A Houseful of Cats

It is a surprise to me that the kittens are still here with me.  Last time around, the five kittens I was fostering were adopted within five days.  This time, I have had them for just over a week, even though their pictures are posted both on the Abbey Cats website and on their Facebook page.   As far as I know, no one has called about adopting them. I know it will happen when I least expect it and probably with little warning, so I try to spend as much time with the kittens as I can, getting up early, coming home most days for lunch and rushing home from work at the end of the day. It definitely cuts down on TV and computer time, it's much more fun to play with kittens instead but just as much, if not more, of a time suck.

I am happy to have them stay as long as they need to.  They are so darned cute and so soft and cuddly.  I try to spend as much time with them as I can, hanging out in the room where they are staying and playing with them.  They are full of energy most of the time and interested in everything that is going on, ready to explore and chase down anything that moves. 

Of course, the longer they stay with me, the more I want to keep them all forever. But then I would be "the spinster lady who has all those cats".  I told you last week how I fell in love with little Buckingham.  His sisters Alice and Lillie are equally adorable and friendly.  Lillie is queen of the purrs.  She will starting purring even before you pet her. Alice, the black kitten, is especially endearing, as she will sit beside me and just put her paw out to touch me gently to get my attention.  Barbara, however, remains slightly skittish (although she is definitely the most adventurous of the bunch - it didn't occur to me that kittens would try to climb bookshelves but she is quite the climber!).  Janice from Abbey Cats emailed me few days ago to tell me I should just go ahead and start petting her rather than wait for her to be comfortable with me approaching her.  Which I was already doing, sometimes successfully.  Other times, she scampers out of reach.  It's easiest for me to pet her when she is sleepy, either just falling asleep or just waking up.  But I did get her to purr for me yesterday while petting her, so we're definitely making progress.

Janice's email reminded me of this YouTube about "corporal cat cuddling".  It's a video made by two engineers to teach people about cats.  It's 7 minutes long but totally worth watching, it's just so darned entertaining.  The dry humour of the engineer geek talk as it applies to cats is quite hilarious.  The cardboard performance art is brilliant.  But the best part is the "how to discipline your cat for any unwanted behaviour" section, using corporal cuddling.  This is the part that makes me think of little Barbara, who so far will only tolerate being held and cuddled for a few short seconds before she squirms out of my hands. 

In case you want to watch the video with your feline companions, be advised that my foster cat Katrina seemed to find the cat yodelling portion especially intriguing. She couldn't quite figure out where the strange cat noises were coming from and jumped up next to the laptop to get a closer look.



Enjoy!