Getting to Know You

My new foster kitty is coming along. This is the kitten that I have been fostering for socialization rather than age or size. He has never been around people before and is terrified of us. He has been here since last Friday and we are making some progress. He no longer starts hissing as soon as I come in the room. I have to get too close to him too quickly for him to start that now.

I have managed to pick him up and cuddle him a few times now. In order to do so though, I have to pick him up by the scruff and wrap him in a blanket. He does not really like hands on him. Doyle has been helping out by playing and running and eating off my finger while the kitten looks on from his cage. The kitten seems braver when Doyle is around. Kind of the "if he can do it" mentality. He has started to purr when I hold him and pet his head and back gently.

Just yesterday, I cuddled him in my arms for a while and then slowly lowered him to my lap and let go. It was the first time that he did not immediately bolt back into his cage as soon as I was no longer physically restraining him. Then a little later in the day, I did the same thing again and he went back into his cage, but then turned around and came out again on his own to explore the room. When I was ready to go back upstairs, I locked him back in the cage so he would not freak once I left the room.

Today he came out and wandered around after I opened the cage, so I decided to just let him be for a few hours. When I went back down later he had not gone back in his cage. Instead, he had curled up on a pillow and blanket that was left over from another foster and was resting. Since he seemed to be doing well, I decided to leave him out of the cage tonight. He is still confined to the foster room, but at least he has more room to move. The cage is still set up and open so that if something scares him, he can go back to his "safe" place. Since he was a little more relaxed today, I took a chance and took a few pictures of him. So here he is, our latest visitor who we have named Griffin for the time being.





Doyle, showing Griffin that it is safe to eat in front of me.


Griffin giving eating in front of me a shot. This is the cage that he stays in most of the time. Although it seems kinda mean, he is in it because he feels safer in a smaller confined area. For this first few days, I had a blanket covering most of it so the only part you could see in or out was the front where the door is. You can also see from this picture that our foster room is also an extra toy room for the many many toys that my niece Paige has received from various family members. There is no way they would all fit in her room.


I think things will continue to go well, although I am prepared to go down there one day and see that we have had a setback because that's just the way these things go. I just think of it as one step forward at a time. Or would that be one paw forward?