One of my favorite lines from that movie is Mathew Modine telling Nicholas Cage that breasts are nothing more than overly swollen glands…that’s what I am, you know, nothing more than a walking swollen gland for my kitty…and she loves me/them so much!
So this morning, desperate for sleep and to no longer be attacked every time I sit down, I actually bought feral kitten girl a baby pacifier. Hell, if she wants to suckle for the rest of her life, that’s okay, as long as it’s NOT ON ME! She knew exactly what I meant by it, and immediately rejected it, started screaming, and attacked my ear with more ferocity than ever before. Gnaw. purr. gnaw. purr. suck suck suck…
Great.
So I went back to the supermarket and purchased some finer grain clumping cat litter, hoping that will help with the peeing problem. I also got a couple liters of vinegar to erase her deeds (couldn’t find baking soda anywhere) and then stopped at another pet store and bought a kitty baby feeding bottle.
Afterward, I stopped and got sollentang at the place I always go to and the owner was watching a documentary with her mom. Mom must have a hearing problem, because she was always recapping what was going on for her. It was about an adoptee who was back in Korea with her white husband and halfie child. I asked her to confirm if that was an ibyeonga and I explained I was also ibyeonga, and that oh so familiar cloud crossed her face. And then she started explaining in rapid Korean all about the show and I had to tell her I didn’t understand. I did get that she had 8 siblings, though. There are so many adoptees returning here, and so many of them I’ve never met through TRACK. Imagine – not everyone contacts adoptee activists! Anyway, this documentary seemed really nice. Not a lot of tears and drama, and lots of scenes of the family trying to help her out. The adoptee was really pretty and had a gorgeous boy. Shows like this will help Korea accept adoptees just as much, if not more, than all the exploitation search shows and just as much as condemning documentaries do.
When I got home, I filled the bottle about 1/3 with water and put it in front of miss feral kitty’s face. She KNEW what I was doing, gnawed on it, turned her face away, made a bee-line scramble for my ear and started SCREAMING in my ear canal, chomping away. I’d pull her away and introduce the baby bottle and she’d just make a mad scramble back to my ear, screaming: gnaw. purr. suck suck suck. purr. I just started cracking up. I can’t stop cracking up! I have a permanent kitten-shaped earring hanging off of my head, and angry red earlobes. I think I just have to stand all the time…
She’s been screaming ever since. And I don’t think she likes the new litter. I forgot to save one of her presents, so I’m going to walk to the garbage dump area now to retrieve some and personalize the new litter.
Only 18 more years of this to go. HA Ha ha ha ha!!!! Who’s the master, huh?
Hello Korea ! 
And we have achieved…TA DA!!!..nursing with a bottle! Little hell kitty is sleeping contentedly. I know this is going the opposite way of weaning, but she’s getting tons of solid food, dry and wet, and this will just keep her hydrated and save my ears.
I figure she will grow bored with the nursing thing, but nibbling my ear could be an endless habit.
When I first got her and she was sucking on my shirt and fingers I thought it was cute. Then, after the first time she found my ears I looked it up and I guess this happens to a lot of people. Only it didn’t sound half as voracious, and their owners really liked it. Well, I like it a little but not all the time! I just got really concerned about how always pushing her off would affect her emotionally.
K. So hopefully she’ll continue to let me substitute this bottle…
Vinegar washed bedding to hang up and dry now…
hi, its sounds wonderful and your new kitten is so cute. our first cat lived to be 21 years so I think you can’t say for certain how long a cat will live… I enjoy reading about your life (don’t get my wrong) as adoptees we are the only ones that can make society realize what they need to change…
Oh. 21 years ’til my ears are my own again, then. (she’s now rejected the baby bottle and woke me up several times last night gnawing and slurping) I sure hope this is a phase and not a habit. Sometimes I can make myself inaccessible and once in awhile that is accepted. I wonder what her “terrible two’s” are going to bring?
One positive thing about this cat is she’s totally fearless and a fighter. Maybe that comes from competing with two older brothers. A bomb could go off and she’d just look up, non-plussed – no running & hiding under the bed for her. She’s the kind of cat who’s not going to just cry if she’s hungry – she’s going to find the food and try to serve herself.
I’m not quite in agreement that we adoptees are the only ones that can make society realize what they need to change. I believe all people are inherently selfish. I am, my children are, my friends are, etc. So change comes when people see a benefit for themselves. If this is introduced negatively, like we adoptees tend to do, or if it is introduced positively, like I believe we need to figure out, has an impact on how fully embraced (and thus not superficial) this change is.
I also think we adoptees need to be better agents of change: nobody wants to emulate, much less take unsolicited advice & recriminations from, a total mess, which is what we adoptees often present.
You know I believe in the power of images, so I would really like to see a well-written, superbly acted, complex and real portrayal of the adoptee experience. There is too much a documentary misses, and a dramatization can encapsulate and weigh a life/lives so much better. We’re really missing an opportunity for dialogue here…
After washing all my bedding TWICE in vinegar (which destroyed my foam mattress, so it’s history), then spending a fitful night having my ears gnawed on – I mean, it was ridiculous – I even tried sleeping with my hands covering both my ears and she burrowed and tried to remove my fingers – I woke up to her peeing on the bed, two inches from my leg.
At least this time I caught her in the act and threw her into her litter box. Miss feral kitty is sleeping in the kitchen tonight. In fact, she may spend the entire day in the kitchen. Sigh.
I feel like erecting a shrine to my former cat June, who was perfect in every way.