Headed to a new home!

Wow! It's finally happening- I think I found my forever home. Me and Alfie are going to go try out a cool new home with a really nice couple and their amazing family of all rescue dogs and cats. We've never lived with dogs before, so we'll have to see how that works out, but if it does we'll be in great company. They even have a kitty who hurt his hind legs and has had to develop super strong front legs to get around- like me in reverse! It's pretty exciting!

As far as my foster progress goes- I'm now at a point where I love to be around my people, mostly on or behind their computers or anywhere near them if they are waving a toy around or shining a laser pointer. I still run away a little when they try and pet me but not as much. I really like to talk to them from a distance- a good sign that I'm attached to people and want to keep interacting with them. Hopefully I'll adjust to my new family really quickly and get to this level of comfort with them and then under the guidance of all their cool cats and dogs I can go even further and become a kitty who likes being petted any time like my siblings. Alfie is the master of human affection seeking so he'll be a great guide for me! Wish us luck!

Biiiiig blizzard! Yikes!

Last night and today we had tons and tons of snow (that interesting white stuff that falls form the sky I like to chatter at) and huge gusts of wind blowing it everywhere! It was scary even just hearing it from the safety of the indoors. The power went out a few times and even though we weren't too frightened we weren't our normal selves- even Alfie and Ernie wouldn't purr last night! When the storm cleared there were piles of snow 2-5 feet deep everywhere outside- a real mess! The feral cats our foster parents care for are missing in action and I can't imagine how my siblings and especially me would have survived this much snow if we were still living under a shed. I'm a very lucky little twizzly girl to be warm and happy curled up on my foster mom's feet with my sweet Alfie right now and I was just plain spoiled last night eating canned food while the blizzard raged on. Our purrs go out to all the feral and stray kitties out there battling winter weather!

In other news, I'm making strides! I'm out in the open now all the time; they stopped dragging me back to the cage a few weeks ago as the chase was too stressful. At first I spent a lot more time in hiding than my siblings but now I'm out in the open all day, I play up close and personal with my people when the others are playing, and they even get to pet me sometimes. Influenced by Alfie's love of people's laps I've twizzled onto foster mom's legs several times and have even found my way into her lap! I definitely struggle with confidence a lot more than the others but that's understandable with my condition and at least I'm proving to be a cat who is naturally curious about my environment and not content to hide in a corner! Engaging with people like this is a great sign for my "taming potential" so we're just going to stick with lots of play and food therapy and hope I get to be as friendly as my crazy brothers are!

Diary of the Day and... You Guessed it- Third to Purr!

Oh gosh everyone- it's such an honor to be picked for Diary of the Day when I'm just a little kitten who was living under a shed a few weeks ago. My foster parents are pretty proud of me- but not as proud as they were last night when I broke the purr barrier! I was having a good long session in my hammock and decided a little tummy rubbing might be nice. Then a little tummy rubbing turned into a whole lot of tummy rubbing and before I knew it I was rolling around on my back, stretching out my little twizzly arms and bam!- my chest just started vibrating all on it's own! It took me a while to get started this morning but there were definitely repeat rumblings, I'm officially a purring kitty. Alfie is purring great, too. Poor Izzie is the holdout, stubbornly refusing to enjoy her pets very much, which means she'll probably be bunking with me in the cage tonight. Sorry sis, but if shy little me has already found her purr you're clearly way behind the times!

I'm also coming out more in the open when I'm out of the cage so I hope to post more pictures and maybe even video soon!

Thanks again everyone, I hope this brings more publicity for me and my adoptable siblings. We're halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago and hope you'll spread the word if you know anyone in that area thinking about getting a kitten (or two!)this holiday season!

Petting and Holding and... Purring? Oh my!

Hey guys. I thought I'd let you know how I was doing. Life is pretty good for me right now. Every morning my foster parents pet me and hold me in their laps for a long time. At first it was a little weird being put in the lap of such big creatures but after a while it gets kinda cozy. They even lift my front legs up a little so I can sit more comfortably. And then they do the petting thing, which is really relaxing and they keep giving me treats which I have no qualms about swallowing whole for all the wishy washy licking my brother Alfie does with his. Starting my day spending time in a lap makes running around the house not seem so intimidating so I've been spending a lot less of my free time in hiding. It's great because now Ernie and Izzie are really nice to me again. We chase each other and play with toys and then when we get tired we can cuddle with whoever else is tired. Pretty fun. I sometimes get self-conscious when I see people watching me play but then I can't help but think, "Well hey, I was in her lap for 20 minutes this morning, if she was going to hurt me wouldn't she have done it then?"

So then after we play all day the people find us and put us back in our cage with the big hammock and there is more petting and holding. I like the holding okay but the hammock time with Alfie is my favorite. Last night during hammock time Alfie starting purring while they rubbed his belly, which kinda makes me think Ernie isn't as crazy as I thought he was. I still just squint and knead my paws a little, but I'm considering trying the purring thing soon. I'm pretty sure Izzie is supposed to purr next but she seems more concerned with running amok than settling down for a good long pet session- I just might beat her, too!

Wish us luck- this getting tame business is very difficult!

A Week and a Half

We've been here a while now, and it's been quite an adventure. At first we were put in a "vari kennel" which was like the carrier we were in after we got fixed only huge and the floor was weird. Under the newspaper there were these big raised pods that made it hard to get around, and it was really really dark. A week in we were moved t a smaller wire cage like Izzie and Ernie had. It was nice having a smooth floor but I still didn't have much room to get around so they could tell how well I used my little floppy paws. Then two days ago they decided to let us come out like Ernie and Izzie and I got to explore the room. It's pretty cool and I can really get around with my wrist walk. While we were out they got us a bigger wire cage and put that up, and then at night they chased us down and put us back. Well, they put Alfie right back but me they inspected my paws and clipped my claws which were getting stuck a lot. Apparently my paws are very nice for a kitten with my condition (radial hypoplasia) but I'm missing called a "dew claw" and only have 4 little toes. I don't think you need more than 4 on your front feet anyways. The next day they let us ut again and being caught at bedtime wasn't so bad... Especially because we figured out that the new bigger cage had a bigger gap at the bottom and we were able to pull off an escape that would make Houdini jealous! Hehehe. It was fun being out all night, but the people have been modifying our cage to try and stop it form happening again. Spoilsports! But hey, we'll get more treats out of the deal, right?

The people are funny. They pay a lot of attention to us and it makes me kind of nervous, but they've never hurt us. They keep giving us tasty treats which are pretty nice and then they like to rub our cheeks and pet our backs and while that's an odd sensation to get used to it can be very relaxing. Alfie is a little more receptive than me but I can see how we could come to like it. Izzie seems to like it more and more every day and Ernie goes nuts for it so could all my siblings really be wrong? I'm going to try and learn to like it because they keep telling me that kittens with little twizzly legs like mine shouldn't live outside, and looking at all this cold white stuff that has blanketed the outdoors I'm thinking maybe they are right. Brrr, my wrists hurt just thinking about scooting through all that white stuff.