Our Path to Five Cats Part Three: The Routine and The Naming

In all honesty, it was not all that hard fostering the Greek Gang, especially once I got into some sort of routine.

I expected (and received) quite a bit of hostility from them initially. Seriously, who could blame them? They had been pulled from a storm drain (IBM at RTP) at around 7 weeks; one week shy of officially being feral. Frankly, it's near impossible to tell, exactly, HOW old a stray animal is (case in point; we were told by APS when we got Lucy 1.2.07 that she was 2-3 years old; our vet said she was definitely no older than 18 months).

Anyway, Dan (another Hobbes House foster person), who works at IBM, saw them one day when leaving work; their mother was also there. Because he keeps traps in his car (a very dedicated soul), he was able to get four of the five plus mama trapped. One of the grey ones was left alone for a few days until he could get back over there and trap it (I am fairly convinced now that this was Ares).

Mama was fixed, given shots, and sent back out into the wild (way too feral to socialize/adopt out). This left the Greeks, who ended up housed with Christy, locked in a bathroom with no windows. Now, in fairness to Christy, this was only because she already had several other foster litters scattered about her house (included three bottle feeders who were hanging out in the garden tub in their master bathroom (being too small to get out; this was a perfect "cage" for them!)) So, no wonder she was looking for someone to take same of these kittens off her hands (I had told her NO WAY would I foster babies/bottle feeders).

Ok, so, The Greeks were pissed off when they arrived. At least, though, they had this nice bedroom to stay in, two windows to look out of, and a huge bed to hide under when mean new foster mom came in to try and play with them.

I found right away that, as scared as they were, they came out almost immediately to eat and use the litter box (good signs); so long as I wasn't in the room, that is. They arrived on a Thursday; it wasn't until Saturday morning that I was able to lure some of them out from under the bed to play with a wand toy (ONLY if I was sitting on the floor; the moment I moved, they all ran for cover).

The initial daily routine was something like this: Go into the room in the morning, give them fresh water, fill up their dry food bowl and scoop out their litter box (they initially had an open box; I changed this to a big closed box once they were big enough to climb in and out of it).

An hour or so later, I'd go into their room and we'd "play" (which typically consisted of me sitting on the floor with the newspaper and waiting for one or more of them to get curious enough to come over and check me out; then, I'd get the toys out and most of them would scamper about having great fun). It was during these first few morning play sessions where I realized one of the grey males (almost impossible to tell apart from his grey brother) was definitely the bravest and friendliest and that the others tended to hide behind him. I decided he'd be Zeus, the leader.

I also had to pay particular attention to the non-grey male (AKA Shy Boy) since he was the one Christy was the most concerned about regarding socialization. And, rightfully so. He'd come out from under the bed and hang out on the edge of the action, maybe even venturing close enough for me to lightly touch a paw or something, but, the MOMENT I moved, he'd be under the bed.

Zeus and the other grey male had no trouble running over to get attention; the two girls also seemed ok with it (but one was certainly more friendly than the other).

The Greeks would settle down for a long nap around 10 or 11; I'd leave them alone until mid-afternoon when I'd go up there with turkey lunch meat, which they'd all pounce on (it didn't take them overly long to come out from under the bed, even if I was standing there, so long as I had either lunch meat or wet food).

Early evenings meant wet food, followed by another play session, this time with Mr. B usually with me. I'd scoop the litter box again (a necessity with five kittens and one cat box) while Mr. B would keep them entertained. After a few nights, we began to let Pete and Lily in (who alternated between hissing at and playing with the kittens).

After several days, I'd pretty much settled on naming the female kitten with the beady eyes/sort of suspicious attitude Hera (if you know anything about Greek Mythology, this will make perfect sense to you)

which meant the other girl would be Athena.

This left the naming of the other grey male and the shy male. I considered naming the shy one Ares; hoping that perhaps giving him this fierce war god name might help him become less fearful. In fact, I sort of referred to him as Ares for a day or so, if only in my mind. But, the real Ares claimed his name one night while I attempted to pick him up and hold him. He brought up one of his rear feet, clawed at me with it, clawed at me with his front paws and promptly bit me. No doubt, he was Ares (and Ares STILL brings that back foot up when he's being held and he doesn't like it (about 99% of the time)) and he's just as liable to attack your hand as you are petting him as to accept it.

This left the name Apollo for the shy male, and, given that he has golden highlights in his fur, this, too, turned out to be highly appropriate to name him after the sun god.

Alas, Apollo remained quite shy and was near impossible to corral on the afternoons the Greeks were let out of their room to explore. After one particularly traumatic experience where he got wedged into the mechanisms of the elliptical machine, I called Christy to discuss his progress. We both decided it would be a good idea to isolate him for several days so that he would, hopefully, stop relying on his siblings to interact with the humans.

So, Apollo went into the bathroom and he did, in fact, become much friendlier. He allowed himself to be petted, picked up, held, cuddled, etc., SO LONG AS HE WAS IN THE BATHROOM. He also didn't mind hanging out with Lucy (who I'd bring in from time to time to keep him company).

After a few days of this, we made the executive decision to bring him back out. He promptly started running away from us/hiding under the bed again. So, back in he went. Repeat. Over the first month we had the Greeks, we ended up putting Hera in there once or twice as well as we realized she, too, was tending to run and hide.

By the end of the third week, we'd pretty much decided to just let them run free (although we did maintain the litter box/food station in the guest bedroom). This was certainly easier on me and it afforded them the opportunity to a) get used to other pets b) learn to behave in a house (not scratch, continue to use the litter box), c) get used to household noises/activities and d) become accustom to seeing people around going about their business. It also meant I no longer had to worry about little kitty torpedos rushing the baby gate every time I opened their bedroom door!

However, it also meant a big hassle on Thon days trying to get them into the cat carrier to take them to the show!

Mrs. B

Our Path to Five Cats Part Two: Fostering The Greek Gang

As previously mentioned, I kept in touch with Pete and Lily's foster mom; occasionally sending her updates/pictures of The Twins (her name for them, not mine). When we went to Petsmart to get Lucy, Pete and Lily's picture taken with Santa, Christy's husband Brian WAS Santa. That was an amusing adventure, by the way; trying to get two kittens and one prancy dog to look at the camera at all at once. Well, they didn't so we ended up with two separate pictures that I sliced together to make one decent shot. We were not supposed to be in the picture, either, but Santa couldn't manage all three (I wonder what THIS year's photo shoot will be like?)

Lily would not look (in this shot)

At one point early this past Spring, Christy asked me if we'd consider fostering kittens because, "You'd be a perfect foster home!" Yeah, right. But, over time, I started thinking about it more and more; another adventure, something else to experience. So, after we got back from our anniversary trip to Charleston, Christy and Brian came over to a) see Pete and Lily (who hissed at them, go figure) and b) talk to us about fostering.

Long story short, we decided to give it a whirl. Mr. B, however, made me promise up front that we WOULD NOT adopt any of the kittens we were about to foster. I promised (oops).

Christy had a litter of kittens in mind for us; a batch that were not too young (they wouldn't require bottle feeding or dosing for worms...ugh) but WOULD require a lot of attention because they'd been found in a storm drain at IBM (what IS it about kittens and storm drains, anyway?) at seven weeks and they were borderline feral. She told me there was one in particular who was going to really need extra special attention because he was terribly, terribly shy. In fact, she was so concerned about him that she was considering handing him over to Sue (the owner of Hobbes House), who obviously had a lot more experience dealing with this situation than the B's. In the end, though, we all decided he'd be better off coming along with his siblings.

Ok, true confessions here; one of the things I was most looking forward to about this whole deal was naming them. Obviously I knew it was likely that their forever home would change their names (after all, we changed Pete and Lily's (they'd been part of "The Scooby Gang")) but, still, what fun! Mr. B and I tossed ideas around and finally decided on Greek Gods as the organization prefers the kittens to be named things in sets or groups so that they can refer to them as such; "Make sure you bring The Greeks Saturday!" or, "Hey, how many of those bean cats do you have left (Lima, Pinto, Cocoa, etc.)?" BTW, even though I have NO intention of fostering ever again, I still come up with cute names for groups of kittens.

So, we'd be getting three boys and two girls. Mr. B and I decided on: Zeus, Hera, Ares, Athena and Apollo (I wanted to be true to Greek mythology and use Artemis instead of Athena (Artemis and Apollo were twins) but Mr. B did not like Artemis and since he was putting up with this whole fostering thing, I acquiesced). We'd assign each kitten their name once we got to know their personalities a bit.

Even I am not sure who is who in this picture, although I am pretty sure Athena is right up front

The Greek Gang arrived on a rainy Thursday in early June. Before they came, we'd prepared our middle guest bedroom for them; removed the big dresser, but a small night stand in the closet (this is where the cat box went), put plastic sheeting on the bed and an old comforter on top of it, etc. In hindsight, it really would have been better had we moved the bed out of the room entirely, but, we had no place to store it (as it was, the big dresser stood out in the upstairs hallway for several months).

They were so tiny (9 weeks at that point) that all five of them fit inside a small cat carrier. Most of them were huddled together in the back but one of them looked out at me and gave me a little hiss (turns out this was "Shy Boy"). After we got the cat box and food and water set up and toys scattered around (and the door shut), Christy let them out where they immediately made a bee-line for underneath the bed (the primary reason why the bed should have been removed; it definitely made it more difficult to get at them/made it easier for them to prolong their socialization).

After Christy left, I put a baby-gate on the outside of the bedroom door to keep them from running out when I opened the door up (although at that point, this seemed an unlikely prospect given their sheer terror). Pete and Lily immediately went over to the door and started to sniff about. I went downstairs to ponder our new responsibilities.

In addition to providing food, shelter, care, love and affection, we'd have to take them to get fixed at 12 weeks (plus rabies and other shots). A week after that, they'd be given the green-light to go to Adopt-A-Thons, "Thons" for short. Thons happen every Saturday and Sunday, 3 hours each day, at the same Petsmart where I first met Pete and Lily and Hobbes House. They asked that we commit to at least three per month, but, obviously, the more you attend, the quicker the kittens will get adopted (ha ha ha). So, three weeks before they were due to get fixed and 4 weeks before their first Thon, our primary responsibility was to get them SOCIALIZED. I mean, people are not likely to adopt a kitten that hisses, shies away, runs away, won't allow itself to be petted or picked up, won't purr, etc.(that is, most people except yours truly).

With them all huddled under the bed refusing to come out, this seemed like quite a tall order indeed!

The one who will be Zeus emerges as the fearless leader (the next day)

To be continued after we return from Orlando...

Mrs. B

NEVER Say Never

I'm gonna preface this entry by saying, all of you out there who are going to tell me, "I KNEW it!", well, you were right.

Short story long.

Last weekend, we had a lot of interest in The Greeks, in particular, Ares (two families). As it turned out, only one family submitted an application (for both Ares and Athena) but they were denied by Hobbes House because they have four children under the age of six As an aside, we were none too happy that we had not been informed up front that Hobbes House does not adopt kittens to families with children under six, nor, as it turns out, will they adopt (typically) to college students or people from out of state (their reasoning for this one is that if the people need to return the cat, it would be impossible of they lived out of state. Of course, one might argue the same for someone that lives in state NOW but moves away at some point!) Suffice it to say, WE think that judgement regarding each situation should be a factor, but, hey, we are not the owners of the business.

Anyway, we've had The Greeks almost six weeks now (can you believe that?) and, of the five, Ares and Athena have definitely been the ones to make themselves at home. Ares is EVERYWHERE (he thinks this is HIS house) and Athena follows me around and likes to cuddle. Both of them play well with Pete and Lily and have little fear of Lucy.

So, ya know where I'm heading with this, don't you?

Well, wait. You're going to think it was ME that went back on my word to Mr. B as I'd promised him I would not ask him if we could keep one of the fosters; this was one of the conditions for him agreeing to foster in the first place. Plus, I kept assuring anyone who asked that I would NOT get attached, that WE wouldn't get attached (I really didn't think Mr. B would).

Actually, the way it went down was, Mr. B came home last night and we got to talking about the fosters and our frustration with all the rules of who can adopt and who cannot. He said, "Well, I don't even want to take Ares tomorrow to the Thon. I'm about ready to tell them, "Here is $100 for Ares, he's staying with us and here are the other three for you to take back!"" I was a bit shocked. Mr. B wanted another cat?

I said, "Uh, what about Athena?" (thinking about how she has taken to cuddling with me in the afternoons while I am reading). He thought about this and said, "I don't think there would be that much difference between having three cats or having four cats so why don't we keep both of them".

My dear husband, I think, has officially been converted and is now a cat person :-)

I talked to Hobbes House about it and they were, of course, thrilled that we want to adopt them. They even said we'd get a discount on the adoption fee (which makes sense as we've been forking out money for them for a month and a half, anyway).

They might not be too thrilled, though, when they learn that, after we find homes for Hera and Apollo (both of us are committed to placing them), we're not going to foster again. We can't! But, hey, we agreed to try this, we knew it might not work, and now we have two more cats. Frankly, though, it feels right. Mr. B, not normally the one to say stuff like this, said, "I think those people got denied because we are supposed to have them".

As of tomorrow, Ares and Athena will officially be part of the B household. And, we're even gonna keep their names :-)

Mrs. B

Life Around Here At Pet Central

Oh SNAP yesterday was SO irritating!

But, rather than bitch and complain, instead I'll post a few pictures of life around here these past few days at pet central!

Lucy and Apollo:

Lily and Ares:

Amy and Zeus:

And a video of dinner time! Apollo is the squeaker, Ares has the low meow. All are present save Hera, who is usually fashionably late to dinner.

Mrs. B

Foster Kitty Update

We had a request to take Apollo for a special showing yesterday. A couple in their early to mid sixties had recently lost their (18 year old) cat and were in the market for another one. They already were pretty sure they would want to adopt one of Christy's kittens, Cheerio, because he is black and white (tuxedo) and so was their previous cat. Frankly, I don't really get why people attempt to "replace" their former cats with ones that look similar. I probably would never go out of my way to do so (there are SO many different types of cats out there!) But, I suppose if one came around that looked like, say, Eddie, or Moses, or Nigel, or Clyde, or Buda; I wouldn't be opposed to it either.

Anyway.

The couple had seen Apollo on the Hobbes House website and decided they wanted to see him, Cheerio, and another of Christy's; Cricket.

Call it gut feel, but, I decided to take Zeus along for the ride (and, no, contrary to belief, I did NOT do so so that Apollo would NOT get adopted!)

Me with Apollo (wanted a picture of us in case he would be leaving)

I got there before Christy. The couple arrived a bit after me with their entire family in tow, including two small grandchildren.

I'm happy to say that, in general, both Zeus and Apollo did well with all the chaos. These people knew what they were doing; they all sat on the floor and were very gentle with the kittens, so, that helped. When Christy showed up, I put Zeus and Apollo back in their carrier in order to give her kittens a fair shake.

Long story short; they have decided to adopt Cheerio and Zeus. They left on a week long vacation right after seeing the kittens so they'll come pick their new family additions up next week at the Thon.

Zeusie...going to his Forever Home next weekend!

So, one down, four to go!

Christy assures me that things will pick up after the 4th. I sure hope so! We've got a trip to NY to go on and it sure would be nice to know our fosters had all been adopted!

When I got home yesterday, I made some brownies for our impromptu BBQ yesterday afternoon. Here is a picture of Pete enjoying the brownie aroma! Unfortunately for him, cats aren't allowed brownies!

Mrs. B

Ares

Ares checks out my computer and my martini. He is definitely feeling at home!

Mrs. B

Our First Thon

Last Saturday, we hauled the Greeks to Petsmart for our first Thon (adopt-a-thon) from 11-2. It was quite an adventure (and the day went on to be even more, uh, "something"; which I'll blog about later).

Anyway, we managed to get all of the crackers (my new pet name for them) into one carrier. Zeus and Ares immediately started to bite at the wire while Hera huddled in the back, petrified and Athena and Apollo looked stunned.

None of them are what I'd call good car riders, but, they'll likely get more used to this as the weeks go by. Anyway, as we were driving to the Petsmart (luckily only 10-15 minutes away), I turned around to look in to the carrier. In essence, they resembled a kitty monster; one big blob of kitten with five heads. I took this picture after Ares (left) and Apollo apparently decided it was okay to look around. BTW, Zeus was, at that point, laying on the bottom of the carrier with his four siblings piled on top of him. So much for being brave.

By the time we go to the parking lot, all five appeared to be dozing off (I assume Zeus was, obviously, I couldn't see his face, though!)

Into Petsmart we went, lugging them and a bag with towels and a few toys (I was gamely hoping they'd be interested in playing; show them off some!)

The rest of the folks from Hobbes House were there with their kittens, two adult cats and some cages. They are loaning us a cage for the duration (in essence a medium size dog crate; much more manageable than Lucy's huge one).

After getting the cage set up and lined with towels, we pulled the extremely resistant kittens from the carrier and deposited them into their temporary home for the next three hours.

Along with our five, there were 11 other kittens there + the two adult cats (so much for ours being the only show in town, as we were told they'd be).

Unfortunately, it was a slow day. Not that many people were out (bloody hot plus it was Father's Day weekend). The ones who were didn't seem terribly interested in adopting a kitten (although many stopped by to look at them, poke them through the cage, pet them, ooh and aah, etc.). We'd been advised by Hobbes House not to let just anyone hold them (we did get a few requests) unless it was apparent they were interested (gauged by the number of questions asked about a particular kitten). I guess Petsmart has rules and if a kitten ever squirmed away and started running around the store, or, worse yet, got outside the door (our display being right up front), Hobbes House would not be allowed to come back. Liability issues, I guess.

I suppose, in a way, it was just as well not that many people were swarming around as the Greeks were freaked! This was not terribly surprising, given it was their first time out (which is what we told people who thought it was cute that the majority of them (3) were hiding under the pet bed we'd put in there; something we won't do next weekend). Funny enough, it was Apollo, the previous shy boy, who was the only one who seemed relatively at ease, followed by Ares. At one point, Apollo and Ares were acting like bookmarks to the other three. Zeus appeared horrified by his predicament (which really surprised me, given his nature at home; the leader, always out, forever curious). Athena was ok; but poor little Hera was having a time of it. Even though she was on top of the bed (rather than under it), she was breathing so fast her little ears where quivering. We finally put her back in the carrier; hopefully next time she'll be a bit more relaxed.

Anyway, none of them hissed or meowed excessively or did anything bad; they just sort of alternated between hiding or simply laying there. They were definitely shown up by the three orange kittens out in the front of the display (so a like that their foster dad had to dye a bit of fur around their necks with different color food coloring so he could tell them apart) that were having great fun romping around and playing with a wand toy. There were also two orange kittens next to us; a bit more subdued than the others but, for whatever reason, it seems folks are really attracted to orange and orange/white kittens (having had three myself, I understand this attraction). The others out for display ranged from tuxedo, to all (plush) grey, to a mish mash of white/brown/black. And ours, of course; tabbies.

We became better acquainted with the other fosters; if you think Mr. B and I are good people for doing this, than you should meet these folks! Christy was there, of course (the Greeks and Pete and Lily's former foster mom) and Dan was the other (with the three triplet orange kittens). Dan, although obviously a caring foster, does not seem to allow himself to get as attached to his charges as Christy does to hers. In fact, he just appeared to love ALL of the kittens/cats there, even ours. He said he thought it would be neat to switch the kittens around some; let them experience different home environments/other pets to make them more adoptable. I thought in theory this was an excellent idea (but might be hard to put into practice).

Anyway, only one application was put in that day by a lady with two extremely wild young boys who "Really want a kitten NOW!" She seemed a bit put off that she couldn't take the kitten home, but, as Dan murmured to me, "This is why we DON'T let them take them home right away; we don't want people making rash decisions". I sort of shuddered at the thought of her taking one of ours, but, thankfully, they were more interested in a black/white kitty; "My son HAS to have black and white kitty!" However, they picked out one, then, decided to go with another, all in the course of about 10 minutes. Fruit Loop might be the lucky winner (one of Christy's).

Both Dan and Christy assured us it was SLOW; that they usually get 10-15 applications per outing and of those, about 1/2 are good.

So, we'll be back there this coming Sunday, hoping for the best.

In the meantime, the Greeks are getting spayed/neutered as I write this. Poor things, but, obviously, quite necessary.

Christy informed me this morning that there is interest in "one or two" of yours from a family that is already pre-approved because they'd adopted from them before. In fact, they've adopted two, but the second one is not getting along with the first one so they want to return it and try a younger kitten (this is probably the only bad thing about this arrangement; we could get one or more of the Greeks back if they don't work out).

Anyway, what she meant was, they are interested in ONE out of TWO and I don't know which two they are considering. Christy told them they'd best get an application in soon.

So, we'll see!

I wonder who'll go first?

Mrs. B

The Greek Gang Go Up For Adoption Saturday!

The gang is going up for adoption a week early! Turns out the organization doesn't have that many kittens now, so, we're up.

These are the cage cards I did for each one (sorry, they are probably hard to read here but you'll get the idea, and, if you want to see them larger, right click on each picture, it will bring up a menu, chose "open link" and it's quite large, then!)

These will go on their cage and also on the website.

Hopefully, they'll go quickly to go homes (although they can't actually go to their new homes until after they are spayed/neutered on Wednesday). So, let's hope we get a lot of applications on them to get the process rolling!

They are all doing well; enjoying having the run of the house, playing with Pete and Lily (who wear out a lot faster than they do) and beginning to get curious about Lucy (as long as she is laying down and being still!)

So, the adoptahon is this Saturday at the Brier Creek Petsmart in Raleigh from 11-2 (for all of you who live in the area!) Get the word out to your friends and family and let's get the gang ADOPTED!

Mrs. B

The Great Kitty Escape

Now whenever we open the door to their room, the fosters all rush the baby-gate and, within seconds, most of them are climbing it. The only one who is not interested in this activity is Hera (she waits until I remove the baby-gate and then comes out in a much more sophisticated fashion than her siblings).

It really is amusing to watch them do this!

.

BTW, this is why Pete looks so grumpy in HIS video (check out You Tube).

Mrs. B

Improvement

There has certainly been improvement with Apollo. That saying, "You gotta be cruel to be kind" is apt here (although we have not been cruel per se, just firm).

He went into the bathroom around this time yesterday. Last night, after a bit of a hissy fit, he allowed me to pet him and hold him. He's got quite the motor, too. And, he squeaks when he meows.

As we were having a substantial thunderstorm, I went back in there around 11:30 or so because I heard him crying. He was cowering in his litter box and hissed at me. I scruffed him and he immediately started to purr and cuddle against my neck.

I put him in the sink, along with a nice comfy towel and a few toys to cuddle with.

When I came in this morning, he was still there. Again, he hissed at me but his displeasure was short-lived.

And so has gone the drill all day, although he doesn't always hiss and sometimes I find him camping out behind the john rather than in the sink.

I sit on the floor and coax him out. Eventually, he comes over to me and lets me pet him and starts to crawl on me. At some point, I'll pick him up for a bit, or, he'll roll over and let me rub his belly (he loves belly rubs and having his ears scratched).

I'd like to see him eating a bit more but he is eating some of the dry food and he gobbles down turkey lunch meat like a fiend.

It is tough to leave him because I can hear him crying all the way downstairs.

But, we're making progress towards the goal of getting him friendly enough to be adopted. Once he's been in there long enough (whatever that turns out to be but it can't be longer than Monday since The Kid is due to come over and she'll want her bathroom), hopefully, he'll continue to be as friendly, even if his siblings are around.

Here is one of the (many) videos I shot of his progress this morning. The rest are on my You Tube page.

Apollo 6.10.09

I'm thinking rather than simply taking him out of the bathroom and putting him back in with all four, I might bring one of his siblings into the bathroom with him for some company and see if he's still doing okay with being petted, etc.

Obviously, my life has been somewhat absorbed by this adventure; hope y'all don't mind reading about kittens!

And speaking of kittens, here are a few pictures of OUR kittens hanging out with a few of the foster kittens. I let the fosters out in batches today (not Apollo) and both Pete and Lily were interested in them and in playing with them. Lily did better than Pete.

Both of them would run up to a kitten and lift a paw to play (no aggressive behavior allowed). Pete took great joy in bounding across the room at Zeus several times, but, for whatever reason, after reaching him and meowing, he'd then hiss and huff and puff away.

Pete and Lily ARE still, technically, kittens as they are not yet 11 months old. It's hard to believe that, though, when you see these pictures of how huge they are, Pete in particular, in comparison!

Lucy is being real champ about it all. I know she wants to spend more time with the foster kittens and lick them all over and she seems genuinely concerned when she hears Apollo crying in the bathroom.

But, a face to face intro between Lucy and the kittens is an adventure best saved for another day!

Mrs. B

Fostering Lessons and Tough Calls

Although it's been a tad disruptive, for the most part (so far), the fostering "experiment" is going fairly well.

Thankfully, they are all drinking, eating, peeing and pooping (in their box) and haven't caused any major issues. However, the be-all most important thing (at least what I've been told by the fostering organization) is that they become SOCIAL.

Four of the five are doing well; with two of the four doing extremely well at being social. They all come out when their door is opened to see what is up and they all (usually) hang out and play. Zeus, Athena, Ares and Hera will allow pets, brief periods of being picked up (although Ares barely tolerates this and it takes Hera a bit to decide it's ok each time). All four are now purring and Zeus and Ares in particular love laps (generally in conjunction with playing, which means jumping in and out of my lap, but, they don't mind getting close on their own accord).

Apollo, well, he's very curious and will be on the periphery of the action. If he's not paying too much attention, I might be able to get one or two light strokes on his back in before he darts away, ever elusive. Sure, he typically comes right back (albeit a staying a bit farther away), but, as I said, socialization is the key. Not too many people want to adopt a kitten who is, for the most part, bordering on feral, no matter how cute is he.

Apollo: Yes, he IS cute, but, we have to get him to accept being touched!

Christy, the lady who was fostering them first, told me they'd been pulled (which means from "the world", I guess) at around seven weeks (their best guess). At eight weeks, if a kitten has not had any real interaction with humans, they are basically feral and there is likely not much that can be done with them save fix them (spay/neuter) give them a few shots, and send them back out. In other words, there comes a point in time where it's not worth the time, effort and money to keep them in the program because they probably will never turn around. The longer they stay in the program, the harder it will be for them to readjust to the wild. Etc.

So, for the four of them to have made this much progress is certainly happy news. I've no doubt that the four of them will be adopted (especially since Christy informed me that there are not that many kittens in the program up for adoption right now; ours go up 28 June).

Anyway, I sent an email to both Christy and Sue (one of the program heads) about Apollo; my concerns that he was still shrinking from touch. Although one might say it's wise to be patient (my husband being one of these people and in general he is right), I know time is of the essence here; the longer he remains this way, the more likely he'll not turn.

I haven't heard from Sue yet (although the going-in plan had been if he didn't turn, she'd take him over) but Christy and I spoke at length and agreed he needed to be pulled from his litter mates. I agreed to this after she explained to me that (she's seen this before), sometimes, a shy kitten will rely overly much on its litter mates to take the brunt of the human interaction. For them, they see this as a wise choice, but, obviously, in the end, it is not.

Separating him will mean he'll a) be lonely and hopefully come to crave the attention and b) not be able to use his litter mates to hide behind.

So, off I went this afternoon to buy another litter box. I came home and was sorta on the fence about when to make the switch when fate decided it for me. Or, rather, five little kittens decided it for me!

I'd opened up their room (there is a baby gate in front of the door) and went downstairs for maybe five minutes to chop up their afternoon snack of turkey lunch meat. When I came back up, I saw either Zeus or Ares (hard to tell from a distance) near the stairs. As I turned the corner towards the room, I saw Athena on top of the baby gate and Hera getting ready to climb it. From the corner of my eye, I saw Apollo and the other grey male in the office. THANKFULLY Lucy was outside and Pete and Lily were sacked out for their long afternoon nap in the sitting room.

I moved quickly and scooped up Athena before she could get over the gate. I dropped her back into the room (my quick motion had startled Hera and she'd backed off the gate) and shut the door. I shut the office door, thereby trapping Apollo and his accomplice in there. Next, I corned the grey male near the stairs (turned out it was Zeus) and got him back into their room.

I went into the office to find the two kittens in there romping about. I sat down on the floor in hopes that they'd come over to me, to no avail; they were too busy exploring. So, I sat there a while. Then, went and got some of the turkey. Both were sure interested in that and I was pleased to note that Apollo sat quite close to me as he chowed down, and, as he was distracted, I was able to lightly pet him for the longest amount of time yet (although he did finally figure out what I was doing and scampered off).

In the meantime, Lily was at the door carrying on to get in. I thought, "Why not?" She's been pretty good at not hissing (too much) at them through the baby gate. So, in came Lily who immediately ran over to sniff them, and, from what I could tell, attempted to herd them. Then, she got distracted by the turkey (which she usually doesn't care for) and ran over to eat it.

Unfortunately (and I HAD thought about this prospect but then forgot), both kittens climbed inside the lower half of my elliptical machine. After a bit of light banging on the encasement, Ares (who did not like the noise) came sorta stumbling out. He didn't want me to pick him up but I scruffed him and he did that cute little kitten thing of playing dead. Off Ares went in to their room.

Leaving Apollo, the one who needs the most work; who is the most timid, for me to try and get out of the machine and into (I'd decided NOW was the time) the guest bathroom.

I shooed Lily out of the room (although I might use her later in his socialization as Apollo seems to take to her) and thought a bit. Finally, I decided to go get one of the cat carriers and try to lure him out from the elliptical machine with the laser pointer and then into the carrier.

Nice idea, but, he had others.

He did come out, ran around the room, and then promptly back into the elliptical machine. Let me tell you, these little kitties are lightening fast. Plus, I was trying not to lumber and lurch around overly much and frighten him even more than he probably already was.

Determined not to be out thought and out maneuvered by a 10 week old kitten, I got the idea to place the carrier right up to the side of the machine where he was (effectively blocking it) and, using a cat wand toy, reached in the other side and sorta poked at him until he got up and ran right into the carrier. SLAM!

After preparing his bathroom (which included trying to block off every space he might attempt to hide in or behind (towels crammed down between the toilet and the wall)), I put him in there, opened the carrier, and left him alone.

About an hour later, I went to feed the kittens their nightly wet food. Did his brothers and sisters appear to miss him in the slightest? No.

I took some in to Apollo (although he usually does not eat it). Amazingly enough, despite my preparations, he appeared to be nowhere in the room! I eventually found him laying in the towel that I'd crammed behind the toilet. How can they fit themselves into such tiny little spaces? Anyway, he looked at me and I looked at him. I stuck my hand up behind him (he couldn't see me doing this) and petted him a bit, which, although he jumped a bit, he tolerated (although, really, what could he do?) I rubbed my hands in cat nip and slowly moved a bit towards his front paws; he looked a bit askance but didn't do too much (no hissing, thank God). I stayed in there about 15 minutes talking sweetly to him and occasionally petting his back or front paws.

I left him some wet food and went out the door.

Thankfully since the others are doing so well, I'll be able to spend more time with him and a bit less with them. The goal is to get him to want the interaction. Right now, he's none too happy but hopefully he'll get bored with laying in a towel behind the toilet and come out. Obviously, he'll have to in order to eat/use the box.

I told Christy I'd be willing to try this arrangement until the weekend when, if he's not improved, he'll have to go stay with Sue (who will, in essence, keep him in a large crate doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing).

He certainly cannot go to a Thon (adopt-a-thon) until he's friendlier. He'd likely freak, hiss, and there would go his adoption chances.

So, y'all send positive thoughts little Apollo's way, won't you? We don't want to have to release him back into the wild!

Mrs. B

Meet the Greek Gang!

Hera: Loves Shoes
Athena: Loves Sitting in Windows

Apollo: Loves Lily

Zeus and Ares: Love to Play and Keep You Guessing "Who is Who?"

Zeus: Loves to Show Off

Check out my videos on You Tube and meet our foster kitties!

As of Day 3 (today), they are all out and about quite a bit (meaning, out from under the bed). It's been very interesting to learn their little personalities and see them live up to their name sakes!

Our guess is that, in three weeks (from today) when they go up for adoption, they'll be pretty darn friendly!

One of these days, I'll get around to blogging about something other than kittens. But, life's been hectic, so, it won't be today!

Mrs. B

Pete's Opinion Regarding The New Foster Kitties

...and a look is worth a thousand words!

As y'all can imagine, we're BUSY in the B household. Hopefully, I'll get a chance soon to finish off my Charleston series and do an update on the Greek Gang (the fosters)...

Mrs. B

Five Kitties!

One of the grey males playing with the four others observing. They are getting braver. Eventually, they all came out for brief periods of time. Luring them out with cat treats sure helps!

Mrs. B