My cats!

It is time to talk about cats!

Anubis on my lap.

I love cats! I have always loved cats. I also loves dogs though, and animals in general. I grew up with cats, dogs, and birds, I have owned rats (but became allergic..) and when I bought my apartment in 2005, I got my first cat that was entirely my own. Tigris is her name, but we often call her “Tigern” witch means “the Tiger”, and that is of course because of her beautiful colours. She has a special type of fur that is really thick and soft, and people that are allergic to cats tell me that they react less to her than to other cats. I do not know exactly when she was born, cause she was born in a barn on a farm. But suddenly the farmer could not find the kittens, and he thought they all had been killed by a fox or a territorial male cat. Then after a few weeks, he found Tigris walking around in the yard, she was a lone survivor, and he took her in and fed her cat-formula, and when she was big enough (about 5 weeks) I went to pick her up. She adored me right away by not being afraid at all, and started playing with my feet after a few minutes. The Tiger is a suitable name not only because of her colours, she is a feisty and fun cat. I held her in my arms, and she almost went right to sleep, she had my heart from then on.

Little Tigris when I got her.

She was so tiny!

She likes to play.

And then, in the summer of 2007, she was away from home for a few days. I got worried, cause she usually comes home at least every other day. But after three and a half day, she got home, and I was so happy. After a few weeks, we could see why she had been so long away from home, she had gotten herself pregnant!! This is perfect, because I wanted her to have a litter before I had to sterilize her. And I had friends and family lined up ready to adopt. She had four little kittens, three male and one female. The female (Nala) and the male (Mowgli) had short fur with blended colours, the last males (Anubis and Buster Phus) had long, thick fur. Anubis was black and dark brown (only visible in direct sunlight) and Buster had a darker, but similar colours to Tigris. They were all healthy and sweet, and my brother and his girlfriend adopted Nala, my good friend Heidi adopted Mowgli, and my other friend Heidi adopted Buster. Anubis I had to keep for myself, cause he had been injured when he still was young (the vet guessed it was Tigris when she tried to lift him), and he got a wound on his shoulder. We went to the wet, who stitched it, and gave me instructions to care for it. I had to rinse it a few times a day, and Anubis was not as active and a bit sleepy. I was really afraid that he was going to die, but after taking good care of him, he became active and vibrant again. And I had fallen in love with him, and I could not bear to part with him. So that’s the story of how I got Anubis.

Tigris with her litter, can you spot the four kittens?

Anubis and Mowgli

Anubis is still a kitten, and cuddles with his mother in the window.

Adorable Anubis!

This is taken at the same time as the other, he just looks bigger face on.

Tigris is really photogenic!

Anubis has the same thick and soft fur like his mother, only much longer! And he has a mane like a tiger! The fur is so incredible nice to feel, I just want to bury my face in it. But, after Tigris had all the kittens, I got allergic, and I had to restrict how much contact I had with them. That means they are not allowed in the bedroom (this is really sad to me, cause Tigris always lay down on my chest and purrs when I go to sleep, and that made me go to sleep), and I have to try not getting cat hair into my eyes. But I still cuddle with them, and they lie on me and everything, cause I will never abandon my cats. If I have to take a pill every day to get to have them, then so be it!

Anubis has started to mimic this, nice and cozy!

Tigris loves being near us, preferably on top!

I live on the first floor of my building, so I have a cat-flap in the balcony door, and they can easily jump up and down from my balcony to the ground. My cats can come and go as they wish. In the winter, they stay mostly inside, and Tigris is a really indoor cat. She can go outside for short excursions to look at the scenery from our balcony, but mostly she stays inside. Anubis is more outside, and when he comes home, he usually mjaus loud and nagging to tell us that he is home. Anubis really loves mjauing. Unlike Tigris, witch is quite silent, and if she mjaus, it is more like a squeak. It is really adorable. My cats are really nice tempered and have never been aggressive against me or anyone else. They are wary of strangers, but I take that as a good sign. I don’t want them to run up to strangers outside, who knows what kind of crazy people there can be.

Here are some adorable videos of my cats:

Update on my eyes

This is me right after my surgery.

I can see! So I guess the surgery went well. I still can't see perfect, there is still some blurriness and haze, but all in all I can see better than before without glasses (or lenses).

The day of the surgery went by very fast. The surgery itself took about 30 sec on each eye, and did not hurt at all. There was a mild discomfort when the doctor put on the eyelid-holder on the second eye, but he paused a bit when I pointed it out (and my eye went rolling and eye-muscles twitching) and waited a minute more for the anesthesia to work before trying again. That, and some irritating and stinging eye-drops before the surgery was what hurt at all (and we are not talking really hurting, more like getting something in your eye that’s mildly discomforting). Immediately after the surgery I could actually see quite well, almost as good as with glasses, just a little hazed. Then I could go home, and got the surgeons mobile-number in case something felt wrong. I got pain-killing eye-drops to use the next two days, and tear-like eye-drops to use every 10 Min until I went to bed. Every 10 Min sounds like a lot, but I found that it was almost too long to wait, because after the surgery my eyes felt sore and dry. The eye-drops really were comforting, and I just waited for the alarm to ring every 10 Min to get to ease my sore eyes. I found it hard to keep my eyes open, like the muscles around my eyes were tired and sore, and I felt like a vampire when ever I saw light. So home we went, and into my dark bedroom to listen to the Nightside on audio-book, and drop my eyes.

I woke a lot in the night, feeling dry and sore, and my eyes were clogged together with dried stuff, so I had to really blink and drag my eyes open. Whenever I woke, I would use the eye-drops to ease my dry eyes, and then just go to sleep again. I was really afraid to rub my eyes in my sleep, so whenever I felt like it, I actually woke up! After a week I can finally rub my eyes again, I cant wait!

The next days my muscles improved and so did the light-sensitiveness, and by the third day after surgery I could finally watch my computer screen and TV. I had to really reduce the brightness of the screen, or all black letters on white background would get too blurry. I had spent my dark days listening to audio-books and sleeping a lot, I tend to get sleepy when I get bored.

Today is the fourth day after surgery, and I feel I can see fine, but still a bit blurry and hazy. I have extra large pupils when it is dark (over 8 mm) so I will get a bit of hazing around lights especially at night, but this is something I have noticed from using lenses also, so this does not bother me much. My eyesight will improve the next month or so, but usually it is good enough to drive within a week after surgery. I don't have much dryness either any more, but I keep the drops handy in case I feel an itch, since I still cant rub my eyes.

I hope this was informative to you, if you are planning to get eye-surgery, I know this is a bit different than if I was getting Lasik. I had my surgery at Synslaser in Oslo. To have a helping hand around the days after the surgery is invaluable, since being tired in your eyes makes cooking and finding things a bit tough. I have to hand it to my honey Espen for being a real trooper with doing a lot of the chores around the house, and being an excellent cook and butler for me. Thank you, honeyboo! <3