Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I so would love to leave this a wordless post, because seriously I think these photos speak for themselves. The only photo I want to caption is the one of Sarah touching my leg.. Which seriously, for her to touch my leg is such a big deal.. I'm glad the girls agreed to 'pose' for this photo shoot before they left.

As you can see the girls loved this food very much; licked that plate clean! 

A sad goodbye and a hello

Technically these kittens should have gone up for adoption weeks ago, but because they still needed some work in the socialization department they hung around. They ate hot dogs and I became a chew toy. It was getting to the point that while progress was still being made, it was very slow going and it was becoming apparent they needed to move on. The stress of going to a different place and living through it can help some kittens come out of their shells even more. I thought this would be a good time for it and it turned out it was. Because of Columbus Day the shelter is closed today, so I brought the girls in just as the shelter was closing on Sunday. This will give them the night in the quietest time of the shelter day, and then be there tomorrow when just staff come in and clean and feed. Tuesday the shelter will be open, but if they aren't adopted then, the shelter will be closed again on Wednesday and hopefully by that time they will be used to it all and show better for the weekend.

I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon feeding them chunks of hot dog and playing with them. I spent time snuggling each one of them and had a little talk with Sarah about people and how she could rule them all if she would just put up with a little snuggling. She told me that she could do it without the snuggling thank you very much.

It was finally time and so I packed them up into the carrier and brought them down. I took them out of the carrier, gave them another snuggle and a kiss and brought them to the cage. Each one voluntarily walked into the cage. You could tell they were freaked out, but they were investigating, which was a good sign.

I guess I did get some good photos of Sarah. :) I got such great shots of Winifred and Mary right away that I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get a good facial shot of them.  Sarah seemed to be turning away from the camera each time I tried to take a photo so I got a few more.  She's such a pretty girl that I am sure you all don't mind.

After I dropped them off, I was getting a bit emotional so I went grocery shopping, but I did need to get home and clean the kitten room because of this..

but this sweet tail tale will have to wait until tomorrow.

The kittens, the hand and the hot dog

So our jackpot food is still working its magic on the kittens. More so on some than others. If Mary doesn't smell hot dog then my coming at her is a bad thing, but if she can smell it she will let me reach out to her and touch her and in most cases I can pat her. Winifred is pretty much completely turned. She will run up to me, meow at me, rub all over my ankles - but she still becomes frightened when I reach out to her if she isn't expecting it... so I would say she is 90%

Sarah however.. *sigh* she doesn't like the hot dogs I have as much as the bacon, and she isn't as willing to come to me and give me the benefit of the doubt. I have a feeling if she is adopted by someone who is willing to work with her she can come around. She may never be an 'up in your face' kitty, but not everyone likes that in a cat..

I know it makes sense, but I do have to say it amuses me to no end how much good will I have after giving them treats.. When I walk in the room it is all 'oh go away!' but get one sniff of hot dog and they are all like 'well you could leave the hot dog' and after they eat half of a hot dog they are all like 'this leg needs attacking' -  well by they I mean Mary.

Twofur Tuesday with a bonus nekkid tummy

These two love showing off  just out of reach.. Don't you just want to smooch them and cuddle them?? Yeah, I do too.

Eureka, we have found the 'jackpot' food for these kittens

These kittens have been particularly tough nuts to crack. I have tried hanging out by the food I have just given them but they simply refuse to eat when I am near... well sometimes they would eat, sometimes they wouldn't; they were very quick to run if I was able to touch them while they were eating.

I tried a variety of foods, no go. I tried baby foods, no go. The crust to my quiche was tempting enough to steal, but they ran off with it so that didn't really help.

The other day my husband and I were being lazy in our meal choices and cooked up a box of steak tips wrapped in bacon. Well bingo, bacon was freakin awesome and my fingers were bitten several times as a reward - fyi, I consider any time a kitten is touching me voluntarily and not in fear is a huge win, be it that they are trying to eat me or investigating me with the paw o'doom.

We didn't have any other bacon in the house, so I tried to think of other things they might like. We hit another bonus food while eating hot dogs. I was on the receiving end of both licks and the paw o'doom. I was investigated for more. Mary climbed up on my lap as did Sarah. I vowed to pick up some more hot dogs when we went grocery shopping.

I picked up some cheap hot dogs, because the grass fed organic hot dogs I generally eat are expensive. As soon as I put them in the cart I mentioned to my husband that they probably have grass fed tastes and the cheap ones are going to be a huge fail.

Well I cooked one up and brought it down to the kittens. Apparently they don't like hot hot dogs, because they immediately started hissing at the pieces I offered them. As soon as it started to cool down they started to take the pieces from my hand. I think I've been giving them a bit too much food because there was some breakfast left over, so it didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but there was some definite improvement in their interest in me, and I was able to take my empty hand and put it near them without them bolting for the other side of the room. I shall bring some more hot dog down with me and continue with this experiment for the next few days and hopefully I will be able to gain a little benefit of the doubt.

I should mention that Winifred has made some incredible strides on her own. She runs right up to me when I walk in the room, she winds around my ankle when I walk across the room to feed them, and as long as she isn't watching my hands I can reach down and pat her and she loves it. However is she sees those hands she is gone.

I so wish I knew what these poor kittens went through. Tomorrow they are going to have a reading with an animal communicator so hopefully that will help as well.

It looks like I will contact the shelter at the end of the week to get them in for adoption next week. I will write up adoption cards explaining ways to win them over (bacon and play) They are going to need very special homes that are willing to work with them, but they are so very much worth it. They have so much character

You asked for it, you've got it, More kittens