Basil is back at the shelter...

Oh, where to start... Basil started to become more over the top playful and annoying towards Dewey, who didn't handle that so well, and started to go outside more and more to avoid him, and he even started to hiss (to give you an idea, we used to joke about Dew not being able to hiss or growl, I've had him since he was about 7 weeks and he has loads of sounds including a battlecry, but I never heard a hiss from him). To me Basil really became so cute, chatty and meowed back when I meowed at him, cuddly and came to lie down on my lap himself at times, came when I called for him, just being oh so adorable! ♥ But for my cats he was just a little bit too much, and knowing I have to say the final goodbye to my sweet girl Bindi this week, I also wanted some private time with her, without a kitten mixing in (and with that, having Bindi walk away). :(


So last week Basil got neutered and while he was asleep, they also gave him his shots and chip. This was to prevent him having to come back several times and instead just get it all at once. I thought he'd be cautious around me when he'd wake up, but instead, he was sooo cuddly and just wanted to be with me, aww! :L During the week I made more pics, but right now my mind is with Bindi and Basil, not with sorting pics, so I'm not sure if they'll end up on the blog sometime or not. Today I brought Basil back to the shelter, and he was so scared there, and fell back into his old, scared self. He even hissed at me quite nasty, and wasn't even interested in the cats that came to greet him, and seeing him like that really made me sad. I knew it probably wouldn't go so well straight away, that's normal, but I hope he'll turn around soon, and I'll be visiting him later on so I have a better last memory of him.


I wrote 2 texts for him for on websites, 1 was the usual description of Basil, the other a different kind of description that I hope might help him with finding the right owner, and the shelter went with that one. I might translate it later, but for the Dutch, here's what I wrote about "my" little guy:

Kleine lieve Basil, daar ga je dan, op zoek naar je baasje, uiteindelijk toch nog sneller dan verwacht. Je kwam bij mij als een wat ouder kitten, je was tot dan toe erg bang voor mensen en je durfde je maar niet te ontspannen. We hadden hoop dat mijn volwassen katten je zouden helpen, en dat je langzaamaan, stapje voor stapje, vooruit zou durven gaan om over je angst heen te komen. Toen je bij mij binnen kwam, was het binnen enkele minuten duidelijk hoe belangrijk die grote katten voor je waren! Ik noemde je Basil, wat 'dapper' schijnt te betekenen, en dat is precies wat jij bent. Niks stapje voor stapje, grote sprongen maakte je! Al snel begon je aan een inhaalslag om echt kitten te kunnen zijn, en bij elke vooruitgang die je maakte verbaasde ik me weer dat je dat al durfde!
Je bent oh zo dol op spelen, ik hoef maar te ritselen met een propje papier en je staat naast me, wachtend op je nieuwe prooi. Je laat me regelmatig flink laten lachen met je gekke fratsen en je schattige miauwtjes als je me wat aan het vertellen bent. Je begroet me vaak met je staartje omhoog, en als ik je roep, dan kom je snel kijken. Rondrennen vindt je ook heerlijk, en als je even moe bent, dan is lekker kroelen ook erg fijn! Ik denk dat je steeds knuffeliger gaat worden, daar was je hier ook al mee bezig, onder luid gespin helemaal overgeven aan de handen die aan je kopje kriebelden. Wie had dat gedacht, dat je dat zo snel zou durven! Ja, dapper ben je zeker, en ook naar andere katten toe sta jij je mannetje zeker wel! Maar helaas kon je daardoor niet langer hier blijven wachten op je baasje. Mijn oudere katten zijn niet opgewassen tegen zo'n enthousiaste stuiterbal, en kregen moeite met je duidelijke aanwezigheid. Maar misschien heeft je nieuwe baasje wel een echt maatje voor je, die net zo enthousiast is als jij, en waarmee je samen fijn kan spelen en slapen!
En nu ben je hier dan, in het asiel en op sites, op zoek naar dat ene baasje. Dat baasje wat een rustigere thuissituatie heeft en je een kans wil geven, dat je vertrouwen wint, en waarbij je durft te laten zien wat voor een heerlijk katje je eigenlijk bent! Dat baasje wat er niks om geeft dat je al wat ouder bent, dat je een minder geliefd kleurtje hebt, en dat je wat tijd en rustige benadering nodig hebt. Dat baasje dat door je angst heen ziet dat je zoveel te bieden hebt, dat ziet dat het zo speciaal is als jij diegene gaat vertrouwen, en die samen met jou een fijne band wil krijgen. Je bent een geweldig beestje Basil, en hopelijk vind je snel je thuis, want je verdient het zo!

I also edited a little vid, I've never done that before so it's pretty basic, but hopefully it'll help him find the right home when people can actually see how cuddly he is! Man, I miss him already :( But at the same time, it's good to see Dewey's inside a lot since he left, and just relaxing around me. He did his job, and he did it oh so well! No matter how annoying Basil became for him, 1 sad sound from Basil and Dew was right there with him, helping him, or luring me to Basil ♥ It's an amazing experience to see a kitten so terrified turn into such a sweet, lighthearted and playful little thing, and even though it didn't show as much on this blog, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it! Basil :L

Update: I totally forgot to mention it here, but Basil got adopted after 1.5 weeks only! I never expected that to happen so fast, especially because he didn't handle being at the shelter well at all (didn't show himself, didn't eat well, staff couldn't really approach him). I visited him 2 days after, that morning I said the final goodbye to my dearly beloved Bindi, and being at home in the house without her just didn't feel ok. So I went to check on the little guy, got him to show himself and once he realized it was me, he wanted to cuddle and sat on my lap for quite some time, and we just comforted each other. Such a precious memory! I checked up on him a few times and one of the volunteers there started to spend time with him as well, and one day a mother and son walked in and the son apparently could pet him fairly quickly! They adopted Basil and a little friend he made there :) I went to the shelter to cage him, so the new owners could take him home without anyone that he didn't trust having to stress him by catching him. He didn't like what I did there, so my last memory of him isn't a fun one, but it was the last thing I could do for him and I'm glad I could do so. He was a kitten that made a huge impression on me and I hope he's happy and will live a great life ♥

Basil is doing excellent

Copy/paste from my other blog, originally posted 14/10. Due to circumstances I haven't had the energy to update this blog properly.

I've been slacking badly with updates, but remember that terrified kitty hanging in the top of his cage? Well, not much left of that poor little guy! :) Instead I'm now having a crazy energy rushing through my house! He improved so much faster than expected, but last week he didn't improve much at all and started to dislike me it seemed, and I suspected that had to do with the bench (some animals like a bit of private space like that, he clearly didn't!). So I took away the bench, and gave him a small room upstairs instead, where he only has to spend the night now. After that he straight away liked me so much more, and he's a lot more cuddly since as well! He still has his moments of running away from me, today was a worse day as well, if it's up to him he's never locked up. But me, my cats and my house would like to get some rest during nights, lol. But besides that, it feels like we're working on the finishing touches already to get him ready for adoption! Basil will have plenty more to learn, and we'll find him a suiting home where he gets that opportunity as well :) But my job is almost done already, yay for Basil! Here are some pics to show how he's doing!


Dewey always likes to hold on to the kittens when he washes them :)

Oh you silly, silly kitten! I wasn't sure where Basil was in his bench, until I saw something weird about the hammock...

He went in from the top, but that hole in it was quite amusing! We couldn't get near him, he'd attack so fast, and he had a blast (and so did I :D) Dew didn't care about that paw poking him, he was looking for kittenfood :P

He got to snooze a little with Dew, which is quite uncommon, and he loved it :)

Cuddles on my lap! ♥

Here's a pic of one of the first times practicing on my lap, terrified and frozen in place under the blanket. Needless to say, every time he's on my lap now is SO special for me! :)

Posing pretty, too bad there was some hair from Dewey stuck to his face!

He isn't completely black, besides a white hair here and there and a tiny white spot on his chest, he has some hairs on his back which look like they're dipped in a dark silver or some. Not always visible, often he just looks black (very handy at night I noticed, haha, I'm so used to having cats with clear white spots!), but at times you can clearly see tabby stripes in dark silver and black on the back of his head. Tabby in disguise it seems :)

Dewdew doesn't get a lot of privacy, Basil's always eager to join him, like here on a chair

Well, I guess these pics clearly show he's come a long way already, I'm so proud of Basil!! :) I'm not sure how much longer he'll stay though, I'd prefer to have him adopted from my house, but right now there are some things in the way of that I'm afraid. So will see what happens, where we go from here, but regardless, it's been a wonderful and such a rewarding experience so far ♥

Off to cuddle some more, thanks for stopping by & take care :)

Running and playing, yay!

I haven't updated here as much as I'd like, but it's for a good cause, Basil is out of his bench several times a day now! And during those times I spend loads of time with him - and have to clean up afterwards, haha! He sure likes to make a mess of his cage and also of my house, toys everywhere! :e The road to this point was with a lot of ups and downs, and there were moments where I wasn't sure if he'd turn around. For a short while it seemed he wasn't interested in more contact with me, and he still isn't loving me. There are times where he still hides for me, puts his ears flat, big eyes, all of that. But growling and hissing is almost completely something from the past now! Except when he's going nuts playing, then he enjoys a little dangerous growling too :O
And besides Dewey and candy, I have a new secret weapon I can use to make him like me more, pieces of crumbled up paper! He absolutely loves those and will come steal them from my lap and from my hands! :L He's also more relaxed when I'm walking around now, the instant hiding when I stand up became a lot less, but me standing and my hands stay impressive and his first reaction to my hands is most of the times to get away from them. If I sneak up a little on him, and start petting, he often quickly gives in to it, lies flat on the ground and prr prr enjoys it for a moment. Not too long though, there are more toys to kill and more energy to burn of course! :O
So all in all, he's doing excellent, he still has plenty space for improvement (I would like him to be relaxed around me, then start increasing his space in the house, step by step while he stays relaxed, and slowly introduce more strange people to him) but he came such a long way already! And that clumsy kitten that could run like crazy but didn't jump or climb much -and if he did, he failed a little and landed badly and such- is now often in the top of the scratching pole and practicing his flying attacks, so cute to see him become a happy indoor kittycat ^_^ He also enjoys discovering everything, new rooms are scary I found out, but little things like the play tunnel quickly became much loved by him.

Not so much pics today, I have plenty but need to sort them and I'd prefer throwing toys around to be honest, haha!

Playing with a piece of paper :)

Slowly discovering the cat tent with the help of toys and Dew! Dew rushes in that thing so fast and throws it upside down while in it even, Basil enjoys attacking him from the outside then :D

Look at him being all shiny and a real little cat already! ♥

Sue doesn't love kittens at all, he wanted to play but didn't see she was sitting there, oops! >.< But as you can see, he's very relaxed in the house already, not like at the start where he instantly disappeared under the couch and didn't come out when I was in the room!

With Dewey and Basil it sometimes goes a bit less good now that he's out more, Basil can act really over the top playful to Dew and constantly attack him while Dewey isn't always in the mood for that, but even the tiniest sad meow from Basil is enough to have him stand near him straight away ♥ And he enjoys washing him as well, but when Basil then keeps attacking his head... yeah, that ain't helping! :P

Basil update

Again a copy/paste from my other blog, that I wrote last Wednesday. He made some huge progress in the last few days, but that'll come next time :)

Basil is doing ok, he had some big setbacks in the last few days, but luckily yesterday afternoon he started to turn around again. One of the setbacks was caused by me taking him out and putting him in a travelling cage so I could clean the bench properly, after that he wouldn't get near me anymore, not even when Dewey was around :( Poor thing went back to being terrified and growling and hissing loads. That he escaped a few times during good moments didn't help either, he's somewhat used to a house, just not to humans, so I have to be careful when getting him out it seems! If he gets the chance he'll just hop off my lap (and then I can't approach him anymore, had to lure him back in), but at the same time I have to learn him to not run from me inside ánd outside the bench. Managed a few times later yesterday, with the help of food and Dew :) Small steps will hopefully go a long way! Right now he's going nuts with a toy, and when he's really having his crazy moments, he growls loads too! I dunno if it's just from having his crazy time, or if he's growling at something, like the toys, or to himself, the cage perhaps? No clue! But I do know I ain't attempting to touch him then, haha :D

Dewdew doing his adorable thing, so cute how he is to kittens!

This was on one of his first days here, I couldn't even put the blanker in the box completely, because as you can see, he's not exactly relaxed here.

Cutie with shiny paws ♥

Here he saw Dew on my desk, you'll have to imagine the poor meows with the pic, aww! I have some pillows on the side of his cage so I can sit there with him (although right now he still finds that quite scary if I'm on the side instead of the front) and a bedsheet to cover the cage, but he and Dew seem to enjoy to pull it off, lol!

Perhaps Batman would've suited him more than Basil... =D

Being petted is secretly quite nice! I gave him a used basket from my cats, and placed it at the front of the bench, in the hope that he'd relax and snooze there, making it easier for me to pet him. That turned out to be a good idea in the end, but getting that basket in the cage... >.<

Dew joined him in the basket to give him a wash :) First reaction if I touch him: ears flat, but he didn't move back here (he still does that often so I can't even touch him) and he quickly got all relaxed again, never stopped purring either ♥

Here he fully enjoyed my cuddles and Dewdew's washing, I tried to pet his chin but he just rested his little head on my finger, aww!

Yep, that's nice alright! :)

Practice outside of the cage, I'm ready to grab him again but decided to give him a very short time with just Dew and him.

Yep, if Dew decides to wash a kitten, there's no way it can get away from him, he'll just hold it in place, lol!

More practice outside of the cage, this time with some food :) His eating goes SO much better already! He might throw a little hiss at me but nothing impressive, and I can just touch him when he's eating. Also practiced with candy, his first reaction was not to eat it, then he improved to wanting it and harshly slapping it and pulling it towards him, then he started to be more gentle when poking the candy instead, and right now he doesn't always use his paws anymore but just eats them near my fingers. This morning he even ate some from my hand!


Hopefully he'll keep improving like he is now, and that he'll start to trust me more. Right now he still runs from me fairly often, and then I need food/toys/Dewey to help me, but there are more and more moments as well where he just lets me pet him without any help ♥ I also hope he starts to trust me more so I can make his life more comfortable, little things like changing a foodbowl still can give quite a reaction, although it does go better already. But there's of course a lot more to do than changing a simple foodbowl, like cleaning his litterbox (daily problem) or cleaning the basket (not even attempted yet) or the cage (which gave a setback). I'd prefer to clean things completely every day, but that's not a good idea yet, so I'm trying to balance things out.

Seeing a kitten like Basil, and knowing there are loads more like him out there (my local shelter has a bunch of kittens like him atm, but they also have kittens that are just born and already without mum, sick/injured kittens, and a whole bunch of healthy and social kittens too), just breaks my heart. Because of that I do feel the need to use this space to address the problem.
So if you read this and haven't neutered your cat, I hope you'll (re)consider doing so! I'll quote myself from an older fosterkitten post: "If you have a cat and think it would be fun to have a litter of kittens, please consider the huge amount of animals still waiting for a loving home. Neutering your cats is always a good thing (also to prevent certain health and behaviour issues later on) and you could instead have a look at your local shelter for a foster option :) That way you can still have the joy (and the wrecked house, lol) of having kittens! They usually get neutered by the shelter as well, so they won't add to the problem later on either."

Basil

I picked up a new fosterkitten last Wednesday, and here's a copy/paste post from my other blog. Working with him takes so much time that I just haven't gotten to posting much about him yet, so everything will be on the blog a bit later!

This poor little guy comes from a TNR (trap-neuter-return), where they catch stray/feral cats, neuter them and place them back out again, or if possible, try to socialize them. This kitten was found with his brother, sister, and his mum, but mum really was too wild so she's neutered and back to where she came from. The 3 kittens went to a fosterhome about 6 weeks ago, and the shelter quickly gave that home 2 friendly kittens as well, to help the 3 scared ones adapt. The 2 other ones did adjust and will hopefully go up for adoption soon, but this one stayed scared and unapproachable. The shelter was hoping he'd react better to a home where they have friendly adult cats, to give the good example, and that's how he ended up with me!

Unfortunately I have to start from scratch with him, which means he's locked up in a bench. He's around 13 weeks old, and a kitten that age doesn't want to be locked up, I feel really sorry for him as well :( But it's for the best, and in a matter of days he has already taken so much tiny steps forward with the help of my Dewey! Also a few steps back, but the positive improvements outweight that by far! Ahh it's so great to see how one kitten from a TNR became an adult cat that helps other TNR kittens ♥ Without his help I wouldn't have managed to do much yet at all, but when Dew's around he's so loving Dew that he forgets about me sitting there as well, and omgomg I even got to pet him today! But as soon Dewdew's gone, he's back to ears flat/big eyes/growling and ready to attack (and he slaps fast :P). So the goal is to have him relaxed around me with ánd without Dew around, and when that's the case, he'll get more space. We'll take it one step at a time, but because of his age as well, I want to work with him as fast as he can.

When I got home with him, I opened his cage and he instantly flew in the corner of the bench, poor thing. (and no, my walls ain't thát purple, my cam can't handle the warm color well :P) Especially with cats like this it's best to not look at them, or if you do look at them, blink slowly and often with both eyes. I took my phone instead, so I could keep an eye on him on the screen instead of looking directly at him.

While he was hanging there he freaked out my girls with his panic meows and growls, but Dew doesn't care so much about all that and the kitten quickly spotted him.

Aww! Dew worked his magic and he relaxed a little. Unfortunately Dew removed the towels I had hanging over the bench, and the kitten got more stressed and started hissing at Dew in the evening as well. During the night I woke up a few times from the most sad meows downstairs :(

But yesterday he seemed to be doing a bit better and was crazy about Dew again, and here's why it's so important to have friendly adult cats around a kitten like this, he needs to see they come to me and I pet them and such! The fact that he stayed there in that corner within a day, really gave me a lot of hope, he's improving SO much faster than expected!

Yesterday he also took another huge step, eating while a human is nearby, and I even managed to take it one step further by placing my hand against the cage (he's a bit aggressive about his food). He's really doing amazing, so much better than what we expected as well :)

Dew's being so great with him, that kitten tries to throw himself at him, pokes him loads, and he just sits there ♥ At times he looks so wise at me, like he understands that I need him to help :) But at other times he's just interested in the kittenfood and sees the bench as a huge activityboard where he can fish out food, lol!

OMG! Man, I was so excited when I managed to pet him! I had my hand against the cage a few times last night when he was trying to cuddle with Dew, so he rubbed against my hand, and I was telling a friend later that I was looking forward to the day I could actually touch him myself. And this morning I had my hand in the cage and I ended up petting him a few times already!! ♥ Slightly nerve-racking as well to actually touch him, he might be small but I know what kittens are capable of if needed, haha, but we both started to relax a bit and enjoyed it a lot! He's really doing so well already :)

But unfortunately, as soon Dew's out of the picture he'll look at my hand like it's the most vile thing he's ever seen :D And he'll just attack my hand if I make a wrong move or move in too far in the cage. If I just walk around he gets spooked every time, if I get closer he starts to growl and hiss and is ready to charge, and then it takes a while before he relaxes a little, such a huge difference to when Dewey's around! I have to clean his litterbox later, and that'll be a challenge because that's right next to his safe box, and he doesn't want me there at all. But I'm sure we'll manage with Dew's soothing presence and again, he's doing so much better than what I expected, and I'm looking forward to the day I can give him more space :)

And luckily I found a type of candy he likes which will help a lot, and he also likes to play, even when it's my hand inside the cage! :)

Fostering a kitten like this is SO rewarding, it costs me a lot of energy but every little step feels like a huge one, and I'm gonna do my best to socialize him as well as he will let me ♥ And he has the most beautiful, shiny black paws! Gotta love shiny black fur on cats :) Last thing: he needs a new name! The previous fosterhome named him after Ivan the Terrible, and I want to name him after something brave or innocent or something sweeter than that at least :P I was thinking of Basil, it means brave as far as I know, but if you have suggestions, please share!!

As you can see on the title of this post, he's indeed named Basil now! :kitten

Noomi got adopted!

I'm a bit behind with posting, because Noomi actually moved back to the shelter last week and got adopted earlier this week :D I prefer to have kittens adopted from my house, so they won't have to go back to the shelter. But as I told the shelter before, my cat Bindi has cancer and when her situation gets worse, I don't want to have any kittens around, so I have all the time for her. Unfortunately her tumor is growing quite fast, and while Noomi was here, I discovered a new tumor. Bindi's the kind of cat that puts herself on the last spot, so if I'm cuddling her and another cat comes by, she'll back away. As you can imagine, that doesn't work so well with a very active kitten around! :kitten And because the shelter didn't have so many kittens there (most are at fosterhomes), I decided to take her back so I can cuddle my Bindi even more. And luckily little Nomnom didn't have to wait long, she got adopted within a week! :D Anyway, I still have loads of pictures to share, so here they are :)


She discovered the basket under the table, all my cats love it and so did Noomi!

The basket was also a fun place to play, poke the table...

...or my feet, ouch! :O

Another basket she started to enjoy more :)

Together with her big friend on the scratchingpole

The Kong Kickeroo started to get some attention as well!

And so did the activityboard, but that thing never made any sense to her :O

Outside with Dew, and as usual, whatever he drinks she wanted too

All kittens seem to love this hanging basket and Nom was no exception

Dew was relaxing in his cathouse, but even there she had to bug him! ^_^

Here she was at the shelter, she thought it was all pretty scary. We placed a piece of cloth that I brought in the cardboard box, so it would smell familiar, and it didn't take long before she met the other cats in that room. They weren't loving her straight away though, and she clearly didn't feel so happy there :( But within a day or two I heard she was doing fine there, and when I wanted to check on her a few days later (so I would have a better last memory), she actually got adopted that morning! So I haven't seen her anymore, but I'm of course very happy that she found her home so quickly! :D

This blog will be quiet for a while again, because I don't know how it'll go with Bindi from here on. Right now she seems pretty stable, but I know those tumors can grow like mad again all of a sudden, so I'm just enjoying the time I got left with her, and kittens will come again someday in the future.