Kitten

Imagine trying to take a photo with your iPhone, it's dark in the room, so you have to hold still. You're trying not to squeal;“OH MY GOD!” and you need to be mindful that one false move could get you bitten or scratched.

Late tonight, I brought Candy some food. She picked at it a bit and hissed. I decided to try the toothbrush on her again. This time I just kept brushing her as much as I could. Within a few moments, she stopped protesting and started to come up to the front of the crate, where I was sitting with my legs crossed (and falling asleep).

She could not get enough. She sat in her litter pan, then suddenly rolled on her back, exposing her tummy. I brushed her tummy. She LOVED it. She got up, faced me and it was clear she wanted me to brush her face, so I did. She was clearly in dire need of being touched-and though this is not a big surprise, that she would change in a heartbeat really put a knot in my throat. I did not expect this so soon.

I got greedy. When Candy had her back turned to me, I ran one finger down her back. She didn't hiss. I kept brushing. She turned again. She had left the crate and was next to me. I petted her briefly with my entire hand. She was fine with it. No hissing!!! I didn't want to push my luck, since I was bare handed, so I went back to focusing on brushing her, while I gently coaxed her back into the crate. I can't risk having her get loose in the foster room right now.

You can see the blue-green handle of the toothbrush. Candy has her head on my knee. She is SMILING!

I felt pretty choked up and that would have been a big enough breakthrough for me for one day, but Candy wasn't done.

She purred. Not for long and not very loudly, but she PURRED!

I didn't want to overdue it, so I slowly stopped brushing Candy. She hissed and went back to the rear of the crate. I showed her the brush and she came all the way to the front and clearly wanted more. I brushed her a bit, but soon left her for the night. I wanted to end our visit on a good note. It would be too easy to have her regress. Today we had some very big changes in a small amount of time. She did great and I'm very proud of her!

It was as if she finally got what she really wanted from me and now that she knows she can get it, perhaps the rest of this journey will feature fewer hisses and more purrs?

You're supposed to use a “high value” food and only give it to the kitten when YOU are in the room and you provide the food. The problem is figuring out what is a high value food. Apparently, this flavor was not a big hit.

Candy plays hard to get. I play “eat your damn food!”

A hiss here or there, but not bad. Candy is willing to investigate the food, even if it means she needs to hiss at it as she does so. If I time it right, I will take the food away if she hisses and only bring it back if she is not hissing.

Candy is less fearful of the spoon, but it still takes effort to get her to come to me. She needs to be able to smell what's on the spoon and granted there's not much food on there to create much temptation. I end up bringing the spoon close, but moving it slowly away once she gets a good sniff or a tiny taste.

Chicken baby food is a winner!

Candy will definitely come towards me if I have baby food on the spoon. I worry that she's not getting enough nutrition so I do supplement the baby food with other canned or raw, yes raw food (she goes crazy for the raw!).

I was able to get Candy to put her paw on my (covered) leg today. She hissed when she touched me, but she did it. She didn't attack me. I just sat there quietly and sat still. I hope that being calm around her will keep her calm. Tough to do when I also feel tense that she might lunge at me, but so far, so good.

How can this kitten look at me like that, then hiss? She is so cute, though, right? She's only inches away from me, but no. I do not pet her.

I gave Candy more challenges. First, I added a small scratching post to her crate. She was VERY interested to smell it and walk around it. Since my original brush was just too big, I took a toothbrush and taped it to a wooden spoon. I rubbed the bristles against the newspaper lining the crate and she responded well to the sound. She wanted to investigate, so I slowly brought the brush closer. I scratched it against the sisal on the post and she stretched, then began to climb up the post to get the toy. She also began to forget to hiss quite as much.

The toothbrush doesn't bother her except for when I dared to brush HER with it. She let me brush her back, but she walked away from me as I did it. She hissed, but I did it a few different times with the same result. I didn't push her hard, but I did ask her to deal with a new stimulus and she did well. Sooner or later, she might come to like being brushed and it's a great way to get her to feel comfortable being touched...I hope.

I could go hard core on her and wrap her in a towel and force myself on her, but I want to see how she'll do if we take it a bit easy. I'm trying to balance getting this job done quickly, so I can take on more fosters, and getting it done well and having a better lasting result, which will take more time.

Candy's mood has shifted a bit. She's more relaxed and seems to be very interested in new toys and the scratching post. My goal is to get her to feel happy and safe, instead of frightened and depressed. It's important that I'm consistent, too. I've asked a lot from her the past two days, so I won't make any more changes for another day or so and see how she does.

Scared little girl, at least has taken to enjoying her mini-cat bed, instead of trying to kill it, as she had the day before.

Patience is a virtue that I'm struggling with. Candy got here a few days ago and I still haven't touched her-which is torture for me. I'm going slowly, but today I decided she'd been here long enough and it was time to give her a bit of a push.

Oh Joy. Candy is hissing at me, yet again. Hmpf!

Candy hisses at me all the time. In fact, she hissed so much, she “broke her hisser.” For when she tried to hiss, it came out as a little squeak. The good thing is that her ears have never been flat back, her pupils don't seem to dilate and she doesn't growl much. She's quieted down a lot more, but definitely seemed bored. There was only the basics in her crate: a litter pan, fresh water and food and a bed. That was it.

I just want to hold you, you stupid kitten! You're too cute for me to not touch you!

I gave Candy a small, lavender soft ball with a bell inside. Tweetie had one just like it that he loved. Being small, it didn't frighten Candy and she investigated it right away.

Candy reaches for a toy for the first time!

Because she had a positive reaction to the toy, I added an small krinkly ball, and later a toy mouse. I gave her nothing large or scary. She must have been playing with the toys when I was out of the room, because I found out later that they had been moved from where I left them and one had been tossed outside the crate.

I think that being able to play gets her mind off confinement and perhaps softens her overall well being. I also challenged her with a “Cat Dancer” and she liked watching it, but was a bit nervous about going too close to it just yet.

Candy is doing well, moving about the crate while I'm in the room. She doesn't get too close to me, unless I have food, but that's okay. She's not cowering in the back of the crate and I've even seen her stop to wash her face and once in awhile she looks up at me, which melts my heart, of course and makes me want to touch her. She's good at reminding me that she'll kick my butt if I try.

So the battle continues, but so far Candy is doing well.

I haven't socialized super-fractious kittens very often and Candy certainly is going to be among one of the toughest nuts to crack. It appears she has never been handled, given that she growls, spits, stomps and hisses if I get near her. She's still very young. Her back legs are still weak. She's very small. I would think she's no more than five weeks old.

I did some reading and there is the thought that it might take a week or two before she will come around. At this point, I would be surprised if it were that short of a period, BUT...Candy already has made some changes in just barely a day.

Yesterday, Candy ate some chicken baby food off a tiny spoon that was attached to a long stick. It was touch and go, but once she realized what was in the spoon, she ate, hissed a bit, ate, then started to meow LOUDLY. It was very clear that she is quite distressed and most likely, calling to her Mother. I took it as a good sign that she was meowing and eating in front of me, but of course I was sad, too. She must be going through Hell right now. She's alone, scared, wants to feed off her Mama. I can't comfort her. All I can do is hope she will find the courage to become to trust me and then I can give her all the love and comfort she so desires.

Last night I fed Candy more special treats. She has water and dry food all day, but she only gets the good stuff when I'm in the room. She kept crying and crying. Blitzen sits outside her door and cries when I'm in the room with Candy-which makes Candy cry even more.

The poor little baby.

This morning Candy hissed a tiny bit, but was fairly relaxed when I entered her room. I brought some raw food with me and she devoured it. I got her to come right up to the front of the crate, but she let me know she was not ready for any sort of interaction with me. At one point, she walked right up to the front of the crate, crying for her mama. She saw the door was open. I sat next to the crate with my hand on the door. I thought she was going to charge me to get out. The little bugger scared ME! She didn't attack, just gave me a warning hiss and returned to her corner.

She also used the litter pan in front of me, so that was good, too. I saw her step on her poop though, and there was nothing I could do to help her get clean. If I tried to wash her, she'd completely flip out. She wasn't in bad shape at all, so I opted to leave her be. It's too important for her to know me as something good. I have to wait.

A few folks made comments about the BIG scary brush that's visible in some of the photos. I've left it sit in the cage so Candy is used to seeing it. The goal will be to pet her with it before I ever touch her. Using a brush is safe for everyone and it may encourage Candy to come out of her shell. Yes, the brush is big, but it was the best I could find that had soft bristles and was small! So there.

The TV is on. The volume is turned low. Candy has the afternoon to rest and relax and I'll continue with socializing her again later. For inspiration, I will think back on my own cat, Cricket, who was MUCH older-maybe 6 months old, when I started working with him. I can rub his belly now and he's a big love-muffin. Will I ever see this with Candy?

I have to have faith that one day it will happen.

Yesterday I was asked to take a fractious feral kitten in to foster to see if I could socialize her. I was told to think “Tweetie” as far as her friendliness factor was concerned. If you recall, Tweetie was a fear-biter and it was fairly certain he would have to be released back to the woods if I couldn't socialize him. It's one thing to take a kitten into foster and get it ready for a family, but when it's nasty to start with there's the added pressure of trying to get a good result, but not having much time to do it in.

Here's Candytuft. Okay, where is she?

Last month I attended the NEFHS Conference where I learned about a new program being developed that quickly turns kittens around from being nasty to nice. It's called ”Fearful 2 Friendly”

What's amazing about this program is that within a few HOURS you can turn a kitten around IF you follow their rules. Okay, so I took one class. I didn't buy their DVD (because if you read my previous post about it you know that there were some “creative”-aka, annoying problems with the soundtrack that caused me to think twice about PAYING to hear it all over again).

I decided I'd give it a try from memory. Basically, you lock the kitten up, alone. Don't give it anywhere to hide. Then, SLOWLY take a step towards the cage and wait until the cat shows you a sign that is positive. Maybe it blinks or puts its' head down or even doesn't hiss or flick the tail. Any small sign, then leave the room. This is what the cat wants but you only do it when the cat is doing a behavior that is POSITIVE. It's like playing “red light, green light.” If the cat hisses you wait until it stops and does a good behavior.

Oh, there she is! What a cutie. Too bad she hates my guts right now. I'm going to put her in the dog crate. She will not like this, but so be it.

After awhile you end up getting closer to the cage and the cat does NOT react. If it does you have to take some steps back and re-apporach the cage. In time you'll touch the cage. If that works, then leave again. Keep leaving after each progress and positive reaction from the cat. Eventually you'll be able to open the crate without any reaction.

The big kicker is to use a brush at the end of a pole that's about 12-18 inches long. Let the cat warm up to the brush FIRST. The first time you touch the cat, it should be with the brush. The kittens seem to react very passionately about being touched that way. Once you get them going, it's easy to sneak your hand in there, but this is based on a vertical cage (so you can access it at your full height standing). My dog crate is on the floor and not sure I will be able to get in the cage without freaking out the kitten.

Bottom line-you don't want to grab the kitten or use food as bait to build confidence. You train the cat that you will do what it wants when it does positive things, not hiss or growl and such.

Candytuft is the name of a flower! Who knew? Not me. She's adorable as can be. I want to give her a big kiss, but I want to keep my lips so I'll wait and hope that some day I will be able to tell you about how I can hold her and pet her and give her all the love she wants.

So today I began. I got as far as to touch the cage and she did well overall. I only had to re-start once. Blitzen keeps trying to get into the room with me, so I have to lock him up while I do the training. Since it's just the first day, I'll give it another try tomorrow. Candy just got here and I don't want to overdo it. I feel silly taking a step, waiting, getting the result, then leaving the room. I count out 30 to 60 seconds and I go back in and do it again. I sure hope this works because I feel like Candy is wondering what the heck this silly human is up to.

Good question. Not sure I know the answer.

Blitzen's been looking to make friends with the other cats. He's had some success-roughousing with Spencer is a favorite pastime. Nicky gets head licks and wrestling time, too. The girls aren't too receptive of little Blitz, but last night he walked over to Gracie and gave her head a lick-to which she responded by tipping her head down to allow him better access to her. A VERY nice sign, indeed.

This weekend, Blitz decided to go for a nap attempt with Bob. Bob sleeps with Nick and Nora from time to time, but that's about it. It was great he didn't mind having Blitzen share his afternoon nap.

As you can see, Blitzen is growing up. He's up to 7 lbs now!

Seeing this just filled my heart with joy. I hope these two become good friends. I know Blitzen can be annoying. Bob doesn't appreciate the little guy's high energy. Looks like all is well once Blitzen gets tired.

Back massage, sir?

Sweet dreams, boys.

Dawn breaks for me at 5:45AM with the melodious strains of vomiting cats. I rise, stumble down the hallway and mop up the mess. Thinking I cleaned it all up, I head down stairs to check my email only to find out by stepping barefoot into another puddle, that I missed some. Fortunately, I didn't go back to bed after I cleaned off my foot. My cellphone rang at 7:15AM. It was a local reporter with our NBC affiliate calling to tell me that they wanted to send a crew over, TODAY (instead of tomorrow, as I planned) and that “the sooner the better” would be good.

Okay. The store doesn't even OPEN until 10AM and I needed to get Sally Sox and her kittens to the store ASAP! I didn't dare call anyone that early, so I sent out emails right away, then began to wait nervously until I could call them guilt-free.

My Director jumped in to help me make calls. I flew over to Southbury Printing (thanks guys for getting everything done in time!) to pick up the flyers and banner, got back to Your Healthy Pet and got everything set up and ready to go. Thankfully, Sally's foster mom brought the cats. I got it done by 11 AM!

I'm very pleased with how the banner came out!

Inside Your Healthy Pet with everything set up.

I called the Newsroom to let them know we were all set. Ha ha ha! Another story bumped us, so they said we'd have to wait a bit and they would call me back to let me know when they would arrive. Okay, deep breath. Good chance to take some pictures of the kitties and try to calm down.

This is Caruso at 8 weeks.

Mimi with her siblings.

The excitement of waiting around was too much on the kittens. Meanwhile the humans were fussing around the store. Of course, today was the day for the surprise inspection by the Fire Marshall of Newtown! While the Owner's of YHP were moving things around and looking panicked, I tried to think about what I would say if interviewed. I wanted to be clever and interesting, prepared and smart. I knew they would cut down whatever I said to a sentence or two, if even. I hoped I wouldn't screw it all up.

About 90 minutes passed. The Fire Marshall left. Debbie, the foster mama, mentioned she hadn't fed the cats at all that day. Smart move, so the kitties don't need the litter pan, but...they were so hungry, we decided to feed them. I guess they were hungry because they wiped out their food in seconds. I began to imagine kittens pooping while the cameraman was there, but what could I do?

I was jonesing for some tea. Getting up after 4 hours of sleep was starting to hit me. As the cats washed their faces and resumed napping, I started to fantasize about caffeine and or sleeping on the floor behind the counter. Maybe they could shoot the segment without me? What had I gotten myself into?

Finally! The camera man arrives! His name is Trevor and he was very nice and friendly. I expected an uptight snob for some reason. He was neither. He told me how it would go. I helped him set up the shots to establish the story, which I think he appreciated. Being an Art Director for over 20 years came in handy, so did naturally being bossy.

Trevor shot a lot of video. Somehow we managed to wrangle Caruso and Sally Sox into letting me brush them on camera. We used some bonito flakes as a treat, hidden next to a clump of cat fur to keep Sally Sox in place. In my mind's eye I imagined how every shot would play out, but the last segment was going to be the interview and I was the only one on camera.

Trevor told me to look at him, relax and not look at the camera. Ha ha ha. Easier said than done. He said I could stop and start again if I felt I needed to-and which I did. I was so amped up I talked fast, but I think that in the end, I hoped it would come out as being passionate. Either that or I was going to look like a doofus.

The NBC-30 News is broadcast at 5:00pm, 5:30pm and 6:00pm. Our segment was at 6:00pm. I was shaking and light-headed by the time it came on. I saw myself and heard myself talking. I burst into hysterical laughter! Was that REALLY ME? My goodness I looked like a baby seal with no neck. Overall, the bits without me in it did go well, but honestly, I love to be in front of a group teaching or training, but not this..oh no. I definitely have new admiration for people who can be calm on camera (and who have a sleek “Audrey Hepburn” neck).

I'll try to get a copy of the segment to post here. Until then, here I am in my full doofus-where-is-your-neck glory.

So that was great. Cough, cough. Now we wait and see what happens next. Will get get a TON of fur to ship to Matter of Trust? or just an embarrassing lump that we'll secretly just throw out for being inadequate?

I don't have time to worry. Apparently, I'm too busy being famous. I was also in the Danbury News-Times today, too! Gosh, fame. I'm so important that I can't even keep up with all the press I'm getting!

I swiped this photo off the DNT web site, so it's THEIR photo and they get the credit. See link above for more...

Nicky looks completely confused, while I'm just trying to look hot. FAIL!

It's 7:45PM. The day flew by. How will I face tomorrow without being on camera or having reporters asking to quote what I say? At least I have cat vomit to look forward to. That's the one thing I can pretty much count on after the studio lights dim and the reporters drive off to bear witness to the next “breaking” story.

Anyone who visits this web site regularly knows there aren't enough cat photos. There just aren't. Thankfully, Davander Mobile just released the latest version of CatPaint for lucky iPhone and iPod Touch owners. For 99 cents it's great for creating absolutely absurd images using your own photos as a background. Then you simply add their pre-loaded cat images to any "catless" image or add more cats to an existing photo; if you feel badly that you only have 2 cats and want to seem more like a hoarder (like me with 8 cats).

I swiped a few examples off the Cat Paint Gallery so you can see the work of true “artistes.“ It's very simple to pick up on how to create your own Catserpiece, and during the creation, the cat art meows every time you place one! Great for taunting real cats while you do your art.

As seen on Cat Paint's Gallery Page! Nice job, whoever you are!

Of course if Taylor Swift can enjoy this, well, that just says it all. What it says, I do not know, but heck there's a CAT in the photo. WIN!

I just did my own Cat Painting. It might not have been Mewseeum quality and of course I would pre-fur an option to add my own cats. Maybe that will happen in a future version, but for now, I feel satisfied that my boring photo of the Tappen Zee Bridge has been transformed into a moving tribute to something. Maybe. Maybe not a tribute, but not a bad effort. Okay. Just look at the photo I made and like me so I can feel good about myself! I don't have Taylor Swift's legs...or anything else that she's got, for that matter.

©2010 Robin AF Olson. “The Bridge to Tabbybithia”

So go. Create art. Or bug someone with an iPhone to share this app with you. Just don't bug me. I'm busy creating another catsterpiece.

From yesterday's adoption event. It was a warm day and I think it got the better of this little cutie pie. With temps over 90°F again today, I think it's a good idea to go take a nap, myself.

Purrs to you all!

...and yes, this little girl will be available for adoption, along with her five brothers and sisters in about four more weeks. I'll post a Petfinder link once it's up.

I had nothing to do with this! I wish I did, but it doesn't matter. What matters is these kittens were all removed from Henry Co.-a kill shelter and have been moved to safety by a Georgia rescue.

Congratulations, kittens! Have a wonderful life and hope you all find your forever homes soon!

Thanks to our friend Barb, from WCR for the update!