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4 Nights Later: Kittens going strong
If you noticed my Twitter updates, you would have seen Miranda and I got two new kittens on Sunday night. We named them Dapper (hers, fluffy one) and Blinky (mine, tiger stripe).
It was an interesting past few days and I learned a lot about introducing animals to each other, changing their location so drastically at such a young age, and coping with them while trying to sleep.
For some background: I live with one room mate, a pal from college. He has a 5 month old cat named Bear which he originally got back when I got Charlie. As soon as we dropped the kittens off in the apartment out of the carrying bag, there was obvious tension. Bear looked them down, they didn’t really care about Bear yet, as they just discovered a new home!
Within about 10 minutes of wandering, Bear began the hissing and growling. After some reading up, I found that it was best to keep the kittens in their own room for a few days, or weeks until they can get more used to the other cat(s) in the household.
We setup base in my room for the kittens. Setup a litter box and some food/water bowls, closed the door and let them hang out while we began associating ourselves with them.
On day one, the kittens were very nervous. For nearly the entirity of Sunday night, they hid under my bed or in my closet, only going out to eat. We decided to sleep with the kittens that night, and fell asleep with them in the room. Sometimes this can be torture since they will meow, make noise, or rub your face. Thankfully, it was a decent night. I was awoken at 6am to the sounds of Blinky meowing his mouth off, which was predicted.
On day two, after work Miranda was over again and we hung out in the room again with them. Miranda managed to teach them how to play by spending a good 15-20 minutes dangling a string in front of them. Eventually, the kittens caught on to it and began pawing at it and attacking the strong. Success! Monday night was much better as I was not awoken by the cats meowing, although I was awoken at about 3am to litterbox sounds and some tussling. I sat down in the middle of the floor and played with them a bit before going back to bed.
On day three, Tuesday, they began becoming more aware of what was outside. They knew something was there, and they seemed sure it was another cat. Exchanges of meows and pawing from under the door were very prominent that day. Whenever I would enter the room Blinky would look up quickly and dash under the bed. As soon as I walked in, he would peak his head out, see it was me and he would come back out. Thankfully, the kittens were a bit more comfortable with Miranda and I now. We slept once again with the kittens, this time I awoke at 5am to some sounds, and managed to not go back to sleep.
All this time, Miranda said she slept amazing, good for her! On day four, we decided it was finally time to let the kittens meat the bigger cat, Bear. We came home and I opened up a can of Tuna. I distributed it proportionally into three bowls and placed one for Bear, and two close, but not too close to Bear’s bowl for Blinky and Dapper.
Miranda opened the door and let out the kittens, I let down Bear by his tuna. There was a split second of awkward staring by the three cats, but they proceeded to chomp down and eat! The cats ate and ate. Bear finished his, but the kittens couldn’t stomach so much tuna (I did give them a bit too much!). After they completed their tuna, the showdown began.
The kittens began exploring the apartment. The kitchen, bathroom, dining room, everything. All th is time, Bear would lurk around them. Growling occurred, and some hissing, although hissing was stopped immediately with a flick of the nose to Bear. Eventually, Bear had calmed down and was simply following the kittens around. With this in mind, I shaked the bag of treats and all 3 kittens came near, and were given one treat for being so good.
Eventually, Bear had entered the kittens room (my room) and he looked into their litterbox, pawed a bit around and then stayed under the bed. Dapper was NOT amused and layed across the litterbox, hissed at Bear when he came close and basically let him know this is my litterbox, and you’re not allowed near it!
The awkward animosity died pretty quickly though, as soon Bear began pouncing on top of Blinky and trying to play with him. Blinky seemed uncertain of doing this, as he would immediately push Bear away and walk away. Eventually, they began playing again and this time it worked out for the better. Bear leaped on Blinky and immediately began licking his face. Aww, it was such a cute bonding moment of two tough males!
As the night winded down, we left the door open and let the kittens and Bear travel free. For awhile, Bear and the kittens hanged out all together on my bed, they got some treats for being so good.
Eventually, after a fun House episode it was time to go to bed. I was sleep deprived so Miranda told me we should stay at hers that night. I was reluctant to leave the kittens alone but I knew they would be ok, plus I was drained. I closed the door, made sure Bear was in a seperate room, put on some background music and let the kittens be for the night. They were asleep when I left the room.
We went back to Miranda’s and I fell asleep instantly. A good depiction of how tired I was.
I can’t wait to go home today and see the kittens again. They have been a great new addition to my life, and it was very fun to get something so sacred to share with your significant other. It will prove to be a challenge at times, but I think they will bring us closer together.
You can see the full album of pictures we took I think on Monday, on Miranda’s Facebook profile.
