I Am Forgiven

I hate speuter day. To me it feels like the first act of betrayal to some otherwise joyful kittens. All this time while they have been happily living a carefree life, "Trust me" I tell them. "I am your friend". Then I put them into a box and take them to the vet for a difficult and scary day. Yes, I know it's in their best interest. But it still makes for a scary day and harms the trust I worked so hard to build with them.

Happily everyone has been spayed or neutered and I am forgiven. Two of the girl kittens like to be pet! One of the boys is beginning to like pets. Two of the boys I can pet when they are eating canned food. And one, I can pet while eating canned food, but he's on auto-hiss. And their mom... if I plan it right I was able to pet her a bit while she was eating canned food before the spay. Now she is once again letting me be near her without her being nervous.



I am forgiven ..... as long as I keep the can food comin'

Movin' along

Well the socializing continues. One kitten purrs when she sees me, when she is being pet - she loves having her chin rubbed by the way - and she purrs when she sees the can food. She plops down and starts to knead. What a love!

Her brother that's with her is doing well too. He hides at first but then he comes out to say hello. He purrs after I pet him for a bit. Has to get over the first impulse of being timid. They both love to play with the bird on a string. What fun!

The remaining four siblings.... well.... two are beginning to trust me... a little. Two of them have stopped hissing for the most part. The rule with them is they get pet if they hiss. Also I pet them while they are eating can food. I can pick them up and hold them for a short time and I can pet them. They aren't sure about it, but I can do it. Soon I will move them in the same room as the kittens above. Hopefully they will follow their siblings and be better about trusting me. If not, I can move them back into the large cage they are currently in, or there is a cage in the room I plan to move them into.

Now the last two boys.... I get rejected by them on a daily basis. Hiss, hiss, hiss! I separated them and moved one into another room. He's in a large cage and his room-mates that are outside of the cage all like me. They hear him hiss and give him a look of "What's your problem? What are you hissing about?" He is getting better. Another brother is in a large cage that I moved to the opposite side of the original room they were in. He can see his two siblings and their mother is still in the room. But times will be a changin' because the person that will be taking care of mom is now ready for her to return to her yard. Just have to catch mom early on spay day. And soon the two kittens will go upstairs and this poor boy will have no support in his hissing. I haven't given up on these two boys although I have threatened to have them clipped and snipped and throw them back into the wilds.

Interesting enough, the two boys are better when I am wearing gardening gloves. I guess they disassociate me from my hands when gloved.

The plan was to get the first two ready for adoption. Then work more with the next two, then as they are ready work with the last remaining kittens. Problem is that adoptions are so slow that it looks like they will be almost full grown by the time they get adopted. Plenty of time for me to bond with them I guess!