Anni’s Story

From Anni’s foster-mom Taylor T.:

When I moved in to my apartment on Leroy Grant Drive in November of 2014, my boyfriend said to me, that this was a good thing, because I wouldn’t be able to bring in any more strays. Living in a house before, it was easy to see strays in my neighborhood, and then bring them in and care for them. He thought that because we now lived in an apartment that this would stop me from bringing in strays. How wrong he was.

After living here for only a few days, I started seeing this tiny little Calico outside. It was getting colder, and it was a weird area to see a cat roaming around, I wondered if she had a home in the building or if she was a stray. I talked to people in my building, and no one believed that the cat was owned.

On the first snow fall of the year, I exited my building and the little Calico was hiding in the doorway. We startled her and she ran away. It was windy and snowy and all I wanted was to get this little kitten inside. I followed her paw prints in the snow, carried a blanket and food and did what I could to get her inside. Unfortunately I was unable to capture her.

(Click for full-sized pics.)

Anni showing her snuggly side with her foster family

A few days later, after continuing to see her, I decided to pick up a live trap. After two days, of leaving it out until the early hours of the morning, and checking it every 30 minutes, I had caught her. I brought her inside, and saw that she was not a kitten, but was just a small cat. When I let her out of the live trap, she went crazy trying to escape the room. She climbed my curtains and was trying to get out my window.

The next day we were able to take her to the vet, we found out she had an upper respiratory infection, and she was treated for that. The following weeks were slow. She was terrified of people. I couldn’t touch her or get near her. After weeks of working with her, spending long hours of reading to her and trying to get her to play, she began to show signs of improvement. She began to let me touch her, I was able to pet her, and when I did, she would purr louder than any cat I’ve ever heard. When she first stayed with me she spent a lot of time in a large dog crate. When I let her out, she continued to improve.

She began playing with toys, and instead of me having to reach out to her for attention, she reached out to me. When I’d walk in the room, she would purr before I could even touch her. For the first couple of months I was concerned she would not ever want anything more than to be pet, but she soon proved me wrong. She began sleeping on my bed with me every night. When I’d sit on my bed, she would jump up and would just go crazy for the attention.

I started to integrate her with the house cats, about a month ago. At first, there was a lot of fights. My cats would hiss at her and she would attack them, she was just standing up for herself. For the past week, whenever Anni is out of her room she just ignores the other cats now. She doesn’t hiss, she doesn’t fight, even when they hiss at her.

In the evenings Anni loves bedtime cuddles. I’ve never met a cat that likes to head butt as much as she does. You don’t even need to use your hand to pet her, as long as you are okay with her rubbing faces with yours. I have 4 cats, and I’ve never met one that shows her love like Anni does. She grooms you, give you kisses and just adores every second of the attention.

Because of Anni’s time on the street, she likes to scavenge for food in-between her meals. She will go through garbage bags and eat anything she can. I can’t slice cheese without her by my side. The only thing I’ve really seen that Anni doesn’t like is being picked up. At first she would not allow it, now she will put up with it for maybe 10 seconds before she squirms too bad. I’d also say she prefers male cats, she has grown close to one of my male cats, and they share the bed, and can interact without any tension.

She loves to play with mice toys, wand toys and laser lights. As a foster, the only complaint I have about Anni, is that she is a foster, and one day she will find her forever home.

She almost always has her little pink tongue hanging out of her mouth.

She is great meeting new people.

She will groom you for as long as you will let her.

Will let you give her belly rubs.

Learning to Speak Danish

A day in the life of Blue, called Tilly by her foster-mom, and Nimbus, aka Hamish, as told by their foster-mom. Click thumbnails for full-sized pics!

Two months ago, Tilly—a seven-week-old feral kitten—was paired with a fifty-seven-year-old woman—Marie—in a foster home. A month ago, Hamish—a similarly young male kitten—was introduced to the female kitten to ease her loneliness while the woman worked.

The three personalities now each view their task as preparing the others for the next step in their life: the kittens for adoption into a forever home and the human for relocation to another country. Meanwhile, they are also learning a Danish word. The word is hygge. Hygge literally translates to mean “cozy”, but it means a lot more than that.

7:05 a.m.

The woman wakens. She stumbles to the bathroom, where Tilly silently follows her in from somewhere unknown.

Good morning.

Hello. Can we eat?

Yes. I’m hungry, too.

Tilly is rubbing against Marie’s leg and Marie is gently petting her soft fur, communicating shared happiness; Hamish appears coyly at the door. He is a man on a mission: breakfast. She smiles at him, a greeting. He closes his eyes slowly and reopens them, a greeting.

In the kitchen, each person eats a hurried meal and then moves on to the next thing. Marie is most productive in the morning and the cats have accommodated that sense of urgency. She in turn has learned to move slowly around eating cats to build trust. Hamish changes position at his dish so she isn’t ever directly behind him.

Marie is getting dressed when an aroma greets her. It has been suggested that when cats don’t cover their poop, it is an indication that they feel safe, that their environment doesn’t include predators who could track them by their scat.

I implore you! Please cover!

Marie is nearly shouting this failed attempt at humour down the hall, impatient. She senses a habit forming, having seen this same behaviour the past two mornings. Two cats scamper out of the spare room and, bodies tense and tails lowered, their nails clack across the wood floors as they race to the opposite end of the apartment.

Implore!

*silence*

*sigh*

She goes to the Pooh Palace and covers the offensive mound herself.

Warren and Miss Tia, keeping warm

From Warren’s foster-mom:

 

Vader update

This just in, from Vader’s foster-mom:

He continues to progress in his adjustment to home life. Here are a few photos of him, with his best buddy, my Chihuahua Sheldon. We were watching True Blood, and he seemed to find it as thrilling and suspenseful as I did, in the other photo, him just giving me the look of what is that flashing thing. Prior to this him and Sheldon were having a play match. More recently he and Sheldon have begun to play together. Vader will leap, and jump around him, and chase his tail.

As well Vader will come join me in bed with the rest of the clan. He usually wakes me up when he attacks the bumps where my feet are, but will settle in somewhere mid way down the bed.

What a change since the little 1.2kg Kitten I met cowering in the corner almost 3 months ago. At Christmas he weighed in at 2.5kg bigger and heavier then Sassy my other SNKI foster. I suspect I am going to have a mini Jaguar on my hands in the next little while.

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Warren and his Mini-Me

From Warren’s foster-mom. This is directly connected to the previous post, about integrating Warren into her household with her other cats and her dog.

Warren and his mini-me, Miss Tia