Home Stretch

They say time flies when you're having fun. Believe it or not, Vegas, Phoenix, and Sedona are already just about ready for adoption. They will be at my house one more week, then they will be scheduled for their spay and neuters sometime late next week. In the meantime, they are enjoying some new-found freedom as I have begun to give them free roam of the house for a few hours each day.

With the antibiotic--as well as the vaccinations--over, Sedona remains shy, but she has regained most of her pre-respiratory infection progress. She still shies away from my hand at first, but once I start petting her, she's actually the quickest one of the bunch to purr. She's become a lot more playful the past week, and came very close to being the first of the three to make it over the gate in front of the door to their room. To date, none of them have gone over, but she was the first to attempt it, and nearly made it.

Vegas has emerged as the most social one as well as the most active. He still likes to play, but more and more, he is starting to really enjoy being petted and held. He even shows a bit of a jealous streak. If I'm petting one of the other two, he'll start making little "ack" sounds to remind me he's there.

Phoenix is still the bravest of the three, but as he's become more active, he doesn't seem to enjoy being held as much as he once did. I think it's more of an attention span thing. He doesn't want to sit still very long these days.

As their time in my home nears an end, I find myself wondering if these three kittens might be my favorite fosters to date. Probably not--way too much competition for me to pick favorites. However, watching Vegas, Phoenix, and Sedona come out of their shells has been very rewarding. They're not all the way there yet. Strangers still scare them, although they get better each time they meet one. Even Mommy still scares them when she accidentally moves too fast, or has to pick them up when they'd rather not have it. Chances are they won't be 100% over their fears by the time they go back to the shelter. But they are light years ahead of where they were three weeks ago.

The Respiratory Infection Strikes. Again.

It seems to be a necessary rite of passage that at least one kitten out of every litter I foster ends up coming down with a respiratory infection at some point. Sedona got tagged with it this time, which is unfortunate because she was finally getting over her instinct to hide whenever she saw me coming. Now, she doesn't know if she's going to be petted, fed, or be given some icky-tasting medicine when she sees me, so she assumes the worst and runs. Since these infections are obviously a common problem for young kittens, I wonder why they can't figure out a way to make a medicine that tastes like chicken or tuna?

Vegas and Phoenix have to take the medicine too, but so far, it hasn't affected their progress in becoming sociable kittens. But Sedona truly hates it. She acts like I poisoned her when I give her the medicine! Fortunately, they only have to take it a few more days, so hopefully Sedona will regain her ground quickly. She was really doing great before this.

The kittens did catch a bit of a break, though. They were supposed to have their vaccinations yesterday, but that got postponed until after they're done taking antibiotics. I'm sure they're not too upset that they didn't have to go in for shots this week.

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.

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.

Meet Vegas, Phoenix, and Sedona

My latest tiny house guests are three brown tabbies between four and five weeks old (I'm guessing closer to five). Their original shelter names were Sun, Sunshine, and Sunset, but that was way too confusing. So, I stuck with the sun theme, but renamed them after three of my favorite sunny places in the US. From left to right they are Phoenix (male), Vegas (male), and Sedona (female).

Vegas is the biggest and also the bravest of the three, but that's very relative. All of them are extremely shy and afraid, and even seem a little sad. They probably miss their mommy.

Phoenix has an eye infection, which unfortunately means I have to get off on the wrong foot with him a little by giving him medicine twice a day. So far, he just sits motionless in my lap while I'm giving it to him, but that's likely a sign of fear, not fondness for the situation. He did seem to enjoy having his chin scratched a little, but he still shies away from initial contact.

Sedona is the smallest and shyest of the three. She's adorably cute, but spends most of her time hiding when she's not eating. Hopefully, she'll get tired of missing out on all the fun soon.

When I first got them home yesterday, the kittens wanted nothing to do with me. Phoenix and Sedona even hissed and growled at me if I got too close. They have made a tremendous amount of progress, though, even just in one day. They have already started to associate my presence with food, which is the first step in earning their trust. I was able to get all three to eat food from my hand, and even got them to play a little with the feather teaser. Vegas, especially, was into that. Underneath his shyness, I think there may be a personality similar to Squeaky in there.

Vegas, Phoenix, and Sedona obviously have a long way to go with their socialization, but it looks like they're going to be fast learners. Because the camera frightens them, I will probably not take any more pictures of them until they are fully comfortable with me, which may be a couple of weeks.