The Cat Report (Sept 15th)

 So, there's been a complete turnover in the cats in the Renton cat room since this time last week. Farewell to ROCKET, our skilled walking cat, and ANA his sister (who desperately wanted out of the room to explore the store but cd never bear to have harness or even collar-and-leash in-room on her). 

 Today we were expecting to find two adult cats and five kittens: JOHNNY (orange two-year-old) and SEAN (Siamese) with the younger generation: SHERBET, MOUSSE, SORBET, BROWNIE, and S'MORES (all four-and-a-half month old kittens). I got these thoroughly confused in my head, not to mention this report, as to who was who.

One kitten, a white calico, was already adopted and gone without our ever seeing her. Sean, the other adult cat (not sure his age, but assuming it was about the same as Johnny's , i.e. two years) was also off to his new home.

Johnny was terribly shy. We tried letting him out first, made cat burritos, tried to interest him in games, and generally give him some socialization, with little success. Looking at his paperwork it sounds like he was originally a stray, and he acts like one when forced into a situation outside his own territory where he doesn't know where he is or what's going to happen to him. There was a lot of defensive growling but no nips or swats. And no games; he just wasn't interested.

Janice rigged up a cat-blanket around three sides of Johnny's cage to give him a little privacy and Safe Place. We also sprayed down his cage with some Feliway. I shd mention that he was sitting in his dirt box when we arrived and under his small in-cage kuranda when we left, which counts as some progress. And while he was on his own he got an impressive amount of his cat-litter scooped out of his dirt box and onto the floors of both parts of his cage. He's learned how to get under the cat litter cupboard in the corner, which is pretty impressive given his size.  

Well, it turns out the kittens must have been watching from their cage from the far end of the room, since three of the four of them got under there today despite our efforts to block it up.

When it was the kittens' turn they made the most of it. One seemed less energetic than the rest and a touch shyer too, and retreated to the topmost shelf of their tall cage, coming down to join in games once in a while when a game attracted his attention. The other three played pretty much non-stop for their entire turn (about an hour and a half).    

And before I forget to put this down: the little orange kitten several times engaged in defensive purring. It was adorable.

--John R.