Movie time and a new friend

I just couldn't stand leaving Peter alone in the bathroom as we watched Christmas movies, so I snuggled with him on the bed for a while.  He was content for quite some time, but then he saw the other kitties and he REALLY wanted to go see them.  Even Ollie who was in a grumpy mood sitting on a pillow on the far side of the bed. I kept him from getting there, but he kept trying.  Fortunately he is still quite unsure of himself, so he never tried very fast or hard.  Twee showed up for a little sniff session.  Kit even gave him a good smell.  He seemed to really REALLY want to snuggle up to them, so I made the decision to go to the shelter the next day.

I did get a few good shots of him during "movie time" and hopefully you can see his "sash" on his belly

So after work today I went down to the shelter.  They had a ringworm scare, so all of the intakes were recently lime dipped and in quarantine.  I suggested any old kitty they had could come home with me for the holiday, and they agreed.  It was suggested I check out one particular kitty who might do with some socializing.  When I went to see her, she slunk back as far in her cage as she could go.  So sad, but I needed someone to help bring Peter out of his shell, so I looked around.  There was a calico kitty who called to me.  She reached out and meowed and made a fuss.  I thought she might be good, and took her out to see what she thought of other kitties.  She did not stop meowing, telling me all about something or other, and wasn't amused when I tried to get her reaction to another cat.  I don't think that she cared about the cat one way or the other, but was annoyed that I wasn't listening to her story.  Well I was still there for Peter, and since he is located on the other side of the wall from the bedroom, this chatty kitty wasn't going to work for me.   I then spied a small solid black kitty.  A look at his card said he was 11 weeks old, and his name was Tinsel.  I took him out, and he took to me, and showed interest in other cats, so I claimed he was the one, and off we went.

He was a little over dramatic in the ride home, and I told him he was fine and asked him to not be so overly dramatic, and he quieted right down.  He made another little fuss after we got home and I put him outside the door where Peter is.  Well Peter started singing back to him, which to me sounded like a good start.

 When I went in, Peter was in his carrier

 Tinsel was in his.  So I brought Peter over...

Hi There

what are you?

I'm to be your guardian angel kitty

Mom, this kitty is weird

off exploring

Contrast in tail position. Peter's is hidden, Tinsel up in the air

add joke here about ceiling cat and basement cat

Tail neither up nor down.  Still not sure about things

Oooh, this food smells good enough to dare being near that other cat

Tinsel wonders why this kitty is so odd

Tinsel drinks Peter's water

For the water, Peter is willing to be brave

Tinsel is EXTREMELY good with Peter.  He engages, but backs off when Peter becomes upset. When I'm playing with the toy, Tinsel will play unless it gets too near Peter, then he backs off to see what Peter will do.  He's also not afraid to "impose but not force" himself on Peter.  I've seen him run up to him to play with him several times.  Each time Peter hisses.  The first time Tinsel walked away.  The second time he went back immediately to see what would happen.  The third time he tried a few times before giving up and walking away.  I like that he is engaging Peter but not forcing himself on him.  He seems to have a real regard for Peter's feelings and understands that Peter is a little slow in accepting things.  Like I had to get past Peter's defenses and kept imposing myself on him despite being hissed at, so is Tinsel.  I like that they are going to be together 24 hours a day so maybe Tinsel can make more progress with Peter and teach him how to be a "real kitten"

I find that calling the new kitten "Tinsel" is a little hard. It is a harsh name.  Its cute and timely, but it doesn't roll off the tongue when calling kittens, so I find myself calling him Tin, and moving on to Tim.  It is very Cratchit -y in there, with (tiny) Tim and his brother Peter.. Officially he'll remain Tinsel, but he'll probably be called Tim while he's here for the week.

on an odd note, I did a count of kittens for this season, and Tinsel makes #16.  I was a little surprised how few kittens I had this year, but I did have two pregnant cats who took over a month to give birth, and each only had three. I'm curious how many kittens I've fostered over the years since I'm coming up on year #9.  Maybe one of these days I'll go back over all of my records and count.  I remember the early days of fostering and how I was still using film.  Taking photos of kittens with out digital was a nightmare.  I was so thrilled to get my first digital.  It was so expensive at the time, and an equivalent now would barely cost $10.. lol  I didn't start this blog until my 8th or 9th litter, back when I had Kodi and was so concerned about him and "Scooter" (who later became Muffin) and "Melvin" (who became Eli) I was being annoying with updates and I thought I should make a place to give daily updates on them and I could talk as much as I wanted about kitties because it was on my terms.  So much has happened since then.  1400+ blog posts later... here we are :)