Day 69

Hi, just a quick update.

Indy continues to do well.  She gets along with everyone just fine.  She loves Thumper, they play all the time.  Indy plays with Raisin and Ginger when they are all super hyper running around, but they don't have much contact otherwise.  All creatures large and small continue to avoid Puff.

Only one thing left to tackle, and thats nail clipping.  She does NOT like us clipping her nails at all.  She likes to be held, carried around, pet etc - but try to clip those nails and she goes crazy, growls, squirms like she's on fire, almost looks like she's ready to fight back.  So we're continuing to ease into it.

She is so gentle when she plays that she doesn't bother us with the sharp claws, I'm just worried she's going to scratch Thumper when they play.  Indy jumps all over Thumper like she's a stuffed animal.


Raisinette and Indy

Indy says to Thumper, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH GIMME A HUG

Puff and Indy having a stare-down over who's turn it is to play with the track-ball.  Puff didn't really want to play, he was just tired of all the noise!

Thumper, Ginger, Puff and Indy

 Indy

 :)

Day 49

Socialization complete - Indy can no longer be considered feral.  I now refer to her as my ex-feral kitten :)

For the last week she has been free full time, not locked up at all, even while we are at work.  No issues, no problems.

She is still a lap cat.  Unless she is super hyper, any time you sit on the floor she will crawl in your lap.  Also, if you wake her up from sleeping any time or anywhere, she follows you purring until you pick her up or sit down so she can get in your lap.  She loves to be held and carried around, unless she is hyper/playing.

Indy is fully integrated with the rest of the cats too.  She absolutely adores Thumper and loves to rub against her, and play with her.  She even jumps on Thumper like she's a big stuffed animal.  Thumper tolerates it well, rarely any push back.

Ginger does start minor trouble from time to time, but she has always done that to the other cats too (except Puff) - just her way of showing everyone who the queen of the house is.  Surprisingly, of all the cats - Indy stands up to Ginger the most.  I foresee Indy and Ginger competing for queen of the house when Indy's a littler older.

Raisinette stays away from Indy for the most part, except when they are both in hyper-active mode playing and then chase each other around.  Raisin is the only cat fast enough to keep up with Indy. 

Indy, as with the rest of the cats (and most humans) continue to avoid Puff at all costs.

The ONLY thing requiring a bit more work than expected is clipping her nails.  She is scared to death of the clippers and even growled at us while we did it last time.  We will work on that by playing with her paws more when she's in our lap or being held and showing her the nail clippers more often without clipping her nails, etc.


Here's Indy playing with Thumper's tail and about to get a paw upside the head for it.  Thumper's paw is raised in mid-strike

 

 Indy and Ginger playing roley poley

 Thumper and Indy on the cat tree

 My ex-feral kitten :)

Day 36

Indy now has free access to the house except when we are sleeping, or gone.  We lock her up over night and while we're at work.  Probably one more week of that.  But during the evening and all weekend long she has access to the house.

No issues with any of the other cats.  She plays and chases Ginger and Thumper and they play back and chase her and all seem to be having fun.  She doesn't play with Raisinette, but no more hissing/growling it seems between them.  They can be near each other without problem as long as Indy doesn't touch Raisin.

Indy continues to keep her distance from Puff, which is probably a good idea.  Puff doesn't go near her, and he doesn't seem to mind her as long as she doesn't approach him.  She can walk past, just not to close, and no more hissing or growling.


 Raisin and Indy playing with the Friskies iPad app

Indy and Thumper taking a turn on the iPad

 

Thumper, Puff and Ginger on one of the cat trees, Indy waiting for an opening...

Finally got a spot!

Day 32

We continue to let Indy out for small periods of time, supervised. Usually about an hour or two at a time, then we lock her back up to think about her adventures.

The two youngest of my cats, both 4 year old Maine Coons and big kittens themselves rush right in when the door is opened. They have almost fully accepted Indy and play with her and/or ignore her.  But they are not mean to her.  Indy even chases Thumper around a little.  Ginger took some time to come around and was constantly hissing and growling slightly for the first two days but that seems to have passed.

My other two cats are taking a bit longer.  Raisinette, a 5 year old cat we adopted from the shelter 3 years ago will not go near Indy, and when she does she will hiss and growl and run away.  Raisin and Ginger compete for 2nd place in the pecking order.  Thumper is last.

And then there is Puff.  He is old and grumpy.  As long as Indy stays away, they get along just fine.  If she gets close, he will snap at her.  She knows this and keeps her distance.  Indy is infinitely faster then Puff, so she has nothing to worry about if she stays away.


Ginger and Indy playing.

Indy and Thumper playing, with Ginger watching.

Indy learning the hard way to keep her distance from Puff.  She was a quick learner though.  He is old and slow and she knows it, so she stays away and they get along fine. 

Day 29

Today we opened the door again for Indy to come out and explore, except we only locked up 3 of our 4 cats.  We left Thumper out to meet Indy.  In the pecking order of our 4 cats, Thumper would be the bottom of that order.  She's just a big kitten herself, only 4 years old.

Instead of Indy coming out, Thumper surprised us and rushed right in.  Indy was thrilled!  After Indy lost her mother, she tried so hard to be accepted by the other outdoor (feral) cats.  They rejected her and were very mean to her.  So Indy used to stare at Thumper through the window before we trapped her.

Thumper and Indy sniffed noses right away, and then Thumper walked around sniffing the room with Indy following her, chirping happily.

The even played together for about 5 minutes, before Indy starting getting into hyper-active mode so we took Thumper out and closed the door.

Day 28

Not much has been happening in the last week.  Indy has been quietly recovering from her spaying.  No toys, no cat tree, nothing in that room all week.  She's really been bored and really interested in getting out.

So today, Saturday, we locked up the other 4 cats in the bedroom on the other end of the house - and we opened the door to let her explore.

She was not so brave at first with the door wide open.  Just relaxing in her room.  After a while she built up enough confidence to come out, explore the hallway and the kitchen.  When she'd get scared, she'd run back to her room.   We let this go on for about 1.5 hours. Then we had to pet her back and close the door so we cold let the rest of the cats out.

Day 21

Picked up Indy yesterday, she got a perfect bill of health.  Blood tested for everything under the sun, all good.  No worms.  Spay went well, she behaved well.  She got all her shots and stuff.  She was in heat already at 14/15 weeks old!  Glad we got her when we did!

She was very very scared again when she first came home.  I was worried we were going to undo all the progress we made in the last 2 weeks.  She had an e-collar on at first, but wouldn't keep it on without going crazy.  She was going to do more damage to herself fighting that collar then anything else.

Here she with the collar.  She couldn't even lay down or lick her paws.  That's a battery powered lantern for night visits next to her.

We took the e-collar off and she was much better right away.  Even back into our laps and purring.  We monitored her all day and all night to make sure she wasn't licking/messing with her stitches.

This morning when we went in there, looks like she did manage to get one of her stitches out.... but everything looks fine.  I picked up some Bitter Apple Spray for Cats made to stop cats from licking wounds and that stopped her completely from messing with it.

No damage to the relationship - she's back into our laps full time for petting/purring.  

Just need to wait 10-12 days for her to heal up, get the remaining stitches removed and time to introduce her to the rest of the cats and rest of the house.  Can't wait!

Day 19

Today we took Indy into the vet for spaying and vaccines and another checkup.  She is so friendly that it's hard to get her out of our laps.  She loves petting, touching, purring, sitting in our laps, laying with us.  She's okay with being held now too.  She doesn't particularly like it yet but doesn't squirm.

She'll stay over night at the vet and we'll pick her up tomorrow.

Day 15

That was quick, she's a lap-cat already :)

Day 14

Things could not be going better.  She's about a step away from crawling into our laps.  She will sit next to us, lay next to us.  If we stop petting her she crawls closer.  She's every bit as friendly as my two Maine Coons were when they were this age - and they were hand raised from the very second they were born.  The only difference is we can't hold her comfortably yet, or clip her nails like we could the Maine Coons.  But she's just as friendly/loving with us.  Probably because she is an only kitten - and the Maine Coons had each other.

The below pictures were taken exactly 14 days and 1 hour from the moment I first walked into her room and she tried to jump and claw through the window trying to get away from me.

Day 13

Indy now runs right to the door chirping and purring when we come in, and she wants some petting.  Definitely a friendly kitty.

She's getting more and more comfortable being pet and touched.  I even picked her up just for 3 seconds to move her slightly so she can start getting used to that.  She tensed up, but did not squirm.  We'll start picking her up and holding her for longer and longer periods and ease her into being held too.

Her new found confidence is also causing her to be more and more curious about the house beyond the door to her room.  She's really clawing at the towel under the door, and almost looks like she's ready to try to run out.....  right into my other cats.

Day 12

Indy continues to let us pet her, scratch her head, even touch her back.  She leans into the petting, closes her eyes, and purrs real loud.  She definitely likes it.  She does not like if we reach over her head to pet her, she's still a little scared of the big hand reaching over her head, so as long as we're careful, no problem.

Day 11

Things are going great!  Indy actually let me pet her today for the first time.  She is so soft!  She was distracted playing with the towel under the door about an inch away from me, purring away as usual, and I just reached out and pet her back.  She flinched at first, but didn't move away.  I pet her a few times and she never stopped purring.  I scratched her neck and behind the ears and she seemed to like it.  Just for a few seconds so I didn't overwhelm her.

When I came back at bedtime to lay down on the sleeping bag for an hour, she came up to me and I pet her again for about a minute, and she seemed to like it and took a nap next to me for about an hour.

Moving right along!

Day 10

Indy continues to purr non stop when we are in the room with her.  She now seems happy to see us and will come to the door meowing (squeaking) happily when we come in.  Very cute.  Still no real touching.  I'm getting anxious to be able to handle her so we can take her in for spaying/shots etc.

Day 9

Not too much new over the last 2 days.  Continuing to make progress.  Indy purrs pretty much 100% of the time we are in the room with her.  She sits near us when we go in there, naps near us if we're in there when she's tired.  She'll let us touch her paws without flinching, but no petting yet.

We did have one minor set back this morning - she peed outside the litter box on the sleeping bag we've been using to nap in there with her.  Not sure why this happened - the sleeping bag has been in there for 3 days.  Cleaned it up real good, removed the sleeping bag (for now).  She's used the litter box 3 times since...  This was only the 2nd time she ever went outside the box, the first time was the very first morning.

Oh well, still ahead of schedule in my opinion :)

Day 6

Continuing to make progress.  More playing, more purring, minor touching of paws/fingers without running away.  This toy dome scratching thingy really helps - it gives her the comfort to be very close without being right out in the open.

She loves this toy.  My other cats used to love this too when they were kittens.  I hear this all night long :)

Here is one of my Maine Coons paws sticking under the door.  I keep a towel blocking the bottom of the door except when I'm inside the room.

Relaxing after 40 minutes of solid play time.

 

 

Day 5

Lots of purring today.  She purrs pretty much full time that we're in the room with her.  She purrs while she plays, purrs while she eats, purrs while we clean her litter box.  She plays close to us, she'll even play with a ball right out of my hands.  But still no touching.  She isn't ready and I haven't tried.  Added a foam mat and sleeping bag to lay down for naps in with her.  She'll lay down a few feet away and nap too.

No new pics of her today, so here are pictures of her parents.  Good looking cats make good looking kittens.  Can't trap this male to neuter, but the females are all either spayed or will be this season.  They are easier to catch.

Tog, her mom (no longer with us).

Buster, her dad.  He's the resident male of the ferals/strays I care for.

Indy and Tog when she was just a few weeks old.  Like the main picture on the top of this blog, the below picture was taken through the glass window while she was living outside.  Just me going outside would cause her to run away.

Day 4

8:30am visit before work.  Went in to scoop the litter box, and Indy was very interested.  She perked right up, and started purring very loud.  She watched me scoop the box and even jumped down off the cat tree and came over to about 2 feet away, purring. We played for about 20 minutes at the little dome again, she purred loud the whole time.

Fed wet food again at dusk, 6pm.  She ate happily.

Went in at 8:30 to remove the bowl, and Indy started purring immediately again.  Very loud purr.  We played with the toy mouse for about 15 minutes until she was tired.  She laid down, still purring and closed her eyes.

Definite progress today.