Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Bowie and Crema are up for adoption



As you might have guessed by the lack of blog posts, caring for these two were difficult for me. There was a whole host of reasons; some big and some small.

I enjoyed every minute I spent being hated on by this girl


I can guess you can imagine how much I regret not being able to actually hug her or kiss her, but I did many times in my dreams. I sat in front of her and I talked to her about it and pictured it in my mind, but each time I did I got all mushy and my energy levels changed and in the end, all I succeeded in doing was freaking her out. I did my best to stop doing that but I am guessing you can imagine that was hard.



I will admit I spent a lot of time thinking about one set of fosters that I wasn't able to keep. If you haven't been with us long, meet Mia and Prince Charming. It was 2004 and I was in no position to keep another kitten at the time ad I so very much wanted to keep them both.. I mean seriously...


And while I am down four cats from my height of owning eight, I am not comfortable adding two cats to my household at this time. It would be nice, for sure. and I bet seeing Skippy love all over me and my husband might have helped them realize that not all hands are bad.

We have made huge progress with them. They went from completely cowering and unable to eat in my presence other than a small amount of spam that I bribed them within the beginning - that only worked when they were very hungry - from being able to eat in front of me, play in front of me and even be able to be closer to me. The boy climbed in my lap to play, he even flomped up against my leg a couple of times. If I groveled, and gave the right signals and went slow I could reach out and pet him and scratch his chest and his ears. From there I was able to pat behind his head. As long as I stayed above his shoulder blades he was fine. If I touched his back I received a major hissing and he immediately put an end to contact. He likes it, he just needs someone who doesn't come with the urgent need to get him to come around sooner rather than later and that will happen by being adopted.

The Girl is a tougher nut. The few times I was able to scratch her chin I could tell she clearly liked it but her fear of hands was overwhelming..

Both have an extreme fear of towels being held up by a human. One time I simply picked up a sheet and they both had a pretty extreme reaction to it, so I did my best to do it in a way that was not "coming at them" to try to desensitize them of it. Unfortunately, using a towel was the ONLY way to get them in the carrier to go back to the shelter. I was hoping I could use it to direct them to run into the carrier since I had hidden every other place for them to hide, but it backfired on me and they both stood their ground and hissed at me pretty fiercely. So, I then picked up the carrier and put it in front of them and thankfully each one decided to enter in it on their own power. It took all of three minutes to get them in and we were on our way.

I wanted to send along a few things to keep some continuity in their lives. I sent along the giraffe bed that I have had for a few years because it was immediately her safe space (see above). She spent quite a bit of time in the bed and I figured that she would appreciate having it with her.  I couldn't send the cat tree that The Boy spent most of his time in, but I did want to send along their favorite toy. .. which sadly was my favorite toy..


So I am totally going to have to get some more, especially after giving Cabana his favorite toy to take home with him, because I am out of wand toys now. (and if you want to donate I stuck them on my Amazon wish list) (mailing address if you choose not to use Amazon is 10 Willis Ave, #554 Grantham, NH 03753)

And while I hate the idea of returning them not perfectly tamed and I really hate the idea of not having found a home for them. There was a potential one for The Girl but not being handleable totally put a kibosh on it as it would require her flying and there is no way it would be safe for her to be removed from a carrier to be checked in not to mention the change of her never being a lap cat - it is a possibility depending on how bad her PTSD is - so that fell through. But I am going to hold on to what happened with a set of fosters in 2015. They were not 100% friendly either, but being in the shelter and seeing all the people and being exposed to all of the shelter noises (and being fed hot dogs) really helped pull them out of their shell.. I know the shelter has their best interests at heart, they will be fine.

If you are interested in adopting them, you can check out their listings on the shelter's website. My foster coordinator has told me that she will email me when they are adopted.

I will miss them terribly, I already do, but hopefully, there will be new kitties soon..
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