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Farrah's Whispers

I am so excited, we all are so excited!

Today, Mom went to adopt a beautiful Seal Lynx Tortiepoint longhair kitty from the same rescue organization Moose & I came from. While she was there two other kitties who are "difficult" kitties, meaning they aren't social with people and aren't considered adoptable (& who had been in the rescue shelter over a year, made choices of their own. One of the two curled up right by Mom's side and stayed right by Mom's side the whole time Mom was there, surprising their caretakers. The other one got into Mom's lap and gave Mom a hug, then curled up in Mom's lap and stayed there. Their caretakers said those two are cats who don't tend to go up to people at all and they aren't real social with their caretakers, but those two kitties were certainly very social with our Mom today. Those two kitties made it so crystal clear to all present that THEY were choosing Mom!

Touched by the fact that those two "difficult" antisocial kitties were so clearly choosing Mom & being so loving to her, Mom accepted their decisions. In addition to the kitty she chose, Mom also brought home the two kitties who chose her. After they got home here, those two kitties surprised Mom by being still loving to her even though being here in a new environment makes them insecure & fearful. The one "difficult" kitty is even more loving with Mom than the Seal Lynx Tortiepoint (the Seal Lynx Tortiepoint is a friendly social cat), which really surprised Mom.

We asked Mom when she's going to put the trio of newcomers on Catster & she told us when they have settled in well enough so she can get some good photos of them, then she will put them on Catster.

I am so excited, we are all so excited to have three new beautiful family members & Moose & I are especially happy because they came from the same place we came from.

Farrah Shows Her True Self

On 8-17-12 I received an excited text from my son, asking me to let us adopt a black smoke longhair kitty named Farrah that he saw at PetSmart. He said this kitty looked much like Ashley, a black smoke cat we had through much of my son's childhood that the children dearly loved & Midnight, my son's favorite cat who had passed 4-17-12 exactly 4 months before the day my son saw Farrah. I agreed & the next day, 8-18 we went to the PetSmart & ended up adopting both Farrah & Moose. Farrah is a gorgeous kitty, with the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. They truly shine like jewels, there are even flecks of iridescent colors in her eyes=hence her nickname "Jewel Eyes."

When I first met Farrah, she was social and what I call passively friendly, a cat who allows & tolerates being petted but who doesn't solicit petting or act like she particularly likes it. For months this was her primary temperament & behavior. Farrah, who was immediately tolerant of the other cats, people & animals in the household, didn't show her true temperament until she'd been here several MONTHS. She could be found on the window bed & other kitty perching places around the house but rarely came up or tried to solicit human attention.

Several weeks ago, Farrah's behavior started noticeably changing. More & more she started coming up & soliciting petting, head scratches, ear rubs etc. Two weeks ago she started curling up beside me on the bed. Now most of the time Farrah as well as Lefty can usually be found curled up on the bed. Farrah is still a very quiet kitty, rarely making any noise at all except for purring, but she's rapidly becoming one of the cats who most likes to snuggle up beside me.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when first adopting adult cats is that of not allowing the cat enough time to adjust to their new home & its occupants. It's cruel to adopt a cat and then return it to a shelter after only a few days because the cat hasn't had nearly enough time to even start adjusting yet. When a cat is returned to a shelter, it has a more difficult time getting adopted because people assume something's wrong with it & pass it over without consideration.

It usually takes a minimum of a month for an adult cat to adjust to a new home. Most of the time it takes a lot longer than that for an adult cat to really become secure & feel like it belongs in a new home enough to start showing its true temperament. Feral cats, abused cats, traumatized cats, poorly socialized cats, etc may take up to a year or possibly longer to adjust. Time, patience, gentleness, temper control & a positive attitude are the keys to successfully making a new cat a confident, social, enjoyable companion & member of the household.