Everybody Loves the Shoes

I'm not sure what it is about sneakers that fascinates kittens, but they can't seem to get enough of them. Phoenix, Vegas, and Sedona, just like every one of their predecessors, love to climb on my shoes, and especially, to use them as a scratching post. Of course, that second thing is a habit I'll be trying to break them of very soon, but for now, I'm taking it as a good sign that they're comfortable enough with me to crawl around on the size 10's and even scratch them a little.

The kittens continue to improve their courage daily. They still scurry away sometimes when I reach out to pet them and catch them off guard, but more and more, they have started to stand their ground. The two boys even approach the door now when I come into their room, and Sedona usually comes out very soon after. The little Samsung cell phone strap that provided hours of entertainment to Benny last year was a critical tool in helping them become more comfortable with my hands. I could get all three of them chasing it while I dragged it around the floor, and every so often, I'd sneak in a scratch behind the ears. That exercise was especially helpful to Sedona, whose social skills are finally catching up to her brothers'. The last three sentences were written in past tense for a reason, by the way--the Samsung strap has mysteriously gone missing. Apparently, one of the kittens has hidden it!

Too bad for them that they didn't think to hide the toenail clippers too. Clipping their toenails was something I was really dreading, but they needed it desperately, and so did my feet, which were getting scratched up when they "missed" the shoe. I didn't want to undo all the hard work of gaining their trust, but it finally just had to be done. They actually did better than I thought they would, and I made sure to feed them immediately afterwards so they hopefully would remember "yummy food", not "mean Mommy clipped my toenails"! They don't seem to be harboring a grudge, but their toenails have grown back so fast, that I'll probably have to clip them again before the end of the week.

Speaking of food, I have cut them back to just one soft food feeding a day. With their gorging on the dry food between feedings, they were having diarrhea from over-eating. Since the shelter wants them mostly on dry food anyway by the time they're ready for adoption, it didn't make sense to backtrack and cut out the dry food. But we make the one soft food feeding count. I give it to them from a saucer on my lap. It's helped them become more comfortable sitting there, and in the last couple of days, they have started to linger around a little after their feeding for some cuddling. Sometimes they'll even come sit in my lap when I don't have food.

Now that the kittens are fairly comfortable with me, the next step will be to introduce them to some other people. Hopefully, I can enlist my neighbors for some help with that.