in cats' paradise. And, who knows, maybe she will find a way to sneak out of there and sleep at night near my hand, her favorite spot...