Kiro oh Kiro....

Salam and hi everyone. Things have been pretty busy lately, hence the momentary absence from blogging. Back when I was preparing for the exams I thought that it would be a very relaxing time for me after the exams, since there would be a nearly three week gap between the last day of exams and the day I'd be flying back home.

Oh, how wrong I was. Never thought I'd be so busy after the exams! Here's why.

Ohoho I is famous! Even this makcik is promoting me. Look there, I have a CD!!

Even got a whole billboard space for myself.

Even the Russian superpowers have my portrait hung in their meeting chamber. For inspiration, perhaps?

Of course-lah I'm kidding. Just fooling around at PhotoFunia.

The one week that followed the final paper was spent worrying over our graduation robes, no thanks to the she-troll that we first appointed as our robes' tailor. Luckily the other tailor we called in managed to complete the robes in time before the graduation ceremony, and the ceremony itself went beautifully for us with lots of perfect moments captured on film. It's a pity we didn't have a videocameraman specifically for our group, but no matter. The ceremony was way better shown on pictures anyway. Haha.

Then came the certifications. We got our M.D.s in Russian language, so we need to have some certification stamps on our English-translated academic transcripts and all that. That was also a rather frustrating event considering the holes we'd burnt in our pockets, but I shan't be blogging about that now. As if we all haven't ranted much about it. If I ever possess the power of telekinesis or pyrokinesis during that day when we were handling the process to get our certifications, the university would be in shambles. No kidding. In the end, though, everything was taken cared off and we are all now waiting for the process to be completed. Hopefully in the next two-three days. Here's hoping, my fingers are crossed. Until I get everything in my hands I won't be counting the chickens before they hatch!

To kill some time, Ahmad and I then went for our single-day trip to Moscow. What a breather it was compared to kampung Kursk, although money and familiarity-wise I still love-hate Kursk.

Then came the packing and to clear out stuffs from my soon-to-be-ex-room. I can't be leaving any of my stuff behind lest my roommate going to sell them and make a fortune because I am going back for good. The bulkier stuffs such as the microwave, printer and bookshelf had been taken cared off earlier. The books all went inside the boxes along with some of my clothes to be shipped off via courier. From all the clothes I had, half of them were given to my lovable mama stirat (laundry mama) who has been doing my laundry/ironing for the past six years. Yeah...don't have a washing machine, too lazy to wash on my own, too lazy to iron...so mama stirat took care of them all throughout my university life. From the half that remained, they were further halved, and I'll be bringing the halved half home while the others will also be given to mama stirat. She already booked them anyway. Heheh. Books...those that I bought, I'd bring them home. Whatever that in 1kg would cost less than USD15 will be left here because they're not worth the money. Courier is expensive so have to be really, really picky. All the stuffs are packed now. I still have 4 days left before I'll be flying home.

And of course, the rest of my free time is occupied with....Kiro!!

 Kiro bermanja-manja.

This guy has grown pretty fast - he's obviously fatter now because all he does is sleep and eat inside the room - we don't trust him to wander around the hostel because he's not our cat, we don't want Kiro to be lost/kidnapped. So his world is pretty much inside our room, or our unit. Poor guy, but Kiro's a bit scaredy-cat himself and prefers to be in the room anyway. He pretty much sleeps the whole day, and when he's awake it's either to eat, play a bit, or take a dump. What a simple life.

At first Kiro gave us a bit of grief during the first week he was with us. He kept thinking that the best place for him to pee/take a dump is under my table. What was worse was the fact that it is carpeted there, so cleaning up the mess wasn't easy. However it's gotten easier when we figured out that if we put the litter box inside the room instead of outside, Kiro pretty much knows where he's supposed to go if nature calls. Poor guy got confused when we thought the litter box was placed outside the room...... sure he'd scratch the carpet as signs for him when he cannot tahan already, but usually it was also too late. Often I woke up to find the room smelly...ughh. Kiro oh Kiro....you've given us nightmares. But now it's easier. He'd go to his litter box and do his business there, and one of us who's awake would take him to the toilet to wash up a bit since he likes to sleep on our beds at time. Now he likes the windowsill, which is great. We've placed a piece of extra carpet on the sill and he pretty much lazes there when he feels like sleeping.

 

Kacau orang solat subuh. Bila kita solat dia sibuk baring atas sejadah.Tak pasal-pasal solat ada extra movement. Kena creativelah utk make sure tak batal solat. Huhu.

Now, Kiro has a weird sleeping timetable. His most-alert time is during Subuh. I being the midnight owl, I usually am awake all night and only sleep after the Subuh prayer which is around 4AM here. My roommate usually retired early and woke up early as well. Hence it was pretty much unspokenly agreed that I'll be Kiro's 'papa' at nighttime while Selva's the one who'd watch him during morning while I am sleeping. Afternoon and evening we both do the job.

It's not really hard to care for him. We pretty much memorized his daily routine already. Kiro used to stay up all night and sleep the whole day away so now we devised a new plan - tire him out during the day so that he'd sleep at night!! Plan works after two-three days of instilling it in his head. Kit's a sharp cat anyway. Now it's easier to care for him - if he's taken the dump for the day it's pretty safe to assume that he won't be doing any big business for the rest of the day.
 
Disciplining him is okay too. Kiro's deathly afraid of my expendable umbrella - you know, the one which with a press of a button would extend first before 'blooming'? Bad description, but you get the idea. I'd tie the umbrella part first, only want to make use of the extendable thing....Kiro would go hide under the bed when I point the umbrella at him. Only used it to scare him, never hit him lah with it. Usually for kittens, most would just jentik their ears if they misbehave.

Diet-wise...Kiro's pretty much content with the cat foods Nellysha had stocked up for the two months he'd be staying with us (one month for me). I've always pitied Kiro for having to eat the same boring cat food everyday although the guy never complains. So we decided to do some 'weaning' for Kiro - introducing some other foods gradually. There was once I gave him some small chicken chunks and poor guy got diarrhea the next day, so I was a bit scared to give him any other food. However Kiro responds well with tuna - whenever we cooked sardines or mackarels he'd be sniffing around and eventually decided that our foods are tastier than his. Heh. Now, he got a tuna snack in the evening, just some small portion introduced to his diet of boring catfood.

Kiro has several nicknames already from us. Selva calls him Kiro and only Kiro. I am more creative: my terms of endearment for the lovable kitten includes Notty-boy, Budak bucuk, Busuk, Gemok, Pakcik kecik, Comel and of course, his own name Kiro.

Sandun decides to rename him to Siripalle'. Yes, there's an apostrophe after the  name. It's a Sri-Lankan word which means prosperous.And now all his other SriLankan friends call Kiro as Siripalle'. Poor kit must be confused of what the hell his real name is. Even Selva and I call him Siripalle' at times just to see whether he'd respond to it. Nope. He knows that his name is Kiro, although he'd look at me if I call him by his other names too. 

Kiro and his second favorite toys - my fingers.

Kiro seems to think that my fingers are toys. He'll always try petting my fingers with his cute little paws with that adorably curious expression on his face. Another favorite toy of his is this flashy-yellow furry thing which he simply cannot stand seeing without touching it. We use the furry thing to tire him out, by attaching the furry thing to a pen and then draws Kiro's attention to it before moving away from him. Kiro would assume the hunter's pose (how cats readying to pounce at his prey) before giving chase to it as we withdraw the thing away from him. Kiro tires easily and after few minutes of giving chase he'd stop to take a breather or just plop down on the floor to lie down for a bit. At times, his tongue came out, which makes him look like a puppy instead of a kitten! And then he'll give chase to the yellow furry thing, jumping and diving all over the room.

 Nyam, nyam, nyam...I'm gonna bite Adz's fingers because he calls me all sorts of weird names...munch munch munch....

At times, when both of us were asleep and Kiro is awake, if he ever sees any flies or some of those annoying insects flying around the room he'd give chase as well...up to the point of jumping over me or roommate to get to his 'toy'. Always an effective wake-up call. There was once, Selva told me, I was still very sleepy when Kiro jumped on me....I just grabbed hold on Kiro and flung him across the room!! Oh my....luckily all cats land on their feet! Poor kit. Kiro never approached my bed for the rest of the day. Huhu. Sorry buddy. :P

All in all, I love the whole experience of caring for this kitten. It'll be one more thing I will really miss once I'm back home. ~~ sigh ~~