Yeah...That's the Spot

We are now in a good spot here in the Animal House.  I am happy to report that everyone is improving in both health and socialization.

Twyla is doing very well in her new foster home.  Her health has improve quite a bit on her new medication.  And she is snuggling with her new foster mom.  So things are actually looking good for to go up for adoption once she finishes her medication without needing to come back to me for more socialization.  While I will miss not seeing her back with me again, the sooner she can get to a loving forever home, the better.   I will let you all know how she does as I get updates from her new foster home.

Frankie and Hyde are also basically recovered from their health issue and we are now actively working on socialization again.  They are both loose in the room and learning to be more normal kittens.  We are going full force with them only having yummy wet food when I am in the room and it is making a difference.

Frankie is still very nervous about coming near me, but with the benefit of the food she is coming closer and closer to me every day.  She comes right out as soon as I come in the room and some where inside her, she does want to be with me.  Her new habit is to find a blanket or pillow about 3 feet from where I am sitting and sit there.  It allows her to be close to me, but not so close that she is nervous.  I can pet her during eating and even a stroke or two after she is done eating.  Today I pushed her boundaries even more by making her eat her food while in my lap.  She was nervous about this and kept moving away, but allowed me to pick her up and move her back to my lap to eat each time.

Hyde is enjoying petting and will walk right up to me to ask for it as long as I am sitting down. I have found a spot on his chin that he loves having scratched and that was the key to getting him to not just tolerate affection but to actively seek it out.  He now meows at me in greeting when I come into the room and follows me to the door when I leave.  I can still see that he is nervous and he does get freaked if I move too fast or if a strange sound startles him.  But now if he bolts away when startled, he turns around and comes right back to me once he settles down.  I can pick him up and hold him for short periods of time.  I am working with him to increase the amount of time he is OK with being held and also working to get him to be comfortable with being carried around the room while I am standing.

Why am I working on that?  I could just tell an adopter he does not like to be carried, but the reality of shelter life if that he needs to be taken out of his cage and carried to a visiting space in order to meet an adopter so he needs to be safe for non feral experienced volunteers to handle him.

The biggest stride that Hyde has made was actually today.  He discovered my lap and realized that it is a nice place to take a rest.  Of course I have had him on my lap before.  I have forced him to be on my lap, encouraged him to crawl into it to get baby food and tricked him into running across it to chase a toy.  But today he crawled up in my lap to get some petting and then sat down.  He was very stiff at first but I started petting his favorite spot and he slowly relaxed and realized he was very comfortable.  So I spent a few minutes with this little feral guy sprawled in my lap.

As he sat there trying not to fall asleep he looked up at me and made eye contact.  And for the first time he looked at me and actually connected with me.  Instead of nerves and stress in his eyes, I saw acceptance, affection and a desire to bond with a person.

So I can say, yeah, that's the spot.  And what a good spot it is.