The Bookworms were clearly ready to curl up for a nap, but Newt and Miz Poo had control of the cat beds. Check out the baleful looks on their little faces! (And the smug look on Newt’s face in that first picture is cracking me UP.)
They opted for the Ham-Mick.
That’s Corbett in the front, Bolitar in the back. This picture makes me laugh because it looks like Corbett is half the size of Bolitar (he’s definitely smaller, but not THAT much smaller), and Bolitar looks like he’s all head.
Note that while Miz Poo was sleeping, Bolitar climbed into the bed with her. She doesn’t scare him! What happens when Miz Poo wakes up and finds a kitten in the bed with her? You’d think she’d hiss and growl and smack, but she usually just sits there and looks completely disgusted before she gets up and stomps off.
Jake sniffs Bolitar.
And then Bolitar and Reacher form a two-pronged attack. Bolitar’s in hand-to-hand combat, and Reacher’s got Jake’s tail.
Though I have no pictures of Maura to share today, the news is that she got the all-clear from the vet! So we’re starting the slow progress of releasing her into General Population. When I got home with her yesterday, Fred put the blockade up across the upstairs hallway, and opened the foster cat room, which gave Maura access to the bathroom and my room. At some point Jake forced his way past the blockade, so when we went upstairs to go to bed, Jake was sitting in the hallway and Maura was hanging out under my bed.
We’ll let her have the run of the upstairs for a couple of days, then take down the blockade and see how she does with the run of the house. I expect she’ll be fine. She’s a laid-back cat, but she can stand up for herself (which we’ve seen in action when Jake gets too much in her face), so if anyone tries to pick on her, they’ll find out she’s no pushover.
I found this movie on my Flip Video over the weekend, and it made me laugh. I’m pretty sure the Cookie in the video was Keebler (even though you hear me gasp and say “MISSY!”).
Cats and kittens who scoot are the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE, because that is SO GROSS. I mean, they’re using your rug (or, in this case, the cat bed) as their TOILET PAPER and how nasty is that? On the other hand, it’s pretty funny to see. So while I’m mad and horrified and gasping and saying “MISSY!”, I’m also laughing. SIGH. They’re not even subtle about it! Which is probably a good thing, because when I see it happening, I grab the bottle of watered-down bleach and clean the spot where they scooted. Or in this case, I grabbed the cat bed and tossed it in the washer.
Last week when Keebler and Pink were adopted together, they put Hydrox in a cage with another kitten (Maynard), and they both were adopted together!
Hydrox is going to get a new name – Oreo. Hey, at least it’s in keeping with the cookie theme, right?
I’m so thrilled for Hydrox! I was so worried about him, worried that no one would fall in love with his big baby ways, but apparently the right person came along.
Sweet Misty is now at 78% of the way to the fundraising goal so that she can have surgery for megacolon!
You can read more about Misty over at ChipIn. 78% is so close! I love seeing the numbers climb. Have I perhaps mentioned that y’all rock? Because you do, indeed!
Yesterday, I made the decision to separate Steely Dan and Fagen. We’ve separated super skittish kittens in the past, and it always works like a charm. Steely Dan and Fagen clearly want to be held and petted, but they seem to feed off each others’ fear. I had considered separating them when we first got them, but wanted to see how they’d do together.
When Fred got home from work yesterday afternoon, we brought Steely Dan down into the guest bedroom and left Fagen in the foster room. After half an hour, we went in and saw each of them, and it’s like someone had hit a switch. The fear was 90% gone, and in fact when I walked into the foster room, Fagen greeted me at the door, howled at me the entire time I walked across the room, and then jumped up into my lap. Every time either of us went in to see him from then on, he would run under the chair for a second, then come out to be petted and kissed and loved on.
I’m not sure why separating skittish and semi-feral kittens works so well, but it always does. Like I said, they seem to feed off each others’ fear, and once they’re separate, the fear goes away.
We left them separate until bedtime, but then Fagen began howling sadly from his room. I’m pretty certain that neither of them has been completely alone in their entire short lives. After a few minutes I couldn’t stand the sad howling, so I went downstairs and got Steely Dan and put him back into the foster room.
This morning when I went into the foster room, they were back to their skittish ways. So I brought Dan downstairs and put him in the guest bedroom, and again the lack of fear from both of them was almost instantaneous. We’ll keep them separate during the day for a few more days, and put them back together at night so they won’t be lonely. I’m afraid that putting them back together will just bring the fearful behavior back, but I can’t stand the thought of them being alone.
We’ll see how it goes!
Don’t feel too bad for them, though – not only do we both spend a lot of time hanging out with them, but Jake and Elwood are also spending time in the rooms with them as well. The idea isn’t so much to make them so lonely they seek love from us, but to break the cycle of feeding off each others’ fear so that they’re adoptable. If you have a few super-skittish or semi-feral kittens, try separating them – like I said, we’ve never had it not work for us.
Yesterday, I brushed them. Dan loves a good brushing; Fagen isn’t crazy about the brushing, but he’ll put up with it.
