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!