kitten and her kitten made it in just fine yesterday. i hadn't had much sleep (okay, no sleep) friday night because i was worried about hitomi. she seemed to be a bit on the sensitive side. linnorm didn't get everything that cat needed done until way too close to the day of the flight, but did manage to get it all done. course, you know how these things are, they never go without something going wrong. in this case, hitomi messed in her carrier and, even though kitten managed to get it cleaned up, the airline ruled that she couldn't be in the cabin because of the smell and put her in the cargo hold. the only good thing was that they didn't charge linnorm extra for it. so, no hitomi under the seat. considering the reason for under the seat in the first place (summer heat), it worried me that the cat would make it here okay. last thing i needed/wanted was a kiddo upset because her baby died on the damn plane. and, yes, i worried about this all night.

being up all night did, however, make sure we were pretty much on time/way early to meet with the kitten and her kitten. we arrived with an hour and a half to spare, which ended up being a good thing for us. the car's warning light for the water/coolant started going off right when we got there. saxy dropped me off with the extra carrier we had picked up and went to find/buy the stuff the car needed to keep cool. i waited at the atlanta bread company and had a hot chocolate and a danish, and was about to get up and go back to baggage claim to meet with saxy, but he showed up just as i was getting ready to leave. so we sat and waited there awhile before going to where we needed to be to meet her.

she was a little late coming up. the plane, apparently, was a little delayed (despite the "on time" message on the board) and she got lost going from plane to where we needed to meet her. for a bit there i thought perhaps i had worried about the wrong kitten and she had missed her connection. (wouldn't that be a wonderful report to linnorm: "well, the cat and the luggage made it, but we seem to have lost the girl.") but she made it. our greetings were a bit subdued, mostly because she apparently hadn't slept last night either. so between the two of us, we were two tired ladies. she even fell asleep on the way home in the car. we transferred hitomi to the larger carrier in the car, and she settled down nice and quiet once we got underway.

no cat fights yet. vagner and roro know there's a stranger in their house, but neither have approached her. vagner went by the carrier once, but, after a few sniffs, decided it was more prudent to leave. roro has been growly and hissy since we brought hitomi into the house. she's either sat on "her" windowsill or on "her" railing, for the most part. saxy tried holding and petting her, but she was growling and hissing the whole time. she's even hissed at vagner. she settled down some now, but hitomi spent the night in the girls' room so wasn't "present", or at least not in her face. the few times hitomi has been out of the carrier, she'd tried to hide. poor stressed out kitty. first half a dozen car rides to take care of vet visits and microchipping and get to and from airports, then a truly terrifying ride in a plane (or two since there was a layover and change of planes), now a completely unfamiliar home with unfamiliar cats. tranqs or not, the whole process has the poor dear terrified.

speaking of cat issues, roro is losing fur and we're not sure why. it doesn't seem to be spreading to vagner, so i don't think it's mange. she might be allergic to the flea stuff. we did change brands. but i would think she'd be losing the fur on the back of her neck rather than on her butt and haunches like she is now. because of major utility bills came due this week in a major way (and, man, we've got to reduce the amount of a/c. we use - which sucks because we keep the house as cool as we do for saxy's sake, but $220/month is just a tad high), so any vet visit will have to wait until next week. in the mean time, we're trying to keep an eye on her. something's making her not feel well, her behavior's been off for a few days (thought the fur loss started a bit back - the timing would indicate the flea medicine). we're not seeing symptoms of lime disease or the other flea carried cat disease, but we are worried about her.

we've been needing to find an inexpensive vet for some time now. roro is just going to jump start us a little earlier than it's really all that affordable.