Anakin's new life awaits!

Anakin has now been neutered and gotten all of his shots and been microchipped, and it seems like he will be getting adopted tomorrow!  After lengthy talks with his prospective forever mom, I am very encouraged that Anakin will be going to the perfect home where his needs will be understood.  :) 

Yay Anakin!!! 

Available for adoption & the funniest thing I've ever seen

So I had just cleaned the kitty litter and Ani and Paddy were both in the room watching me.  As soon as I finish they both jump in the litter to dirty it up again.  Paddy goes first and, for whatever reason, she always grips the lip of the litter box and stands while she does her business.  I've gotten used to this unusual practice. 

Ani respectfully let her finish and leap out of the litter before getting ready to take care of his business.  But he must be taking after Paddy because he tried to grip the lip of the litter box too, except that he was facing the corner that the litter box sits in and couldn't quite grab it.  So he simply pooped while doing what I call "The Gopher". 

It was the funniest thing I have ever seen!  I only wish I had my phone on me so I could have snapped a photo!  Anyway, I just thought I'd share.

Anakin is also available for adoption now.  His fee is $50 and we are taking applications on him.  He is still not 100% socialized but I feel that he is at the point where he would be able to transition into his forever home.  He will bond with the humans who work with him and those should be his forever parents.  Otherwise it may be too difficult for him to leave us. 

He has really been doing great lately overall.  He still doesn't like being approached quickly or petted, but he will tolerate being stroked on his back while he is eating.  I would like to require that he go to a home with other cats.  He feels much more comfortable with other cats around.  Paddy really does have a calming effect on him.  If you don't have any other cats, Paddy is also up for adoption (for the normal fee of $125) and is the sweetest cat you'll ever meet.  She can give you all the companionship you need while Ani serves as a playmate for her and something super cute for you to look at and play with.  lol  Ani will make a great companion to other cats, especially other kittens since he loves to play so much.  Paddy has taught him better cat social skills so he doesn't play as rough as he used to.  He's also gotten better at reading other cats' body language through interacting with Paddy.  Whoever adopts Ani will be getting a small supply of kitten food (wet and dry) and the chicken and gravy baby food.  You can also do a foster-to-adopt where you can see how he does in your home for up to 2 weeks before we will process your payment.  :) 

If you think you might be interested in meeting Ani, contact me at tmuelle7@slu.edu . 

Pictures and video at last!

Not a whole lot new with Ani, but we have now let him loose in the house!  He is happily exploring and running around with Paddy.  He's even starting to get on the counters and tables like a normal curious and obnoxious kitten.  :) 

And now, updated photos and videos!!! 

 

Ani being held by Adel after getting a booster shot!

 

Ani and Paddy eating together on my lap!

Ani playing!

Ani and Paddy playing!

New Friend & Escape Attempt!

My apologies for not posting any pictures or videos this post either but they will be forthcoming once my homework lets up a bit!  But there is new news about Ani! 

Padme ("Paddy") is feeling mostly better and, being the curious girl she is, she took it upon herself to come into Ani's room and introduce herself.  Ani was in love the moment he saw her!  As we'd hoped, he began mewing, mrring, and making all sorts of other cute kitty noises.  (He still hisses at us sometimes but at least his vocabulary has been expanded!) 

We let Paddy visit a few times a day, whenever we go in there with him.  We want Ani to associate anything enjoyable with us, haha. 

Unfortunately, the only way Ani knows how to play is somewhat aggressively.  He likes to pounce, stalk, swat at Paddy's face or bite her tail.  Luckily, she is very laid back and will growl or hiss at him in warning, only smacking him back when she feels she needs to defend herself.  At one point she play-pounced him when his back was turned and he FREAKED OUT and spat, hissed, then ran away.  haha  Looks like he can't take what he dishes out.  I don't think they're going to be cuddle buddies, but perhaps Ani will learn how to play nicely one of these days. 

But Ani really does like Paddy.  Tonight, when she left the room, he followed her out!  Which caused a slight panic since we don't want him wandering around the house until we can handle him safely.  We don't want him climbing under or inside furniture or someplace where we can't reach him.  He was quite panicked himself once he realized he was in unfamiliar territory.  Luckily we were able to escort him back into his room without incident.  But this was a big step for Ani since previously, he's shown absolutely no interest whatsoever of leaving his room since the outside world is scary.  The fact that he is becoming braver is a good sign, I think.  I am hopeful that if he is less fearful of his surroundings (and the people in it), he will be more accepting of being petted and perhaps one day held. 

Speaking of holding, we are going to attempt it tomorrow night.  Hopefully I will have time to post the videos and photos soon and give more updates!  Thanks for reading!

Padme

We were able to foster a super sweet orange and white tabby female, 5-6 months old in the hopes that she could help us with Anakin.  We have named her Padme.  Unfortunately she has a cold so we can't introduce them right away, but we have high hopes that she will be perfect for him.  She still likes to play a little, but more than anything she just wants love, affection, and to cuddle!  If she can help us teach Anakin that these aren't scary things and are, in fact, enjoyable, he will be a completely social kitty! 

For those who don't get the name references, we are Star Wars nerds.  Anakin Skywalker is the boy/man who turns into Darth Vader.  It is our goal that Anakin turn "good" and not stay on the path to the dark side.  Padme is the queen that Anakin meets as a boy and falls in love with, producing Luke and Princess Leia Skywalker.  :)  Our two cranky Siamese kitties are named Luke and Leia.  haha 

I plan to post video and pictures within the next few days.  If Padme gets better soon, I can introduce them!  Can't wait for that. 

New room for Anakin!

Anakin has been upgraded to our Cat Room from the spare bedroom.  And he LOVES it!  Especially the super tall cat tower.  He is going to be a climber!

He has also taken to play-attacking feet.  While this is one of the more annoying things I feel kittens do, it is a GREAT sign for Anakin.  It shows that he is finally starting to warm up a little bit to us humans and not be afraid.

Anakin now also eats all of his meals on our laps.  We sit on the floor and he will come to us right away once he smells the food and hops right up.  Petting is going a tiny bit better but he still won't allow it without a food motivator.

We are also looking into getting him another foster kitten to play and socialize with.  Our older grumpy cats don't want to play with him--or have anything to do with him, really.  haha  But he really wants to play with another kitty and I think this might help encourage him to be more social with humans if he sees that nothing bad happens when his friend is being petted or held.  Who knows, maybe the other kitty could help expand his vocabulary to consist or more than just "hiss", "growl", and "spit".  "Meow" and "Purr" would be nice once in a while.  haha

Will post more pics and video soon!  Thanks for checking up on Anakin!

Videos!

As promised, here are some new videos of Anakin.  In the first two he is playing, the last one (though dark) shows some of Anakin's amazing progress!  He jumped up on the bed and started licking his foster mom's pants (shown in vid), walking on her, and even tapping her elbow with his paw in order to get her attention so she would feed him. 

We have also started the very beginning phase of picking him up, with his placing a hand under his belly (while he's distracted with food, of course).  So far, he's okay with it although he does growl if you try to lift up a little.  Our goal now is to get to where we can pick him up a few inches from the ground without him throwing a hissy fit.

Until next time, enjoy the vids!

He stood on me!

Anakin did great today!  He ate vigorously, played ferociously, and then we were able to lure him back to us and, with me laying on my back, we used food to get him to stand and walk on me.  He was even inches from my face at one point trying to figure out what he was stepping on.  haha  But he didn't hiss or attack, he was just curious.

He is also becoming curious about hands and if you put your hand out, he will come to sniff it, though he is still a little hesitant about it.  But it is a great sign. 

Petting is going better as well.  We're still using food to distract him and keep him motivated enough not to run away, but he will let us touch his tail now and even rub his neck gently which he would absolutely not let us do several days ago.

He still hisses at us whenever we first come into the room but we hope that if we make our visits more frequent, this will go away.  Up to this point, we've only been visiting him 2 or 3 times a day in order to feed him and staying for an hour or so to work with him.  Now that he is more comfortable playing with us, though, we can try to make non-feeding visits and just play instead. 

I have video of him playing but I still need to load it onto the computer.  Look forward to seeing Anakin the Not-So-Angry Kitten in action soon!

More progress!

Anakin has successfully gotten all 4 feet on my lap and has allowed us to pet him!  All with the aid of the special chicken baby food, of course.  No pictures or video of this yet.  We didn't want to scare him with the camera.  But this is fantastic to see and gives us renewed hope that he will one day (maybe even soon!) become a happy house kitten.  He has also been playing without hesitation with us.  Indeed, he even looks forward to his play sessions whereas before he was a little leery. 

Hope to post pictures and/or video of his progress within the next few days! 

Two steps back, one step forward...

Anakin continued hiding from us, particularly in the small tower that you can see him playing in here.  We've unfortunately had to remove it from the room for now.  He has another tunnel toy that he hides in too but he is more accessible in that.  Otherwise, he tries to "hide" behind the scratching posts in the room.  We are fine with him having a place to feel safe, but we don't want him completely hiding from us. 

Our protective gloves finally came in which I was excited about.  I figured I could try to pet him without fear of being bitten or clawed.  Unfortunately, Anakin is more terrified of the gloves than my bare hand so after much unsuccess, I have gone back to bare hands and not trying to pet him--for now. 

But on the bright side, he has been approaching very closely to us for food!  This picture was taken without zoom.  Our next step is to get him into our laps, or at least standing on our legs for food.  We're getting close!  Doing this without food, though, is still a LONG way away. 

More hiding, more progress

So, Anakin doesn't quite understand our 'no more hiding' rule yet. 

But this is much more preferable to under the bed!  (Plus, it's just so darned cute!)  When he's under the covers, he doesn't freak out about being touched or petted, though he doesn't seem to enjoy it much either.  He just sort of freezes in place which is not a behavior I want to reward.  Still, it is hard to resist a cute suspicious bump under the covers!

Once you sneak the covers off him, he hops off the bed and hisses at me as usual.  But now he's starting to realize that humans = yummy food so he patiently waits for me to put down his plate. 

Anakin is becoming quite the brave boy!  Or at least an addict of the Gerber chicken and gravy baby food that we've been giving him.  He went through an entire jar last night--AFTER eating all his wet food!  He is coming right up to me, though still a little hesitantly, for this special treat.

Here, he is within a foot of my head as I'm laying down on the bed.  This was a first!  He's never willingly gotten so close to me.  He's also been playing with me with his ribbon teaser toy and that is also a first!  He is definitely becoming more at ease with me and his environment.

Anakin did have a bit of a rough day today, though.  He had to get a vaccination, dewormed, and, while we were at it, a claw trimming.  Overall, he did very well considering!  Still, I am hoping that he will show more of the same brave behavior later when I give him his dinner. 

Until next time, here's more cute pictures of Anakin, the Angry Kitten!

Hiding is not allowed

I thought that hiding under the bed instead of in his crate was a good thing.  I was wrong.  At least when he was in his crate, Anakin (Angry Kitten has a name!) he was accessible.  Under the bed, he was very smug about the fact that he could hide without being reached, even by the stick.  I was hoping to lure him out with food but the little booger went on a hunger strike.  He has proven to be very stubborn.  Too bad for him that I can be stubborn too.


Today we removed the bed frame and set the mattress on the floor so he can't hide there anymore.  This forced him into his crate once more.  After much patience and petting and playing with the stick, Anakin ate some food but would not leave his crate.  So we removed the top of the crate, exposing him.  He did his best to hide against the bed and under the covers but with more patience and yummy chicken and gravy baby food, he ate out in the open for the first time.  He was happy and calm and content by the time we left him alone again, meaning that he was not traumatized by the events.  I am hopeful that forcing him to face his fears (humans) and experiencing nothing but positive events will help him progress into the cute little kitty I know he is!

Progress!

In this photo, you can see Angry Kitten himself, my petting/protection stick, and the crate that Angry Kitten (AK) likes to hide in whenever anyone enters the room with him.

In case anyone is worried, the stick is not and never will be used for hurting or disciplining AK (or any animal).  Originally it is a homemade teaser toy, but I've wrapped the cloth around the top.  I use the stick to pet him gently (which he seems to like after he stops growling at me) and to place between him and my hand when I set the plate in his crate, otherwise he likes to act vicious and tries to attack me.

Today's progress:  Today, AK was hiding under the bed instead of in his crate when I came in to work with him which was new.  AK only hides when we are in the room.  We hear him romping around and playing all the time when we're not there so he is a perfectly healthy kitten otherwise!  I tried to coax him out from under the bed with food and petting with the stick which worked...but only to get him to hide in his crate again (see video).  But after getting him to start eating and getting him to lick off the spoon (which is closely attached to the dreaded human's hand), I decided to try something more daring--licking food off my finger.  For this, I used the super special chicken and gravy baby food that he loves even more than his wet food, and it worked!!  AK was leery but he did gently lick the food off my finger, only nibbling a tiny bit.  I am hopeful that with encouragement, patience, and a lot of baby food, I can get him to leave the sanctity of his crate and approach me without fear.  That is my next milestone.

We are still a long way from petting or holding him, but it is crucial that AK only have positive experiences with humans.  Petting or grabbing him before he is ready would cause him to lose his trust again and I am hoping to avoid this whenever possible.  But I must admit that it's hard to resist reaching out and touching his cute fuzzy face!

"Here's Angry Kitten!"

Last week, I noticed a post on the STL Pet Rescue Facebook page requesting a quiet foster home for a scared 10 week old grey female kitten.  Having just adopted out another kitty that came to us very scared, I volunteered to take Scared Kitten.  However, upon picking up the kitty from its current fosters, they seemed all too eager to part with it.

"Here's Angry Kitten!" they said as they relinquished HIM.  Yeah.  Turns out it's a half-feral male, not simply a super shy female kitty!  But no worries, in the end sex doesn't matter and I'm guessing he's only angry because he's so scared.

After watching several informative videos on Youtube, I now feel somewhat prepared to try to help this kitty.  My current arsenal of weapons include:

- A long stick with soft fuzzy material on the end to touch/pet Angry Kitten
- Wet kitten food
- Gerber chicken and gravy baby food

I will update AK's progress along with photos and video soon!  Stay tuned!