Good afternoon folks,
Last night was a bit of a stressful night compared to Sunday. Ruby was very unsettled and cried constantly from about 2am-5am and it was frantically trying to get out of the cage. Nothing we did seemed to be stopping it from crying either :( We tried leaving it for a while to see if she'd calm - still mewing, I went in and sat on the sofa - still mewing, tried spoonfeeding it - it hissed at me, tried playing with its toys - hissed again!
Eventually, after I'd been lying on the floor right next to its cage, it started to go asleep so I came back to bed. It carried on mewing for a little bit, but quietly and eventually stopped and we managed to get a little bit of sleep.
This morning it's been mewing still, but seems a lot more confident, it's not cowering at the back of the cage but rather climbing around it - obviously still looking for a way out!
It's been spoon-feeding though, and it even took some food from Jon's finger. I had a little nap and when I woke up, Jon told me he'd managed to put his hand in and give her a bit of a stroke although it took a long while.
So yeah, it's been a bit up and down since last night, but we're still determined!
If anyone has any advice on the crying/mewing thing and how we should tackle it, it would be greatly welcomed!
*falls over*
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Monday, 14 July 2008
Names again!
So we've decided on a name..
RUBY!
We realise this isn't really a gender neutral name but I suppose if we find out that it's a boy it could be Rubi? Who knows, we just like it and thinks it suits the name!
Joy came with the traps, so we've set them up in the yard so that they won't close on the cat and kitten if they go in for food. Just to get them used to it.
We're still concerned we haven't seen kitten II since Saturday :( Hopefully it's about somewhere though, perhaps it's staying away as the mum saw Kitten I in the cage and maybe thinks it's dangerous.
She's been back in for food a couple of times and not looked too phased, but this morning Ruby was mewing a lot and the window was open so Mum was looking around the garden :( I still feel terrible about taking her babies away from her but I suppose we just need to keep telling ourselves we're doing the right thing.
Joy thinks Ruby is DEFINITELY under 8 weeks old, more like 6-7 weeks which is fantastic news as it means s/he should be fairly easy to tame. The fact that s/he is already spoon feeding after just one night is a great sign!
Fortunately, when Joy was here she managed to see the Mum as when we were in the yard with the traps, she was poking her nose under the gate. We put some food out and she soon wandered in so she got a good look at her and thinks that she does look a bit wide and therefore might be carrying another litter.
Our main priority at the moment, other than little Ruby, is to try and re-establish a feeding routine with Mum and kitten II so keep your fingers crossed that we see it soon!
Joy came with the traps, so we've set them up in the yard so that they won't close on the cat and kitten if they go in for food. Just to get them used to it.
We're still concerned we haven't seen kitten II since Saturday :( Hopefully it's about somewhere though, perhaps it's staying away as the mum saw Kitten I in the cage and maybe thinks it's dangerous.
She's been back in for food a couple of times and not looked too phased, but this morning Ruby was mewing a lot and the window was open so Mum was looking around the garden :( I still feel terrible about taking her babies away from her but I suppose we just need to keep telling ourselves we're doing the right thing.
Joy thinks Ruby is DEFINITELY under 8 weeks old, more like 6-7 weeks which is fantastic news as it means s/he should be fairly easy to tame. The fact that s/he is already spoon feeding after just one night is a great sign!
Fortunately, when Joy was here she managed to see the Mum as when we were in the yard with the traps, she was poking her nose under the gate. We put some food out and she soon wandered in so she got a good look at her and thinks that she does look a bit wide and therefore might be carrying another litter.
Our main priority at the moment, other than little Ruby, is to try and re-establish a feeding routine with Mum and kitten II so keep your fingers crossed that we see it soon!
Progress!!
Hows this for progress?!?!
That's just after one day! I was expecting this to happen at least a fortnight away!
The morning after the night before
Morning everyone!
So last night went pretty well, all things considered. The kitten was pretty settled for most of the night, though it wouldn't go near the jumper/towel in the litter tray.
We left our bedroom door open so we could hear it and just before we went to be bed we heard it wandering about the cage and knocking the little ball toy with a little bell in it.
At 4.30am we were woken up because it was mewing a lot. We tried going 'shhhhhhhhhhh' quietly through the door, which worked at first but then it wouldn't stop. I got out of bed and went and got a little bit of chicken from the fridge to see if it would take it. It was very scared and hissed at me a little bit, but then I think it must have realised I was trying to offer it some food as it started sniffing the chicken and licking its lips. It didn't take any though so I just left it in the cage.
Got back in bed and it started mewing again, so we figured we'd try and treat it like a baby and let it cry for a while before it settled and it worked. We think it might have even tried to get out of the cage again because I heard the bars clanging a bit, but it did eventually quieten down.
I've just gone in and peeked in the cage, and the chicken has gone and it's lay on the jumper looking around. It's managed to tuck itself inside it so just its head is poking out. Looks adorable :)
I'm glad it started sniffing the food I was giving it, I'm seeing that as progress!
Today, we're going to focus on trying to get it to eat from a spoon, then our hand. We're also going to just in the room and read or something so that it can see us but without staring at it or anything so that hopefully it'll see we aren't a threat to it.
Joy will be here soon with the trap for the other one!
Eep!
So last night went pretty well, all things considered. The kitten was pretty settled for most of the night, though it wouldn't go near the jumper/towel in the litter tray.
We left our bedroom door open so we could hear it and just before we went to be bed we heard it wandering about the cage and knocking the little ball toy with a little bell in it.
At 4.30am we were woken up because it was mewing a lot. We tried going 'shhhhhhhhhhh' quietly through the door, which worked at first but then it wouldn't stop. I got out of bed and went and got a little bit of chicken from the fridge to see if it would take it. It was very scared and hissed at me a little bit, but then I think it must have realised I was trying to offer it some food as it started sniffing the chicken and licking its lips. It didn't take any though so I just left it in the cage.
Got back in bed and it started mewing again, so we figured we'd try and treat it like a baby and let it cry for a while before it settled and it worked. We think it might have even tried to get out of the cage again because I heard the bars clanging a bit, but it did eventually quieten down.
I've just gone in and peeked in the cage, and the chicken has gone and it's lay on the jumper looking around. It's managed to tuck itself inside it so just its head is poking out. Looks adorable :)
I'm glad it started sniffing the food I was giving it, I'm seeing that as progress!
Today, we're going to focus on trying to get it to eat from a spoon, then our hand. We're also going to just in the room and read or something so that it can see us but without staring at it or anything so that hopefully it'll see we aren't a threat to it.
Joy will be here soon with the trap for the other one!
Eep!
Sunday, 13 July 2008
One down, one to go..
Well, we've caught one.
We put the cage outside with food in it, the mum and kitten wandered in. I went into the garden and the mum ran away so we just closed the cage door. The poor thing understandably went a bit nuts at first and was clawing at the cage to get out. It's calmed down a lot now, it even fell asleep before!
We're going to have to figure out a way to make the cage ultra secure so there's no chance of it escaping.
We're also going to have to try and clean the tray too! We took everything out of it to put it outside and just put a plate of mashed up pilchards in it. When the kitten went nuts, the pilchards went all over the place and it remains that way now!
We did manage to remove the dirty plate and put its proper food bowl in with some fresh food and water. We've also put in a snuggly jumper for it to lie on if it chooses to.
Tomorrow, Joy is coming first thing with the trap so we can try and catch the other.
Eep, it's all happening!!
If anybody has any helpful advice, it would be most welcome!
ON HOLD
Well.. the lady who was bringing the trap for us to catch them in tonight has just called to tell me she's coming tomorrow instead.
Not too much of a difference, but we're supposed to be in work on Tuesday so if we do catch them tomorrow, we're not going to have much time with them before we have to go to work the next day :(
Blahhhhhhh!
Not too much of a difference, but we're supposed to be in work on Tuesday so if we do catch them tomorrow, we're not going to have much time with them before we have to go to work the next day :(
Blahhhhhhh!
Names
This may be a bit premature as we haven't even GOT the kittens yet, and we've no idea of the sex, but we've been trying to think of names.
At first, I really liked Star, or Starla depending on the sex. Now I really like Satsuki and Mei (brownie points if you know where I got those from.) Obviously, their gender would determine the suitability of these names and I don't think Jon is that keen.
He came up with Isobel, which I like. His inspiration came from Roswell. Yup.
So if anyone has any suggestions, the more gender neutral, the better (until we know the sex) GIVE!
Mel xxx
p.s. The picture is their cage they'll be staying in til we can tame them a little. It was almost brown with rust when we got it, but we've managed to clean it up nicely. It's still a little bit rusty, but I don't think this will pose a threat to the kittens. Doesn't it look cosy??
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