3 ferals at snow

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jtbo

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I took that from video, if I combine that frame and one after that it looks like Miuku would be jamming, his hind leg looks like moving up and down, it does look quite hilarious, he just checked up Mouku that is sleeping nose against sofa there, bit hard to make it from photo, but his nose looks black on that pic.

This is stray that found me before these current cats, she was really nice cat, she wanted to sleep in bed and use same pillow as I did, also she could not get enough from sitting on lap, still missing her really.
http://jtbo.pp.fi/images/road_pics/n...staring_at.jpg

She did not liked from camera at all, sometimes managed to surprise her.
 

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She was beautiful. I felt so badly reading about what happened to her, it just bothered me for days. I am so sorry. But at least she knew love and caring from you.
 
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jtbo

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Originally Posted by KRZ

She was beautiful. I felt so badly reading about what happened to her, it just bothered me for days. I am so sorry. But at least she knew love and caring from you.
When I did boil pasta she came to meow if I did not took it off from stove at proper time, she learned very quickly what was normal time that I did cook it, she is perhaps in better place now.


But back to ferals (right when I clear tears, moment), I did play with mother cat today, she must be really bored at warehouse alone, she has some hiding place which I don't know of it takes quite some time from her to come see me, when I bring food etc, however I can't see where she walks, can only hear her steps.

Anyway she did hide behind the 'mountain' I did made for them long time ago, only head did show, talked with her and as she was there just watching I played with wand toy, it has kind of fox tail thing on it, she did look delighted to me as she chased jumping fox tail, I got lot of slow blinks after that, so I took one cat toy to her, it has five mouses at top of springs and inside of mouses is some kind of rattling things, I did show to her how it works and she was really curious, but she did not get near to it when I was around as she is rather scared of me, so she keeps safe distance, also some object between us is always good thing, then it is possible to get bit closer.

I try to catch her with trap during next week, hopefully I can get her so that I could get her to vet and indoors at least for a moment.


For boys I did build one large shelf near the ceiling, covered it with carpet and also installed curtain to provide some privacy, it is curtain which you can see trough, but I put two layers so maybe it is giving bit of privacy feeling so they can rest there too, I will put some walls to that shelf later with lot of peeking holes, so that it will function as cat house, it does need some pathways and stairs too, but at the moment they can jump to top of one bookself from handrest of sofa and from that bookself to that self I put up, but so far Miuku has examined that self from top of bookself, probably he will wait until evening gets darker and then jump on it.

At the moment they are looking tracktor plowing snow, they can spend hours on that window


I had a nap on their sofa again, they did examine lot of smells after that 2 hours that I did slept, have been really tired lately, when I did wake up I could hear small steps near me, but never allowing me to see cause of them.

Also I did put tail of one toy mouse, which they had taken off from mouse, to scratching post, oh how Miuku had flattened ears as he tried to get it off from post, which of course was not possible, tip of tail twisting wildly as he tried lying upside down on sofa and pawing tail on post, it is tiny things that get life of cat a bit more fun


Last night, or very late evening, I managed to see them from door, gave them few treats and Miuku did visited again my side of upstairs as I left door open for him, he is still bit scared and makes only really brief visits, but he is very curious as under 1 year cats are, so he will come again, slwly getting more courage.

They are really curious about that self now, their whole attention seem to be around it as they are constantly looking it even they are walking around the room.

If I find enough short screws, then I will make stairs for them too, but those stairs are perhaps not what they require. It took 25 screws to attach that shelf and curtain, but it will not fall off when attached enough firmly.
 

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Originally Posted by JTbo

I took that from video, if I combine that frame and one after that it looks like Miuku would be jamming, his hind leg looks like moving up and down, it does look quite hilarious, he just checked up Mouku that is sleeping nose against sofa there, bit hard to make it from photo, but his nose looks black on that pic.

This is stray that found me before these current cats, she was really nice cat, she wanted to sleep in bed and use same pillow as I did, also she could not get enough from sitting on lap, still missing her really.
http://jtbo.pp.fi/images/road_pics/n...staring_at.jpg

She did not liked from camera at all, sometimes managed to surprise her.
What a gorgeous kitty. I am sorry about her story. You are a wonderful lover of the cats
 
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jtbo

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Today I was allowed to bit over 1 meter from boys, that is around 3 feet. In dark room with Mouku sitting on sofa and Miuku hiding in his sleeping place, but Miuku too came to sofa, when I tossed some treats to them, Miuku even came to eat from plate that was barealy that 1 meter from me, they were very reserved, but still they did not run off even I did rise to standing and walked in there, I did put some treats to new shelf too.

Earlier Miuku did his routine of checking my side of upstairs, he does come to check every time when I leave door open, but he has not much courage, when he sees me, he does run away, even I do ignore him, but I think it took tiny bit longer today for him to run away, he will understand eventually that I am not a threat.

Oh Miuku did climb to cat tree and swatted toy that I have re-attached to it, I think he is behaving bit boss like sometimes, don't know how their relationship really is as I don't see them much, but they seem to be getting along, maybe Mouku is bit submissive as Miuku is usually one starting everything and he seem to push Mouku around a bit.

I did put treats on some places, they are not always looking for them, but maybe now they will as they did see where I did put them.

Some night I must try sleeping door open, but it means I will not get much of sleep, they are quite noisy when jumping and also when they come to my side of upstairs as there is over 1 foot high insulation material sheet and they have to climb/jump over that, it is there as that other side used to be cold room and I decided to leave it so that I can keep my side more free from allergens as I do have slight cat allergy, so now air does not flow from other side so freely.

It seem to take few days to get where we were after my trip, but I hope that there will be some progress too, somehow I think I saw perhaps delight in them when I came to give evening treats, perhaps they actually except to see me even they are still rather scared, Miuku did look like that he wanted to come closer, but then he just stopped middle of step, moving head down and looking with serious face, then moving head higher and looking like if he would be thinking very hard, but eventually he did put bit more distance between us, moving really slowly, stopping, looking back and then again moving, kind if he would not be sure how he will do.

Can't see them at morning anymore as they go to sleep after 5am as light level starts to increase around then, soon even evenings are really short, and it is not long time until nights are very bright again.
 

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Sounds like you're making great progress!!


Wishing you and your boys and mother cat lots and lots of Love and Luck!!
 
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jtbo

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I made crude model from cat room with Sketchup, it has not all the stuff yet in it, but I think that it gives already some kind of picture from the room.





I did put some more shelves to wall so they act as stairs for rest area near ceiling, also I did make ramp which they can climb to one shelf so it is not necessary to jump, also put old Snoopy towel on one sheet of wood and installed that so that Miuku can climb up of vertical wall, which he so often did like to do at warehouse.

I did also cover top part of window too, hoping to get room bit darker so that they would come out bit earlier and stay in room bit later, so it would be so late when I have to go there.

They don't come out from hiding during the day, they may take a peek so that they are not seen, but there is nothing that would lure them out from their dark curtain covered hiding place, they will not come even to drink, but they have to soon, as in two months there is no more dark nights, 3 months and sun barely goes behind trees at night.
 
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jtbo

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Took a nap again at cat sofa, my lights went out right after I closed my eyes, then there was noise of little feet stomping quite close, which I did woke up, but then it was again perfectly silent, after managed to put pieces together and realized that I am at cat sofa, looking long shadows being caster from trees, meaining I had over slept and their feeding time was almost overdue, so making dinner for cats and feeding + playing with mother cat was on order.

I had really nice playtime with Mauku, the mother cat, she stole wand toy several times and allowed me to come and pickup it even that was right next to her touching her all the way, she had lot of fun too I think, at one point she got so excited that she chased toy at air too, then she suddenly realises that I'm no more than 1 feet from her and she walks further away, but flick of wand toy was too much and she jumps on it from bit over 2 meters (6 feet?) with single leap taking wand toy from my hand like she would be stealing candy from the kid.

Wet food in jelly kind of thing for mother cat which she really loves and fish from Alaska to boys, fish need to be boiled well, then smashed to small pieces, also I use quite bit of water in it as they should drink bit more. Especially as there is only one dinner at late afternoon, rest of time they eat dry food.

Mouku quite often walks his tail lifted from the base and then straight down, I have read that it was sign of dislike, but with cat whole body should be read, not only tail, he seem to do that every time he starts walking, no matter if he sits or lies down before that. Now his tail is quite large, so maybe he just tries to avoid his tail dragging the ground.

Shedding is quite extensive, there are many type of fur I don't even know names of, but there is less places where is no fur than where is fur, just a two weeks gone and when I sleep on sofa I get fur coat for free

Fur is not possible to remove, well maybe with vacuum cleaner, but I will not introduce that monster yet to them, but their fur sticks, washing machine cleans the fur coating of black clothes and maybe evens it with all clothes, but even picking up with fingers seem to be quite a job as fur sticks and fingers slip.
So I have clothing for visiting cats separated from other clothing, also there is my cat allergy plaing part of, bit runny nose, but so far no eye issues.

Scooping litter boxes, now that is one thing which is surprisingly lot of work, but I have one rather large box, it is 3 foot x 5 foot, there is second box too which is more traditional in size, but it is deeper one, those are ones that boycats have, then mother cat has 3 smaller ones which are at warehouse, those were actually for all of them as I wanted to teach them to use those boxes.

I think positive sides win still by far even there is quite bit of work, but seeing Miuku watching out of window with tip of tail twitching and then Mouku to sneak attack that moving tail which again leads to bit of race and brotherly wrestling is quite nice


Also seeing them sitting on window side by side and then lying on sofa is nice too.

Now I'm laughing out loud, as I did bolted their scratching post to floor, it was moving a lot before, now Miuku was very puzzled of what has happened to scratching post, he pulled it with all his strenght and then started sniffing it and examining as something clearly is different, he even jumps to it trying to knock it down, but it does not move, so he goes to eat and then tries again or then just happily scratching happily knowing that finally post does not escape even from bit more serious scratching session


Reminds me when they were tiny furballs still learning to solid food, they did not yet stay in warehouse during days, so one day I moved one big mirror into warehouse, I put it on ground on it's side, right to where they did enter to warehouse, mother cat did see it first, she frozed at instant when she saw herself, just stared the image, then slowly moved a bit lower, freezes as image is following, tries to sniff at image, doing tiny movements to all directions, then jumps behind of mirror, she did look quite a lost when there was nothing, finally she tried to paw the image and found out it is nothing of danger.

So tiny kittens come next, not a long when there was arched backs, sideways toe stepping and very much of jumping and large tails, they did chase their image, trying to sneak or outrun it, jumping behind the mirror, weeks of fun, I put some toys at front of mirror and they played with toys and sometimes tried to steal toy from mirror too, mother cat was happy to leave them play with mirror while she was checking territory or something like that, kittens did stay easily safety of warehouse with that toy.

So today I did introduce them new mirror, they do know what mirror is already, but it did cause some curiosity, ramp to upper levels goes front of the mirror, and under it is one secret quite well sheltered area, so they should have nice time playing with that too.

As they are used to running and jumping at warehouse, I try to make all pathways and shelves such that they can leap from and to them with some speed, so everything is build too strong and too large, so that I don't need to worry about them hurting themselves.

Oh, these are not much afraid of loud noises, when snowplow goes past at full speed, they jump into window to see what is that odd sound, instead of hiding, at warehouse there was no soundproofing at all and they did not see all those noises, so they know sounds but have not necessarily seen what makes those sounds and they are very curious of them.
 

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Oh that is FABULOUS! These are very lucky kitties - they have NO idea just how spoiled they are - and are going to be!


Oh, I was posting at the same time you gave such a lovely long update. I was laughing too hard at Miuku trying to knock over the now sturdy scratchy post, and especially Mouku attacking Miuku's twitching tail!
 
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jtbo

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Originally Posted by LDG

Oh that is FABULOUS! These are very lucky kitties - they have NO idea just how spoiled they are - and are going to be!


Oh, I was posting at the same time you gave such a lovely long update. I was laughing too hard at Miuku trying to knock over the now sturdy scratchy post, and especially Mouku attacking Miuku's twitching tail!
That is one of great things having a cat it will give many good laughs, have too and you double the amount of laugh and if it is true that laughter extends your life as saying goes, then in theory with enough many feline companions we live forever


Mouku starts to get used to me a bit, I guess, when in dark room he now runs after treats when I toss them, he did lie on sofa like he would own it, very relaxed when I came in, Miuku could be only heard of, he did battle with himself, I could hear him scratching mattresses behind the curtain as he probably wanted to get treats too, but as it was now bit earlier he was not yet so confident as Mouku was, I was there 45mins early as I need to do many things before I go to sleep.

I could see him peeking under the curtain, just barely as it is so dark in there that it is difficult me to see, but then he did hide again.

Miuku and also Mouku do scratch things when they are facing situation where they would like to do something, but are bit too afraid, it is also sign that soon he will try a bit and finds there is no real danger, so scratching is good too and there is nothing they would not be allowed to scratch on, however they seem to understand quite well to scratch stuff that can take scratching and also their post is very much used there.

I think they now race to find as many of those treats possible competing which one gets more, at least there is lot of jumping and running going on
 

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I love how you have their room set up.
I think they are really beginning to get settled in!!


They are truely lucky cats to have someone like you caring for them!!
 
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jtbo

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Originally Posted by alexandrajames

I love how you have their room set up.
I think they are really beginning to get settled in!!


They are truely lucky cats to have someone like you caring for them!!
I have tried to make room arrangement the way how cat would arrange it, cat prefers place to hide, where they can see and also they like from speed, so I have tried to maintain place such that they can run in circles when they decide to do that. What can't be seen from mock up pic, is that they can actually go under bookself and sofa too, they often stalk each other from such places.

There is still some construction left to be done, mainly those pathways to near ceiling and rest are to other side of room + bridge between resting areas.

When their living area is something they do like and can feel is their own, I think they also adjust to indoor life a lot easier.
 

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I think Miuku and Mouku are very lucky to have you taking such great care of them!


I can see it now in my head the two of them chasing and playing with each other
They truly have a wonderful place to live!

I can hear Luna playing at night, but I'm am sure she gets lonely sometimes. I try to leave toys and treats out in different spots and such to try and make it where she won't get so bored. Maybe one day soon I can give her more access to the whole house where she can run and play. We also have a dog so maybe they can be pals, who knows (I only hope).

You are a very talented, creative, and kind-hearted person! I can only imagine the fun Miuku and Mouku are having.
It puts a smile on my face
 
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jtbo

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Originally Posted by alexandrajames

I think Miuku and Mouku are very lucky to have you taking such great care of them!


I can see it now in my head the two of them chasing and playing with each other
They truly have a wonderful place to live!

I can hear Luna playing at night, but I'm am sure she gets lonely sometimes. I try to leave toys and treats out in different spots and such to try and make it where she won't get so bored. Maybe one day soon I can give her more access to the whole house where she can run and play. We also have a dog so maybe they can be pals, who knows (I only hope).

You are a very talented, creative, and kind-hearted person! I can only imagine the fun Miuku and Mouku are having.
It puts a smile on my face
You are making me blush now


I have some string similar to one used in parachutes, cats seem not to care how fancy toy is, 2-3 foot of string, make knot near other end then just flick it, twist it, make it look like moving tail and Luna might get interested from it after few times.

I did taught Mouku to play first, I was other side of door and Mouku was outside on stairs, I did move string and door kept me hidden, even he did know I was behind the door it did not bother too much, he was so curious about that string that he started playing, it was only few times touching string with paw at first, during days playtime got bit longer and slowly I did reveal that at other end of string I was doing some things to string, sometimes he was too scared to play, sometimes he had better days, Miuku learned playing quite bit later, but he had no fear after he started to play.

But it was really little tiny tests that they did made first and there was no hope of them coming to play if they saw me, from there very slowly we did progress to situation where they did except playtime, they used to sit and stair to kitchen door if I was late from playtime.

Currently we are not quite there, rarely they do play with string and only during the night, but I think that eventually they learn to play again, it is just bit slow process.

So if you can get string so that there is something between you and Luna, also so that Luna has clear escape route to hiding spot, I think then she may come and test string a bit, after that point I think progress to playing stage can come quite quickly and after playing they change really fast.
 

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Playing really is a great tool of socialization! Then they focus on the toy, not the scary giant at the end of it.


Of course the problem is when they're terrified of the toy. Chumley took quite a fright at first! I had to learn how to make it move really slowly, which isn't so easy.
 
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jtbo

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Also they will be watching that other hand which is not holding toy, making that one to look harmless is also good thing, I keep fingers curled and rest that hand at top of my leg as I sit on my legs when playing with cat, so that I look smaller, also trying to remember at the same time to keep my back straight, not to look to them into eyes and trying not laugh out loud, it is not easy thing to do, imo.
However it is very rewarding as it is with everything, more effort you put in, more you can gain, that is at least what I believe in life


Cat can spot even tiniest movements of so small that I sometimes did not see tip of string move yet, when they did attack on it, I did twist (well kind of rolling) string between my two fingers which makes string's tip to move, but it sometimes requires lot of twisting for little movement, they do like it when tip of string goes up and down without rest of string moving, it is also easy to make tip of string shaking, little flick with finger and string 'tries to escape' and so on, even I have a lot of other kind of toys, mices which have rattling thing iside them or squicking sound and string are ones they enjoy the most.
Mother cat is only one that like from wand toy that has foxtail kind of thing, even reckless Miuku seem to be afraid of that toy, so it is mother cat's own fun.

Photography as hobby teaches to move slowly, I'm not very good at it, but sometimes I just get lucky



http://jtbo.pp.fi/images/road_pics/b...ky_lahelta.jpg

http://jtbo.pp.fi/images/road_pics/b...seup_small.jpg
 

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WOW, you are a very talented, accomplished photographer. Those photos are very beautiful and alluring. Thanks for sharing... Maybe sometime, soon, the cats will pose for you
 

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Your room set-up is incredible and I just love the diagram and how it shows the view from above. The shelves are just a great addition and the little fencing around the top shelf was a great idea.
And they can peek through the corner of the little fence to see who is at the door. The kitties are very lucky to have you and such a great place to live and play. Very, Very
cool
 
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jtbo

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I should apply 2nd round of Revolution (well, actually Stronghold but usage is same) to boys during the weekend, but if I try to grab them, they will bat with claws and bite with teeths, at least that is what I think.

How to apply it to untamed ferals? There really should be a way and such way that does not make them loose their tiny amount of trust on me.
 
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