A couple weeks back, I discussed the feral colony and the new kitten that had appeared in our yard (agh!) etc. There’s been no news since then. The little kitten didn’t appear again after I got the photo of him, even though we put out food daily for a week. We haven’t heard more from the neighbors on the colony either. This would be about the time we’d take in the new kittens, if we didn’t still have the original batch hanging around.

Speaking of which, I was going to include an update about the not-so-ferals in that same post, only it was already too long. And since it’s been over a month since I updated the blog about the babies at home, I figured it was about time.

Let’s start with Reaper. Reaper had FeLV, and went up to a foster in mid-July. A few days later, she showed up on their website, renamed “Meep Meep.” Less than a week later, her page was gone. I knew this meant she’d probably been adopted, but a part of me worried that she’d gotten sick (those lumps she had!) and was no longer adoptable (or worse, had to be put down). Yes, I’m a worrier. However, Jason contacted the agency two weeks ago to see if there was any room for our other three, and while the answer was still no, we did find out that Reaper aka Meep Meep was snatched up by an adopter almost immediately, and has a happy forever home. Yay!!

As for the other three, they saw the vet back on the 2nd for their next round of vaccines. At that point, the two boys were up to 5 lbs and Gherkin was up to 4.5 lbs. They were all completely healthy, and we got permission to start integrating them into the household. NOT because we planned to keep them – because no – but because they were getting too big to be confined to the one room. It took about a week for the integration to happen. At first it was just sniffing each other near the doorway of the kitten-room. The kittens were more open to the experience than the older cats, as one might expect. By the end of two weeks, however, everyone was doing well, even Jojo (who we expected would be a problem). Now that it’s been three, Atticus is cuddling and grooming the kittens as if they’ve been here all along, and no one else is much bothered by them. Plus, I’ve never seen the kittens happier than when they realized they had an entire house in which to have zoomies.

The kittens are all adjusting well. Angus, who was already the most attached to us, immediately became a full-blown house cat. He picked up behaviorisms within a day or two – winding in and out of your legs, jumping into your lap, begging to be picked up and held. Gherkin, who was always the most fearful and prefers cats to humans, immediately struck up friendships with as many of the adult cats as would let her. She tried to play with Jojo, cuddle-sleep with Atticus before he was ready, rub all over Nimi. For about a week, she wouldn’t let any of us near her except while in the kitten-room, her safe space. But then suddenly she began sleeping near my feet, jumping on the couch to sit near Jason, and eventually climbing into laps. She still has to be approached slowly and carefully or she’ll run, but she’s definitely transitioning to full-blown house cat as well. And then there’s Ghost, the follower of the group. He learns by observation, and once the other two were comfortable with laps, he started joining. Any time a sibling is cuddling (with cat or human), he jumps in for his share. He mimics the behaviors of our adult cats, including this interesting twitchy-back thing that Nimi does, and he’s coming along well. They’re all due for their next round of vaccines tomorrow.

As for where they’re going to live…well, Gherkin has a home lined up for mid-September. Jason’s coworker’s in-laws are taking her in. It’s just the boys who have yet to find homes. We nearly took them to the Humane Society to surrender them in early August, but we just couldn’t do it. It would be too traumatic for them. Then the agency that took in Reaper mentioned a facebook group for rehoming strays outside of the shelter system, so that’s our next move. We haven’t done it yet, mostly because the month has been busy and stressful, but we’ll get there. Eventually, they’ll find good homes. And no, they’re still not staying with us, no matter how attached Angus is. Our home is pushing the limits with our four cats. We cannot keep another kitten or two.