Really Big Baby Steps

Given all the hissing, growling, and cowering in the corner the kittens did when I first brought them home, I am amazed at how far they've come in such a short time. They are behaving a lot more like "normal" kittens now, playing and wrestling with each other, and in general just seem a lot happier than they did on Saturday. The keys to breaking the ice with them have proven to be food, playing, and apparently, giving medicine. Little Phoenix, who I expected would be the last to warm up to me since I was having to put medicine in his eyes twice a day, is actually the leader of the pack when it comes to being brave around the big scary human. He still gets shy when I'm standing up, but otherwise, he has almost completely stopped shrinking away when I reach for him, and even comes up to me now on his own, whether I have food with me or not. He likes to sit right in front of me, and seems to really like being petted. He's quickly becoming Mommy's favorite.

Vegas enjoys being petted too--in fact, once he gets going, he's the best of the three at really getting into it. He still tries to run away when I first reach for him, but if I catch him off guard and start petting him, he purrs, and even rolls over on his back so I can scratch his belly. Both he and Phoenix will sit in my lap now occasionally.

But what Vegas really likes to do is play. Now that he's coming out of his shell a little, he's becoming active and adventurous. Teasers, balls, little pieces of paper--anything he can find he'll play with. The boxes that I have never gotten around to unpacking from my move have provided hours of amusement both to these kittens and to Squeaky and Fluffy. I may have to purposefully leave a few in there permanently. It's way too cute watching them stand on their hind legs on top of a box looking out the window.

Little Sedona is learning quickly, but she was, and still is, lagging a bit behind her brothers. She's had a very good day today, though. During their last socialization session, she apparently got tired of watching Phoenix and Vegas getting all the attention and decided to find out whether there might be something to that petting thing after all. She let me pet her and even purred. Hopefully, having a pleasant experience with it will be a bit of a breakthrough for her. Until today, she took off running if she even thought I was going to try petting her.

So far, half so good on the litterbox usage with these three. They've got poop down pretty well. They all use the box, and even cover it up afterwards. They're not even kicking much litter out of the box. However, at least one of them still needs to work on wee-wee a little. I keep finding puddles of it on the painter's tarp I covered the floor with (at least they're going on the tarp and not the carpet!). I finally put a second litterbox in the room today over the top of where they've been going. So far, as near as I can tell, they're using it, or else the puddles on the floor are drying before I get there. I did spot one of them going in the box today, so maybe they'll all follow his example.