So what's new with the pussycat?

So, you may be wondering how Nibbler is doing.

Well, she's a kitten. Which means she's a handful.

There are things that are great about her - she has been really good about using her litterbox, she's cute, she seems to like me enough that she pretty much follows me around the house, and still falls asleep in my lap every now and then (unfortunately, she seems to time it for about 5 minutes before I'm about to get up).

But she's a kitten, which means she has tons of energy. She regularly tears through the house at speeds that amaze me. She tries to climb into anything - closets, the pantry, empty bags and boxes, the refrigerator, ect. If there is a door, she wants to be on the other side of it. If I close it and I'm on one side and she's on the other, she'll meow like crazy, and then bum-rush the door when I open it. She does this when I get home, which is scary - but she usually stops right outside the door, so I can grab her and carry her back in.

I've also been struggling with letting her sleep in my bed at night. I used to automatically shut her outside my bedroom, and she would wail and make me feel bad. Lately, I've been letting her sleep in the bed, as long as she doesn't bite me or leap on my head - if she does, out the door she goes. Invariably, however, she'll wake me up at some point playing with my beard - she'll rub her head against it (awww), then she'll start licking it (cute, but also kind of gross), and then she'll start chewing on it (owww... my skin!). That usually gets her kicked out as well, as it's hard to sleep with a cat gnawing on my chin.

She's also still a biter, and I'll admit I haven't done a whole lot to stop it- the advice I read suggests scolding her and giving her a toy to chew on, which I'll do sometimes - but now that it's cold enough that I'm usually in long sleeves it doesn't bother me as much - but it's something I need to get her to stop doing, or she might not grow out of it.

She also still keeps trying to steal my dinner. For a while, I'd gotten so frustrated that I'd lock her in the family room while I ate, but I would still hear her meow and feel bad. Lately I've been forcing myself to spray her with a water bottle if she paws at my plate, and she seems to be getting better... she won't usually dive for my food until, say, midway thru dinner. I usually read while I eat, though, and she's smart enough to figure that if I've got a book in one hand and a fork in the other, I can't spray her - so that's when she'll attack my spaghetti.

I also feel like I'm probably not playing with her enough. I've been working a bunch of overtime lately, plus I've been trying to get some stuff listed on eBay, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with her. While it's cute to see her chase the fish-on-a-string, it gets kind of old after I'm really tired. I did get a laser pointer last week, and it was awesome watching her chase it, but the batteries died after two days - I have another one on order that takes standard AAA instead of off-the-wall ones, but it ships from Hong Kong, so I won't get it for a while.

I'm also going to be away twice in the next couple weeks - Thanksgiving to visit the folks, and then early December for an Apple hardware training class in NY. I'm hoping I can get someone to watch her (how's your schedule look like, t?), otherwise I guess I'll have to board her somewhere.