So I checked the kitten in and I'm sitting next to some smelly foreigners at the gate. They are big and hairy - the gorillaest one actually has hairs sticking out through the back of his knit polo shirt. Gross.

Anyway, I brought the kitten in a red picnic basket thingy we bought somewhere for like 500 yen. Nam found this free coupon on the web for a rental cat carrier so I figured we'd transfer him over to it at check-in. The staff, however, had another idea. They took the top off the rental carrier, placed the entire picnic basket (with sleeping Yoda inside) into it, padded all four sides of the basket with cardboard and bubble wrap, then taped the whole contraption together and screwed the carrier back together. I am beyond asking why at this point, but it was reminiscent of a high-end department store where they use bags on boxes on wrappings on inner boxes wth partitions, ribbon, and a cherry on top.

I am going. I wanted to visit Adam's village one last time anyway. Will take some nice photos I think. Local debauchery can wait until next week, for my 30th birthday. I know, I know. The world isn't ready for my mid-life crisis. Shoot me already.

Found out we can sent the kitten by ANA to Fukuoka from Itami (Osaka airport) for 2,000 yen (20 bucks). The debauchery I cancelled in Nara/Wakayama this weekend is back on track!

I wonder if the one cat per plane rule is for domestic flights as well?

I'm sure gonna miss the little carpet-shitter.

I'm planning to carry the little booger all the way to Kyushu this weekend. I'll pass him off to my sister, drink some Kyushuvians under the table again, eat some Aso beef-on-a-stick, and come back on a return flight for work and a new chapter of Talking with Myself. That's my temporary plan, anyway.

Yoda will be a good American, I just know it. He fucking hates the Taliban.

Oh, in case you haven't noticed: I'm on a blogging binge today.

MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!

If all goes according to my master plan, by this time next week Yoda the kitten will be on US soil, forever! We (as in, "Nam") are working hard to have my sister hand carry him back home next week. Today, the vet announced that Yoda's eye has completely healed (as in, "sealed totally shut" - he'll never see out of the eye, but it won't kill him, either) due to our daily eye washing regimen and, I suspect, also the fish oil capsules I've been splitting with him. (He loves the fish oil. I merely tolerate it. But we both have disgusting breath for a few hours after. Bonding at its root levels.)

The vet estimates his age at almost exactly two months old, and gave him a rabies shot today (poor baby!). I am sad because Yoda has been keeping me company during the times when I usually talk to myself - I've been teaching him about Life, instead. I'm very proud to be raising a bilingual kitten. He can "nyan" in Japanese and "meow" in English... Been training him for the interview at Immigration, you see. Nobody's gonna call my kitten an FOB.

Did you know that there is an actual aviation regulation that permits only one feline per aircraft? Cool. My little sis is calling to reserve the slot now. Apparently, you can carry on pets or check them in as luggage, although carry-on is sometimes frowned upon (I guess if it wasn't, the terrorists would be using pit bulls instead of nail clippers).

Much more to research. Will report later. The best thing to come out of this may be the addition of the line "Cat Exporter" to my resume. Aside from my kitty being safe, healthy, and American, that is. Woooooooooooooooooooot!

The kitten grows as I type these very words. The trip to the vet two days ago showed his growth rate as what I thought to be impossible. The first time we weighed him, he was 220 grams. The second time, only six days later, he was 330 grams!

His eye is getting a lot better. The goopy stuff leaking from the burst eyeball cleared up as a result of daily eye washing, medicated eye drops, and the antibiotics course we feed him. Sight will never be restored to that eye as it is too damaged, but some of the coloring has been restored - it was previously just a protruding white blob.

He has gotten a lot more vocal and mewls when he wants attention, food, or both (pretty much all the time). We trimmed his nails because they get needlelike fairly quickly, and bought him some scratching posts. The posts came with some powdered catnip and I was curious as to the efficacy of "cat cocaine" on a kitten, so I dabbed a teeny bit on his nose. Pow! He went into hyperspeed for about 1.5 seconds, streaking across the room, banging his head on my computer, then rebounding and racing back to us. So, catnip does work on kittens, but not for very long. I'll save the rest for when he gets older, maybe craft a little freebase pipe for him out of glass tubing as a post-op recovery present.

We're going up to Nagoya to see the Sumo tournament tomorrow, but I'll find some time to post some more pics of him soon. Damn. Never woulda thought I'd be catblogging. I'm a dog person, if anything.

The cat is permanently blind in one eye. The eyedrops received at the first trip to the vet worked for his right eye, which is now normal, but the left eyeball has burst like a rotting grape. Eeew. Poor Yoda (now his official name since we are very unlikely to find a home for him with someone else) is in pain when his eye needs to get flushed with sodium wash. We have to hold his little kitty paws as he mews in pain. Absolutely heartbreaking I tell you. At this point I have stopped hating society as a whole for abandoning this little baby (the vet says he was a month old when we found him), and have merely become indifferent. I was so intent on hating, it was probably giving me an ulcer. Which I found kind of self-defeating. Even though this latest Osaka pervert bullshit with my sister drove me to the edge again. Man, fuck civilization. Whatever, I just need to let it go. Like it says in the song Nada Cambia, it's like hating necrophiliacs for fucking the dead. Indeed. If I ever find the pervert lurking around my sister's place, I'll pummel him into bloody meat and feed his eyes to the kitten. But I'll be indifferent about it (think of a kung-fu movie showdown scene set to Debussy).

Well, I have to concentrate my thinking on the kitten now. What do I do with him? I really do not have the time to keep him, because he needs to go to the vet all the time. We can't give him away in this condition... Today I spoke to the vet, and we discussed euthanasia as an option... But the cat is doing so much better than when we found him! The problem is, the eye infection could spread to his brain at any time, which the vet did not discuss in great detail, but I suspect will end much like Alzheimer's. I guess I am in a moral paradox between putting Yoda out of his misery quickly, or letting him live a possibly painful existence. Shit. Well, for the meantime we will be thinking about this... No reason to rush at this point. The vet says that if the busted eyeball seals itself and stops leaking vitreous humor, the cat will have a better chance of survival. Shit, even if he suevives I'm gonna have to leave him in Japan when I leave in a year or so... I'll have saved him only to abandon him again. Maybe at that time somebody will take him, though. Goddamn what am I thinking? I'm not even supposed to have him in my house now... BOY, LIFE REALLY SUCKS!

I hold the life of a kitten in my hands. Ultimately, it is my decision. But I would appreciate any guidance or feedback you have for me in the comments below. Is it better to put him down humanely, or give him a chance at life, however painful it may be?