Progress!

The morning after her arrival, Sue and Abby had an argument, where Sue went for Abby through the bench - and Abby stood her ground. Not a pleasant sight and sound :( Sue might hiss at the bench from a distance at times, but usually she ignores kittens in their bench, so I think she realized this isn't a kitten. Not long after they were at it again, and I decided to move Abby upstairs already. That way Sue could relax a bit again and Abby could get more space, which I think she wouldn't mind after being locked up for a while! I did contact the shelter then to tell them about this, because if that would've continued she'd have to move, no doubt about it. No matter how much I love fostering, my cats will always come first!

I already knew Abby wasn't so happy with being picked up, and she wasn't even with me yet for a full day, so I hoped it would go well with catching her. I decided to use one of my own travelingcages, it opens at the top instead of having a small door at the front, which did help. Upstairs she was a bit scared at first, but it didn't take that long before she wanted more cuddles :)
It then also showed more that she loves to use knead - but her nails are long and sharp, and the balance between kneading and plucking a little (more scratchingpole behaviour) seemed a bit off. I got covered in little red dots, and she even broke my skin at times, ouch! So I started to take her off my lap when she did so, and she still isn't liking being picked up, so that didn't help I guess. I had a few moments where I got to pick her up and stand up, giving cuddles on my arm, but that only worked well when I did it first thing in the morning, when her eager for cuddles was bigger than her dislike for being picked up. But that was progress nevertheless, because she was a bit scared of me standing up straight or walking around instead of sitting down. That's going a lot better already!

I gave her various scratchingpoles, and she seemed clueless what to do with them. I tried some things myself and also asked for advise, I tried spraying them with valerian, rubbing dried catnip on them, luring her with toys and snacks, putting a pole on the ground on its side to see if she would prefer a scratching mat more, and scratching the pole myself a little. The last did get her interest, but then she seemed to think my hand was a toy - so I quickly stopped doing that :) The other things did give some reaction, but proper scratching? Nope! And it also felt like Abby wasn't sure about jumping or climbing on stuff, she could look SO surprised and clueless when I lured her on top of a pole, haha :) And then she would just sit there with a look on her face that said "yeah, and now what? :o "
But, within a couple of days she picked up on the whole jumping thing, and boy is she good at it! The other day I went into her room and didn't see her, until I spotted movement on top of a closet! There's a basket for my cats, and usually I have a scratchingpole next to it, so they can get on top. But I moved that pole, I rather not have kittens up there, especially when they're not fully happy with me yet. I think she jumped from the window sill, the window is on a different wall than the closet. And she loved being up there, and refused to come down, haha! So that day we didn't see much of her, and I decided I'd let her for that day at least, but did move the scratchingpole back so she could easier come down if she wanted to. She's usually sleeping up there now when she's locked up (during nights, when I'm away, or when she's having an attitude towards my cats and they need to relax a little), and then I walk into the room and these little black ears will pop up above the basket :) Anyway, I'll be picking up a cardboard scratching mat tomorrow, see if she likes that, because she does enjoy scratching my floor and carpet! >.<

I'm not sure if she'll stay much longer though, because it doesn't always go well with my cats unfortunately :( Yesterday I contacted the shelter as well, when she decided to attack Dew, and spoke about bringing her back. I don't want such agressive behaviour in my house, and she was standing with her back up, ears flat, almost screaming her meows and then charged Dew o_O Not the first time I see that from her, she might be small but she clearly has plenty of character, haha. But I guess she read along, because after that she behaved perfect! She's online already as well, ready for adoption, so fingers crossed for this little girl! Here are some photos again, most that I have of her so far are taken with my phone, hence the lower quality. But as these pictures will also show, it's hard to get good pics of her anyway, either she need cuddles, or she gets all impressed by the camera, aww.


Her pupils are now finally normal most of the day :) But this was one of the first days in her room, and she still had big eyes all the time, poor thing

Mmmm cuddles!

And more cuddles...

See, hard to photograph when she throws herself at your hand, haha! I have a lot of moved pictures of her like this one :D

Ready to move towards my hand again :O

Toys above her didn't make sense at all at first

But she's doing way better with that, she loves to chase flying toys! But oh that floor downstairs... it's a laminated floor and combined with a cat that wasn't great at jumping at first, it made for plenty laughs on my side! :$

Dewey wanted to treat her like any other kitten, give his first stamp of approval in the form of some licks on her head. But do you think little miss attitude accepted that? Most of the time she wouldn't have any of it, and slapped him away! :o This was the only time where he got away with it, but after trying a few times, his enthusiasm towards her has lowered quite a bit, so this was a bit of a half-hearted attempt at it as well

But more cuddles? Yes please!

Dewey does have a love for fosters, or well... with them comes interesting food! He always waits for his turn though, haha. And at times she looks quite big already, but everytime I think so, Dew makes her look tiny :O

More on these 2 next time :) Abby is now free in the whole house, and she's doing brilliant. The more space she gets, and the more it's up to her to come to me, the better it goes! Often I'm sitting at the pc and she'll walk into the room, starts meowing at me with soft meows and walks to me for cuddles. But being picked up to come on my lap? Well yep, she'll take care of that herself, haha. She has no problem with jumping on my desk either, gets some cuddles and off she goes again, to play, discover, run around, ... :)