Focus

She really gets focused on her toys!  Can you see how feisty she is??

Jumping Practice

Surprisingly, Arien does still fit into one hand, but sometimes she'll bite at my wrist and watch because she wants to be set down, so I only do this if she is calm.  I couldn't get Arien to sit in the bowl, no matter how hard I tried, so I laid her on her back and distracted her with a toy.  She's becoming much more confident in all her abilities, especially jumping.  She can jump from the floor to the seat of the couch instead of just climbing up.  It won't be too much longer until I am unable to keep her contained.  😬  Kira doesn't seem to mind that Arien is often left to wander around the upstairs.  In fact, Kira often seeks her out to play with her.  They still aren't affectionate friends, but they do seem to actually like each other at least a little.  😊

Playful Arien

I think I'm officially at the point that I can't get any pictures of Arien unless I use a toy to distract her from her desire to just jump out of the bowl and run around.  This often means that I catch some odd expressions on her face since she is so focused on the toy flying through the air.  I think she's really cute no matter her expression, but I am probably biased.  😊

Licker

Arien is so much harder to photograph unless I do it right after she has eaten, otherwise, she just wants to play and run around.  She has a bowl of water but doesn't seem to understand what to do with it.  Ironically, she licks everything but the water.  😂  She is so close to being weaned!  I can't wait to finally get more sleep!  Haha! 

Posing for Pictures

Arien is pretty good at posing for pictures.  However, sometimes she tries to eat my phone.  😂  These pictures are from oldest to newest.  I am impressed with how much you can see that her face has changed.  She looks more grown up.

Little Arien

Little Arien went to the vet today.  She got her 3rd dose of dewormer, her first vaccinations, and her Feleuk/FIV test was negative!  She's been consistently using the litter box, and she's in the process of making the transition of eating from a bottle to eating from a bowl.  She's really growing up SO fast!  She is SO playful and feisty and bites everything.  Beren still really likes her but isn't quite as obsessed as he was before and he allows her to explore by herself more and more.  Kira is SO curious about her and always wants to be nearby to watch if Arien is up to anything.  If Arien ventures up to Kira, often Kira will hit her and/or quietly hiss at her, but she doesn't do it aggressively, so I am hoping that Kira will continue to accept Arien more so they can become friends.  All in all, this crazy, completely on a whim process of hand-raising a little kitten has gone quite well.  😊

Meet Arien!

That's right!  This little kitten officially has a name!  My husband and I have decided to name her Arien.  Within minutes of sitting down to talk about naming her, my husband came up with a different name that we really liked, but I couldn't bring myself to commit to it.  I decided that I wanted to spend a bit more time looking for something more unique.  With the other name as inspiration, I found the name Arien.  Arien is from Tolkien's works, as are most of the names of our pets (sorry Kira! 😂).  Arien means "maiden of sunlight" in Quenya.  She was a spirit of fire and a Maia maiden who guided the sun (which was made from the last fruit produced from the tree, Laurelin).  If you're interested, you can read more about Arien by going to: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Arien