help-- my kittens hate me! :(

Wow, thanks for all the great advice from everyone!

The rescue organization I got my kittens from still has their baby
pictures up, since they still have two littermates the
http://catnet.stanford.edu/adoption/ohio_kittens.html (Toledo is now
Spot and Columbus is now Shadow.)

The day I was originally supposed to pick them up, Sahdow (the shy
one) ripped open his front leg on a rough edge of their cage door and
needed stitches all the way from wrist to elbow. The stitches are out
now, but there's still a large round scab at one end-- I'm supposed to
keep applying antibiotic ointment, but it was so traumatic for both of
us that I stopped after a few days. His attitude has been improving
since then, and he's been having odd "conversations" with me from a
distance, where he makes short meows and I try to copy them. (He keeps
looking at Spot as if expecting him to join in. I've only heard Spot
meow twice; most of the time he just makes that tribble noise.)

Until just recently, I was leaving dry kibble out all the time because
I couldn't manage four regularly-spaced feedings per day on my
schedule, but then I noticed that ants had noticed the perpetual food
source too. So I cleaned up the feeding area so it would be a bit less
antic, and I've been giving them a total of 1.5 cups of food every
day, spaced out about every eight hours unless they haven't finished
the previous 1/2 cup yet. They definitely come running now when they
hear the bowl being filled.

And I knew about how to pick cats up, but not so much about putting
them back down-- I'll have to keep that in mind next time. I stopped
trying because it just seemed to make them more nervous, but maybe
they'll warm up to the idea in time. I think one of my big main
mistakes in the past was trying to pet them while they were still
hyper from a play session, instead of lounging out all sleepy-like
where it's too much trouble to move unless you're actually being
eaten.

The past 24 hours have been a real breakthrough-- for some reason, I
hadn't thought about lying down on the floor to read instead of
sitting up; by the time I was halfway through my first catalog, they
were poking at my socks and jeans. Eventually they ended up wrestling
each other on the back of my knees. (Putting bits of dried anchovies
on my butt seemed to encourage their approach.) And this morning, both
of them submitted to being scritched until I started to get leg cramps
and had to move-- yay!!! Now I just have to convince them that my lap
is a safe place, vagina dentata jokes aside.

Sorry if this post is a bit giddy; I'm probably going to be bouncing
around in cat euphoria all day

in article , Julie Lim at
wrote on 7/26/03 3:59 PM:

Wow, thanks for all the great advice from everyone!

The rescue organization I got my kittens from still has their baby
pictures up, since they still have two littermates the
http://catnet.stanford.edu/adoption/ohio_kittens.html (Toledo is now
Spot and Columbus is now Shadow.)

The day I was originally supposed to pick them up, Sahdow (the shy
one) ripped open his front leg on a rough edge of their cage door and
needed stitches all the way from wrist to elbow. The stitches are out
now, but there's still a large round scab at one end-- I'm supposed to
keep applying antibiotic ointment, but it was so traumatic for both of
us that I stopped after a few days. His attitude has been improving
since then, and he's been having odd "conversations" with me from a
distance, where he makes short meows and I try to copy them. (He keeps
looking at Spot as if expecting him to join in. I've only heard Spot
meow twice; most of the time he just makes that tribble noise.)

Until just recently, I was leaving dry kibble out all the time because
I couldn't manage four regularly-spaced feedings per day on my
schedule, but then I noticed that ants had noticed the perpetual food
source too. So I cleaned up the feeding area so it would be a bit less
antic, and I've been giving them a total of 1.5 cups of food every
day, spaced out about every eight hours unless they haven't finished
the previous 1/2 cup yet. They definitely come running now when they
hear the bowl being filled.

And I knew about how to pick cats up, but not so much about putting
them back down-- I'll have to keep that in mind next time. I stopped
trying because it just seemed to make them more nervous, but maybe
they'll warm up to the idea in time. I think one of my big main
mistakes in the past was trying to pet them while they were still
hyper from a play session, instead of lounging out all sleepy-like
where it's too much trouble to move unless you're actually being
eaten.

The past 24 hours have been a real breakthrough-- for some reason, I
hadn't thought about lying down on the floor to read instead of
sitting up; by the time I was halfway through my first catalog, they
were poking at my socks and jeans. Eventually they ended up wrestling
each other on the back of my knees. (Putting bits of dried anchovies
on my butt seemed to encourage their approach.) And this morning, both
of them submitted to being scritched until I started to get leg cramps
and had to move-- yay!!! Now I just have to convince them that my lap
is a safe place, vagina dentata jokes aside.

Sorry if this post is a bit giddy; I'm probably going to be bouncing
around in cat euphoria all day

Cool! They are sure pretty. Sorry about the leg. I hope it heals well. Poor
little guy had a lot of trauma all at one time.

Karen

in article , Julie Lim at
wrote on 7/26/03 3:59 PM:

Wow, thanks for all the great advice from everyone!

The rescue organization I got my kittens from still has their baby
pictures up, since they still have two littermates the
http://catnet.stanford.edu/adoption/ohio_kittens.html (Toledo is now
Spot and Columbus is now Shadow.)

The day I was originally supposed to pick them up, Sahdow (the shy
one) ripped open his front leg on a rough edge of their cage door and
needed stitches all the way from wrist to elbow. The stitches are out
now, but there's still a large round scab at one end-- I'm supposed to
keep applying antibiotic ointment, but it was so traumatic for both of
us that I stopped after a few days. His attitude has been improving
since then, and he's been having odd "conversations" with me from a
distance, where he makes short meows and I try to copy them. (He keeps
looking at Spot as if expecting him to join in. I've only heard Spot
meow twice; most of the time he just makes that tribble noise.)

Until just recently, I was leaving dry kibble out all the time because
I couldn't manage four regularly-spaced feedings per day on my
schedule, but then I noticed that ants had noticed the perpetual food
source too. So I cleaned up the feeding area so it would be a bit less
antic, and I've been giving them a total of 1.5 cups of food every
day, spaced out about every eight hours unless they haven't finished
the previous 1/2 cup yet. They definitely come running now when they
hear the bowl being filled.

And I knew about how to pick cats up, but not so much about putting
them back down-- I'll have to keep that in mind next time. I stopped
trying because it just seemed to make them more nervous, but maybe
they'll warm up to the idea in time. I think one of my big main
mistakes in the past was trying to pet them while they were still
hyper from a play session, instead of lounging out all sleepy-like
where it's too much trouble to move unless you're actually being
eaten.

The past 24 hours have been a real breakthrough-- for some reason, I
hadn't thought about lying down on the floor to read instead of
sitting up; by the time I was halfway through my first catalog, they
were poking at my socks and jeans. Eventually they ended up wrestling
each other on the back of my knees. (Putting bits of dried anchovies
on my butt seemed to encourage their approach.) And this morning, both
of them submitted to being scritched until I started to get leg cramps
and had to move-- yay!!! Now I just have to convince them that my lap
is a safe place, vagina dentata jokes aside.

Sorry if this post is a bit giddy; I'm probably going to be bouncing
around in cat euphoria all day

Cool! They are sure pretty. Sorry about the leg. I hope it heals well. Poor
little guy had a lot of trauma all at one time.

Karen

"Julie Lim" wrote in message
om...
Wow, thanks for all the great advice from everyone!
snip some info
Sorry if this post is a bit giddy; I'm probably going to be bouncing
around in cat euphoria all day

Hi Julie,

This post made me smile. I was just thinking today about when I got my
first two cats (just a few years ago, and I'd never had a cat before). What
I was thinking about today was the part when I'd called my best friend to
say how amazing and interesting they were, how they were so amusing and fun,
I couldn't even bother with watching TV. I told her, I am so entanced with
them, this is like being in LOVE! Her reply was, hey, it's way better than
being in love! There's way more positive stuff than with love!!

I can't believe I didn't know about this good stuff till so late in life...

PattyC

"Julie Lim" wrote in message
om...
Wow, thanks for all the great advice from everyone!
snip some info
Sorry if this post is a bit giddy; I'm probably going to be bouncing
around in cat euphoria all day

Hi Julie,

This post made me smile. I was just thinking today about when I got my
first two cats (just a few years ago, and I'd never had a cat before). What
I was thinking about today was the part when I'd called my best friend to
say how amazing and interesting they were, how they were so amusing and fun,
I couldn't even bother with watching TV. I told her, I am so entanced with
them, this is like being in LOVE! Her reply was, hey, it's way better than
being in love! There's way more positive stuff than with love!!

I can't believe I didn't know about this good stuff till so late in life...

PattyC