A kitty update

The babies have been with us about a month now and they are slowly improving with time. They were practically feral when we got them and would go absolutely mental if we went near them/for a cuddle. My poor hands were in ribbons and I got some serious bruises from an attack by Vince on my hand where he repeatedly punctured my skin with his teeth hugely viciously. It was scary tbh and at that moment I seriously regretted getting them. All I was doing was helping him down from a windowsill he'd got stuck on! Regardless, we've let them get used to us in their own time, intentionally slowing our pace and not looking at them when we go near them. They began letting us approach them slowly for a stroke and we'd take advantage of meal times to get some cuddles in. They LOVE to eat.

Meal times are hilarious, we call them and shake the "crunchy" pot (cat biscuits in a plastic container so that they associate a noise with food) and we make sure to make cat calling noises and call out their names as we put food down so that they know the noises they hear are positive. Eric purrs incredibly loudly when he's fed and Vince gets so excited he can barely contain himself! He paces and flicks his tail, aaaw it's so cute.

Thankfully we've had no more mental attacking moments (my skin is so happy) and they don't get so scared that they bite and scratch anymore. They're turning into nice little boys but the "kitten" in them keeps them hyperactive and quite mad :) They "kill" many strange object such as toilet rolls, garden pegs, cuddly toys, anything they can get their little paws onto. I'll look forward to the time where they start calming down a little more.

As I say, I have had huge moments of regret about these two, they are so hard work, but it's extremely pleasing to see them come around. I think any normal people would have given up on them a long time ago but the change in them in only a month is huge. They are going to be lovely and loyal, I know it, they definitely know when they are doing wrong (they get that "sh*t, sorry mama" look in their eye) and that they are safe with us which I guess is the most important thing.

Here's a recent Vince pic (love how pink his nose is)

And Eric "killing" a toy




Here's my oldest boy, Rufus, doing his usual "sleeping on the cat stand holding the nets". Mad cat.


To be honest, most of the regret of having the kittens is that Rufus doesn't like them at all. I followed all the guidelines of introducing them and did a lot of research but the problem isn't that he's threatened by them but because he's terrified of them :(. He gets sweaty paws (sure sign of stress) and although he hisses and growls at them he doesn't approach them at all. He's hissing and things a lot less and we're treating him like our main boy (see pic below). We often spend a lot of time cuddling him, wrapping him in a blanket making sure to rub his scent points so that he feels like it's a safe environment and we've invested in some (EXPENSIVE) feliway which is an odouriser which releases a pheramone which is supposedly meant to make the cat feel at ease. We'll see how it works.

Below is a photo of my main men, Husband and furrboy. Rufus was awake here, every time husband dropped off Rufus would lick him and husband would tickle the cat until he dropped off again...this continued for about 15 mins until Rufus fell asleep too.