Expatella: From Russia With Love: Koshka

Answer: A kitten having sneezing fits.

Particularly when said kitten is still small enough for her tiny sneezes to blow her backward.

Little Miss Mashka started sneezing yesterday, and it got to the point where she woke me up last night with a sneezing fit (she was sleeping next to my neck.) Then, when we woke up, her left eye was glued shut (ew). And while a sneezing and snotty kitten is surprisingly cute, I'm pretty worried. I know upper respiratory infections can be very bad for little cats, so I'll be taking her to the vet. Vets here are open 24hours and surprisingly inexpensive. We would know, because Koshka, as it turns out, had a parasite, a fact we discovered when she vomited all over Kira's laundry. Then the doormat. Then on the laundry again. Poor thing needs medicine about four times a day.

And now the other one.

It occurs to me that our kittens are like that annoying, sickly, snot-nosy little weenie kid from elementary school. You know the one I mean. He was always out first in dodgeball and peed himself on the fieldtrip to Lower Fort Garry? There was one in every class.

There are two in our apartment.

I'm actually afraid to take them out, for fear the other, cooler cats steal their Whiskas and do that "Why you hitting yourself?" thing. At which point Koshka will go hide in a cupboard, and Mashka will stand on top of my left foot and cry until I pick her up.

*sigh*

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, feel soothed by the picture of me and Mashka pretending to be mad at each other for the camera. Haha! Aren't we hilarious?

The best part about having your own blog is that you get to write shamelessly about whatever you want. In fact, I'm pretty sure that that is the only reason for blogging. Know now that the day will come when I decide to list books 1-50 from Sweet Valley High, just to prove I can.

That said, and without any regard whatsoever as to whether this will be interesting for you guys, I'm going to write about my new kittens!

Cat haters: suck it. Get your own blog. (And for the record, if you do, I think you should name it dogblog. Get it? Awesome.)

So without further adieu, I introduce to you Mashka and Koshka, the kittens Kira and I picked up.

Yeah, we have two. Funny story how such total near-sightedness and irresposibility came to be, actually...

Kira and I had been talking about getting a kitten, because you often run across babushkas with boxes of kittens when you are leaving the metro, and they are too painfully cute to pass up, especially when you are new in town, a pet's love, greet you at the door, blah blah blah...

So last week, we decided that the next time we saw one, we would bring it home. But no matter how hard we looked, we couldn't seem to find any after that.

Until Kira finally brought one home on Wednesday night.

So did I.

Koshka is "Kira's". She's about 2 mos old. Super shy and tries to hide all the time. She likes to explore and chase stuff, and is smart enough to use the litter box. Unfortunately, she's pretty camera shy. And she won't eat in front of us. She'll come around. She's just mad because we had to give her a bath. We named her Koshka because that is Russian for "cat."

Mashka is the little one I found. She is young enough to make that heartbreakingly teensy little
"mew" sound, and falls asleep on the nearest warm body every chance she gets. She is also dumb enough to poop on the floor then run to me crying about it. And we suspect she's partially blind because she gets trapped in corners. Then she sort-of cries at the corner, thinking it's some big bully that keeps popping up in front of her to be mean. Sometimes this goes on for awhile, and we have to pick her up and turn her around, but it's all good. She's a sweetie pie.
We named her Mashka, because that is what the woman who gave her to me told me to name her.

Mashka sleeps with me and Koshka with Kira, and they have totally made my week. Enjoy the cuteness guys, and happy Friday.