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