3 ferals at snow

[jtbo]

Have you had a cat that tries to eat everything he encounters first time?

Tiger is such.

I made some fudge, had them pieces on plate at my computer desk as I did go to get water, when I come back I see Tiger gently picking up one piece and leaps down and starts chewing fudge like if he had found something that is out of this world good stuff.

Oh boy, trying to get candy away from him and he looks with round eyes, opening mouth wide and trying to lick fudge off from his teeth, "I did not do it, not me, haven't done anything, I swear", then move to lick his paws and doing wash up routine.

Well, he will probably not die for small piece he ate, but it can't be very good for his teeth as it is not good for mine...

Yesterday evening I was on bed using my laptop, Tiger climbs to bed and goes to sleep at leg end, Miuku comes and settles next to laptop, reaches with paw so that he can 'hold' me from hand, then Panther comes and settles on top of my back, even there is still hostility between Tiger and Panther, there are moments when they are tolerating each other, they eat from same bowl at same time and can sleep next to each other at times as long as there is cat's length apart, however sometimes there comes staring and hissing, then growling, but at least they are not running for fight at the moment they spot each other.

And Mauku is still hiding, but she is looking now from her hiding place, her little nose peeks from entry hole to see if there is possibility of wet food, but she is mostly hiding, not really being social with others either, but maybe with time. I did gave her warm blankets to her hiding place (it is wooden box about 2ft from ground, attached to wall, two entry holes and two peek holes), she was afraid of blanket first, but then she realized withing a day that it is so much better to rest on fleece blanket than on hard wood. I have to try to keep costs down so cat room is not going to be heated much during winter time, so there is only +12C now, most don't spend time there anyway, they only play there but mostly they are enjoying bird 'o vision at my side of upstairs, also they like to climb to cat bed that is at near ceiling, they see everything from there and also can stay mostly hidden, so most of them get warm place to sleep, only issue is with Mauku as she is naturally too scared to come this side.

So can't really leave cat room completely without heating either, but maybe I try to make her hiding place warm instead of whole room. Mostly I'm heating only one room during winter, downstairs I keep only partly warmed, there is no point keeping all space fully heated when I'm mostly in one room.

 

[jtbo]

Not much new here, Mauku is still hiding, not much of any kind of progress that I can see, sometimes, she is coming near, but only because she is hungry and she is not coming to other side so she just waits for her daily dinner to be served.

Fixing boys did make them stop their attempts to kill each other, but it has not reduced amount of fighting at all, still they are fighting several times in a day and not sharing same space, usually, even though sometimes they can make a mistake and sleep next to each other, but at least they are civil most of the time.

Mouku is his own shy/not shy himself, I can pick him up sometimes now, but sometimes he just runs away when he sees me, still every night he is sleeping leg end of my bed, actually he is wedging himself between my ankles/legs, but only after I have fallen asleep.

Miuku is sleeping upside down quite a lot, he starts to sleep normally, but not too long and he turns upside down. I need to upload pic sometime when I have finished rebuilding my computer as it decided to have enough recently.

Has been cold days, -24C to -30C, some cats are visiting warehouse, I can see pawprints, food disappearing and some items are changing places, but never I have caught even a glimpse and they have not visited on yard, either, but they come from other side of warehouse, visit at warehouse and go back where they came from, or maybe there is only one, can't tell, can't be most enjoyable living outside at this time of year.

Miuku did want to go into stairs really badly, so he sneaked there without permission, however at stairs it is as cold as outside and at that momement there was .-30C, he stopped in a snap, tail did go against ground and he stand there small moment not moving at all, only nose was moving a bit as he sniffed air, then tail move bit up and few quick forwards movements letting me know how he feels from jumping freezing cold staircase and very quickly turned around and jumped back inside, has not had much of interest to stairs after that :lol3:

He forgets soon enough and ritual will be repeated of course, but that is how cold there is now.

I'm not sure if I have now worse cat allergy than before, but after I caught Mauku I have had sore throat, ears, eyes itching, and I have to wipe my nose for hours every time I wake up. Then there is wheezing breath too that comes and goes, has been too long to be any flu or similar, so I except mold or cat allergy getting worse. If I stay outside there are no symptoms but quite difficult to do at these temperatures.

I'm just hoping it will pass soon, but it has been months worth of suffering already.

 

[jtbo]

There was small sign of Mauku progressing a bit, I guess at least that it was such.

I feed wet food in my room and Mauku is staying at cat room, but today as I put food to bowl and when others had eaten, she came to and ate for 20minutes while I was sitting at desk few meters away, my back was towards her, so she probably felt I was no threat then.

Later I came back from downstairs and she was again at my side of upstairs, bit shocked first, but then she did continue to explore room a bit, carefully sniffed every object for few minutes until she felt too scared and did go away.

Probably will take again many days until she returns, but she has not visited this side of upstairs since I captured her and that was months ago.

Very cold weather now, -30C outside, lot of mice around rattling in walls, Tiger has caught few from stairs where he likes to stalk them, can't understand how he is not freezing to death in such cold, but there he wants to go and stay there long periods of time stalking.

Mouku is again twice the size he was at summer, quite heavy too, he gets that huge winter coat so you don't see him legs from fur.

 

[jtbo]

Ah, Mauku is certainly taking small steps, she did eat today twice in my side of upstairs, she did not even ran away when Tiger attempted to get her off from 'his' food, he learned fast who is chasing whom as he attempted that one. I got even slow blinks from Mauku, she is clearly starting to accept her new living quarters.

I did even touch her a bit, immediately she started getting away, but found out that she was quite high and good tasting food is up here so she was between two options, to jump or to eat, looking nervously both options. As she found out that I'm not going to eat her and also that her fur was indeed still intact even I did touch it, she considered eating while balancing at edge of shelf would be best course of action.

Well, it takes small things to learn touching does not hurt or is horrible, learning to be in same room without fearing a lot is also something that should be learned still, so we are still quite far from what we used to have really long time ago.

She is always bit scared looking when she sees me, but when I go near her sleeping place and offer her my finger, she does not bite, examines closely and then gets bit scared and retreats a bit. Few times a day, same routine. Not much change there, but at least she is now where I can see her, month ago she was just hiding so I really did not see her for several months.

 

[jtbo]

Mauku took big step today, she has been spying us trough cat door quite a while now and she certainly knows what food sounds like, so I have been feeding others near cat door so she can see easily food and other ones eating, also how I put food to bowl.

She has attempted to join to feeding few times, opens a little bit of cat door and then backs up as no enough of courage.

But today after few attempts she decided that it is ok to come and she came and ate next to others and me, even when I did got up she continued eating and was looking happy and bit relaxed if anything. Slowly blinking again as she does.

So she is now routinely using cat door and comes to eat when she wants, also she starts to be ok with feeding so she can get wet food same time with other ones, she really loves that stuff. Might take time, but perhaps she will some day join to others to window so she can see the birds outside, I'm sure it would make a lot for her well being as it can't be good for her to sit in single room whole time without a view to outside.

Oh yes, there is some problem in cat room window, it gets lot of ice, so I had to add insulation material between windows which of course made view to disappear.

There is single dim LED light so she can find nice shade, also there are ton of hiding places and play castles, but still I think she should get some view to outside too. Well, maybe in month or two she will have enough courage to start exploring this other room a bit more.

Little iita is progressing too, she sometimes stares at me long time, then she jumps rights next to me if I'm at bed and pushes her chin against my hand. She has bit of fur issues, kind of packed fur as she does not allow to brush her fur at all, so slowly I have been working with cleaning that mess, also slowly she is finding how it is helpful what I do, so after some time I think I can get worst cut out and also get her taught to like from brushing. She already rubs her cheek against brush when I pickup a brush, but actual brushing part is still bit scary for her.

Amount of work is quite massive, but slowly they are progressing, Miuku, Panther and Tiger are very much tame ones, Miuku being bit shy, but he has learned that jumping next to me on bed is ok, however he does not prefer to sleep at bed, unlike Mouku who does not sleep anywhere else than at bed, leaning against my leg or on top of my legs, still he is scared sometimes so much that runs away from me, there is no logic with his behavior in that sense, but I did see first time how he looks if his eyes are not huge.
You see his eyes are always kind of large, or huge, but now I did see first time when he was near me he was enough relaxed to have normal size eyes, he was quite tired tough, few pats to top of head (his favorite) and he did fell to his side like in slow motion and was happily sleeping upper body on top of my leg and rest of him on bed, belly exposed as he turned bit to his back as he did fell to his side.

Mouku does purr also, but his purring is different, it is very quite and quite shallow, also very fast, I guess he is not quite fully trusting yet so he does not purr as loudly as other ones.

Panther, Miuku and Tiger purr quite well, Tiger purrs very little tough, can't remember hearing Iita purr ever, she is probably too scared still, also Mauku certainly is not purring, she is not making any noises, not after capturing her as then she did cry a bit because so scared.

I doubt that she will ever be such tame that she would purr, she is already well past 5 years, I think she is around 7 now, not sure how many years she still has as she has had quite rough life, but that is something impossible to know, she could live to 17 years old, it is not very exact I think.

 

[jtbo]

I did found what is food that makes Mauku to go crazy, Christmas ham, she learned to eat from hand and also accept bump to cheek in single event as I gave her that stuff, she was almost putting her paws against my knee to get more of the stuff, but did not quite had courage to do that. She was completely crazy for that stuff, so I think that I get her socialized bit better in future if she keeps that affection of hers to ham, will be interesting to see how things will develop in the future.

 

[jtbo]

Mauku has taken big steps now.

I have been able to feed her from hand, also to touch her head while she eats, all thanks to ham.

She also has learned to come eat to 'my' side of upstairs, but also she has started to sit under the chair after eating, hour, sometimes several, she just sits there, back towards me, pretty much hidden as I have made underside of chair to be hiding place with cardboard.

She also seem to like from piano music as she seem to come to sit there when I play piano music from yt.

Another thing is that she is not bolting off when I move around in a room, she just observes what happens around her, especially she pays attention when I pick some other cat up, she is looking much more carefully then. So slowly she learns that there is no danger here, but it surely takes a long time, daily attempts of nearly 6 months I think now.

I hope that she will some day be enough brave to go look outside from window so she would see birds outside. She di look today a lot towards window too, also structure which others use as their main sleeping place, which is near ceiling at front of window, as others climbed there she did look that like if she would wanted to go there, but not yet she had courage for that adventure.

I'm not sure what is her relationship with others, I have seen her playing with Tiger once, but most of time she seem to be alone and others seem not to notice her much, but then again sometimes Mouku is resting next to her in her hiding place other side of upstairs, so there probably is no trouble, but I don't know if there is much of social activity with them either.

She is mostly still when I see her, that is why I don't have idea about how things are between them.

Sometimes I hear lot of chasing from other side and when I open the door everyone freezes on their places and stay there until I leave, it is bit like some comedy or such, maybe I should put camera there...

 

[jtbo]

Mauku has taken another step now, she is sleeping under the chair, just bed length away from me, she has been sleeping there for few hours already and even when I walked past her she just looked a bit, turned around and continued to sleep.

This is quite exiting, she is fastly getting more tolerant, day after day, maybe she is learning soon that she can live perfectly well at this side too, like all the others have been doing, they just play and use litter box at other side of upstairs as there is not much of heating and also no proper view to outside either because I had to insulate window to avoid going bankrupt, also thick layer of ice in window inside of room was not something good.

She is now having much warmer sleeping place and also she sees much more of interaction between myself and rest of the gang, so in theory she should get much more comfortable quite quick.

I tend to worry about happiness of them, so it is quite bit of burden off now that she starts to find how she can live freely indoors without threats, certainly must make her much happier.

At least her breathing rate seems rather relaxed now, I can easily see her black and white side moving from here, she has nose pointing opposite direction where I am.

Mouku is again my leg warmer, sleeping against my leg, he does prefer to put his head against me when sleeping, still very shy most of the time, but his place of sleeping is always against me, no shy in there at all, he is as weird as always, but at least I can pick him up most of the time now, even he does sometimes runs hiding from me if I just happen to look towards his general direction, yeah, weird cat he is and very big one, with that winter coat of his he is a huge one, not very heavy, but his width is quite impressive indeed, also I'm not sure why, but Panther for example is a lot smaller than Mouku or Miuku, he is soon 2 years old, but he is smaller than older boys at that age, I can still lift him easily with one hand.

Iita has of course still not grown at all, she is palm cat. Maybe they just have miniature cat genes, good bit is they don't eat nearly as much as Tiger, which is easily heaviest of the bunch, but not largest and not fat at all, but he is really strong for his size and does that boy eat, easily twice what other ones eat, of course he does move at least twice as much and always at very fast.
I have got lot of cuts from him as he has bit too much speed sometimes, not so great aiming and he plays very rough, any toy mouse is destroyed in seconds with his clawing and biting.

For summer I hope to be able to open upstairs so that they can run around the chimney, it should be good for their health.

 

[ldg]

As always, I've really enjoyed catching up on the activities of your clowder!

Mouku and Miuku make me laugh - one friendly but doesn't want to sleep on the bed, the other still thinks you're somewhat scary monster, but sleeps on you. :lol3: Cats can be so silly!

And YAY for Mauku! Slowly, slowly she is learning trust. Surely it should go more quickly now that she can watch you with the others.

Do you have a way to play music? If she likes the piano music, try harp music. :nod: This seems to be so very soothing for kitties in general, but especially feral cats.

So - are all the kitties fixed now? It may not have helped the rivalry, but hopefully it has helped the spraying? :cross:

And as for your allergies, I don't know what it would be called there, but here we can buy an allergy medication with the active ingredient being pseudoephedrine. I have very bad cat allergies but live in the RV with 8 of them. It's been 10 1/2 years now since our first rescues, and I my allergies have definitely gotten much better (after a couple of years, actually). But those first few years, if I couldn't use that allergy product, I'm not quite sure what I would have done, it was quite miserable. :lol3: I also keep eye drops to help with the redness and itching, and they work quite well. :nod: I just try to be very careful to wash my hands after any petting, and that does help.

 

[jtbo]

As always, I've really enjoyed catching up on the activities of your clowder!

Mouku and Miuku make me laugh - one friendly but doesn't want to sleep on the bed, the other still thinks you're somewhat scary monster, but sleeps on you. :lol3: Cats can be so silly!

And YAY for Mauku! Slowly, slowly she is learning trust. Surely it should go more quickly now that she can watch you with the others.

Do you have a way to play music? If she likes the piano music, try harp music. :nod: This seems to be so very soothing for kitties in general, but especially feral cats.

So - are all the kitties fixed now? It may not have helped the rivalry, but hopefully it has helped the spraying? :cross:

And as for your allergies, I don't know what it would be called there, but here we can buy an allergy medication with the active ingredient being pseudoephedrine. I have very bad cat allergies but live in the RV with 8 of them. It's been 10 1/2 years now since our first rescues, and I my allergies have definitely gotten much better (after a couple of years, actually). But those first few years, if I couldn't use that allergy product, I'm not quite sure what I would have done, it was quite miserable. :lol3: I also keep eye drops to help with the redness and itching, and they work quite well. :nod: I just try to be very careful to wash my hands after any petting, and that does help.

She seem not to like so much from harp music, piano music seem to work best for her but she is not much scared even if I watch a movie, chair is actually there to act as speaker stand and from top of the speaker there goes plank to shelf that is near ceiling where is cardboard cat castle, but to get to plank one needs to jump nearly to 4ft high, which is no problem for them if they really want to go there. It is mostly Panther that is there as he is one who can jump really well.

Everyone has been fixed and there has indeed been less incidents now, Panther and Tiger still takes sometimes small matches of paw pow champion and Panther likes to chase Mauku away, but he has been more tolerant as he has found out getting belly rub torture on lap after each time he does that, bit overload of petting is so nice teaching method as it does not scare, it is not too much of discomfort either and it does take fight out of him. Usually he goes and takes nap after such

I'm really bankrupt though and looks like at summer there is no way to cover all the bills anymore, so I'm not sure how much I can do, allergies I probably just have to suffer and Miuku is not helping as he likes to rub his cheek and top of his head against my nose several times a day...

Already I'm attempting sell almost everything I have got, but still after the summer it might be that I loose the house and can't even buy food, but sometimes miracles do happen, just not sure if it will be the case this time. Realistically I will not have then possibility to take care of cats at all, not sure what future will bring.

 

[jtbo]

I wonder how things will change now as I'm attempting to get them used to new cat litter.

As I found free source of sawdust, I can use that as a cat litter, as has been tradition for tens of years at rural areas and also that is nature friendly option.

Of course it is not very clumping kind, maybe, not perfectly sure about that as I'm just about start to change over to it.

However that cat litter has been around 50% of costs currently, so with free alternative is more than a welcome, even if it is bit more work.

Ah, Mouku decided to do proof reading, he followed lines of text with nose touching the screen trying to get scent from letters, then he licked text twice so I guess that is approval....


Mauku has been sleeping under the chair now full time, she has found that it is ok to be at same side of door where I'm at, but also today she has started sleeping next to chair at open and I have been around 3-4 feet away from her, even when I did walk right next to her as I did go to downstairs and only way is to go right past her, she just did look at me, but did not even got up for such minor thing.

Certainly she is not letting me touch her and also she is not letting anyone else to touch her, except for iita, if Panther comes even close to her she hisses to him, they are not best friends which is probably because Panther is always attempting to spook others by leaping great distances without running and landing right behind of other cat, which then makes them spooked as he all of sudden stomps so close.

Panther is great jumper though, he can leap well over 6ft from stand still and what it looks like to be from straight legs, he is not even getting low like they often do before jumping, he can jump that way that it looks very effortless when he does such leap, also over 3ft straight up and landing on shelf same way, he just suddenly becomes airborne, that is how it looks.
I guess he uses his ankles to do that, but I'm not sure, for his weight he is rather strong and because he is so light he can jump quite a well, also he can land from quite high without making any kind of sound, which is quite impressive, when others make more or even more noise when landing, especially Tiger, he is like a drummer even when jogging, yet alone when he lands from a jump it is like hitting floor with a fists.

I actually have made Mauku to play recently, those few toy mouses that still are usable (Tiger destroys them like a food), I played with them next to her and got her to paw one, then she got into game and swing toy mouse all over the room running behind it, progress is happening, but there is still long way to go with her, not sure if she will be very tame ever, but at least she is not scared full time now.

 

[jtbo]

Today I feel really terrible.

Reason for that is that I forgot Tiger to stairs for whole night. It happened so that there was a mouse at staircase and I let Tiger to hunt, this was at late evening, then I did read at the bed, however I did fall to sleep with lights on and slept soundly until the morning.

It was -7C and even bit colder during the night, when I woke up it took a while until I heard Tiger making lot of noise at staircase, must be first time that he jumped in without hesitating.

He was perfectly ok though, there is some insulation material where he made nest for a night, so he really had not much of cold, but surely he was hungry, now he is already yelling at the door that he wants to go back.

But certainly made me feel bad, what if it has been -30C...

 

[jtbo]

It is quite amusing to follow Mauku's shy adjusting to her surroundings, she explores one foot more of the room every week, but it is literally one foot in a week pace as she will not take even single step further into room until that much time has passed.

She has now however took bit bigger bite and travelled two feets and found cat hideout / nest that is in computer table cabinet, there is large door which I made hole for cat to fit in and inside is old thick blankets which make it soft and comfy place to sleep at, also lot more privacy than at open floor which she did try many nights after moving one foot from under the chair.

She has escaped from there few times as I have moved around, but she always has returned to that spot, must be that she likes that place and soon she probably will learn to see how she is perfectly safe there even I do move around.

Yesterday we did play with straw, she actually loves to play with that when I move it around at front of her, it is just few times batting it and maybe bit of teeth action, until she gets bit restless, gets up and starts to look place to hide, but I guess every bit counts.

I would say she is starting to be tamest level she has ever been now, which is great process in my books at least.

All thanks to ham, that did open some route to her mind so that she started all of sudden to relax and slowly get more tame. It is not that long that I gave her ham first time and at that point she was at top shelf and started to turn on her side, showing teeth when I approached her, she was getting ready to defend her, that scared she was.


I don't know if cat's really recognize their 'kids' when they grow up, I know that Mouku has been often cat length away from Mauku when I have gone to other side of upstairs, but I don't know if she recognizes Mouku as her son, also I'm not sure if Mouku has been attempting to encourage Mauku to come my side of upstairs, or what is reason he has been near her.

As Mauku has moved my side of upstairs she has been mostly alone and moving away if someone comes close, except with iita.

She has now observed how Mouku is coming every evening to leg end of my bed and throws himself against my leg, not gently setting down, but on purpose falling on his side so that he falls against my leg, I guess it is a cat thing to make known that this is where I am going to sleep or something.

I did read that there usually is Alpha cat in multicat houses, Tiger is noisiest, most active and forces himself to food bowl plowing trough others, so I would guess that is sign of such. He is loud, makes lot of noises and likes to rip everything in pieces, but he is also very sweet one, borders the line of active and annoying at times though. Also there is 5 second rule when picking him up, that is time he is perfectly fine with being picked up, after that he starts to slowly go into panic, there has been no progress at all with that, but when put down he comes to bump against leg, being vocal and asking to be pet, so whatever his panic is it is only when holding him.
Maximum that he can be held is perhaps 30 seconds, after that he uses all his might and it is impossible to hold him, his strength is easily ten times of that of Miuku and Miuku is a lot bigger.
Maybe that is why he is such a bully at feeding times too, he has strength to back it all up, I think that only Mauku comes even close to his strength.

When training to being picked up and lifting them, their strength is quite easy to estimate as with each comes a time when they are getting bit nervous and trying to flee, despite being high above floor, so then I have to hold them tight until I can lower them, so that they don't hurt themselves. Of course with Mauku such is not possible, but I still remember time when she bit me to arm, multiple times.

Can't wait for summer to come, opening up upstairs so that they can run around the chimney is something I look forward to as that will make some interesting events. It is incredible speed that they can run in that circle race, it is about one second a lap and there are many corners + one tight opening to squeeze trough, bit over 10 meters long total so that is over 20mph average speed that I clocked when Miuku and Mouku were small.
It is currently too cold to keep whole upstairs warm, heating bill is enough bad already.

 

[jtbo]

Poor Mauku, she is so confused at times, but at least she is finding out more day after day.

Now I was giving her few bits of ham, which is bit of ritual, then I did tap her head gently, she started jabbing my hand with claws on at very rapid pace, but not very hard, just letting know that don't never ever do that again, of course I had to test it again, this time she just stomped the floor next to my hand and chewed ham at the same time, I did not 'torture' her with third small piece, just let her eat, but she did not retreat which is what she has done before.

Oh yes, she has advanced another foot, now she is under the table, next to box she used for a moment, slowly she is working towards the window foot by every few days, at this rate it will take her only about a month to get to window, I wonder if climbing will take as long and will that result cat in mid air or just one that peeks over the obstacle every now and then for few days

She is also not bolting away anymore, even stretches before moving and clearly starting to act much more like rest of them.

But Tiger in other hand has started to get moments of love bug sickness, there was loud purr yesterday and I could not tell who is purring constantly, I did see Tiger looking at me so I picked him up to train him a bit for being picked up, whole cat was vibrating and he did not know how he wanted to be, rubbing himself a lot against my hand. This morning he then came to bed purring again loudly and asking to be pet. Oh yes and he has now twice rested at leg end of bed for few moments, so there is something happening to him.

Everyone has been more active recently, lot of chasing and play fighting, even Miuku has been part of that, they used to do some of that at other side of upstairs but now that Mauku is at this side they have started to play at this side of upstairs. I wonder why such is and what role Mauku really has as if playing moves to where she resides.

 

[jtbo]

Mauku is doing great, she has slept next to my feet under the table, also I have started to get her used to touching so small touches now and then, she is clearly getting more used to that as she is not clawing me anymore from that, also she comes sometimes next to my bed very slowly and quietly, then peeks over the edge by rising her head and front section up very slowly, as she notices that I have noticed, she very slowly 'sinks' down again and walks away, so she is curious and more brave every day.

Two of the cats have bad fur issues, their fur forms really easily those hard fur 'chunks' which are impossible to remove any other way than cutting them out, trouble is those are two shy ones that won't let me brush or cut those off, that is until very recently that they have started to allow me to cut them off.

Problem is that chunks are formed right next to skin, so it is quite challenging to cut them out, but also cutting one out leaves bare skin visible, but I guess it is still better to cut them off as those can't be too good to have.

Little iita is worst as she has been more avoiding type, so to remove all those would mean she has only 2/3 of fur left afterwards, if even that, maybe not good to take it all at once then.

 

[jtbo]

We had some tax changes for this year, national tv was before funded by paying the bills if you had devices needed to watch but for this year everyone pays no matter if not having possibility to watch.

So to cut my losses I sourced some used tv and set top box, even I don't really watch them.

However I have found out that Mauku is interested from picture, she likes commercials the most, but if there is documentary with birds in it she sits down to front of tv and sometimes walks up and leans against the screen sniffing it.

Today I also took their food bowl and took it to bed and offered them food in there, attempt was to get Mauku to take another step, she did indeed come and eat even I was right next to bowl, she did not completely jumped on bed, but kind of leaned, anyway that was some sort of step for her again.

She has played with me many times now so that I have been on bed and she has hunted straw or piece of string from my hands, so she is reaching to bed and right next to me this way.

Also she has walked right next to my leg many times when I have been sitting on computer, so she is really finding out how I'm not a dangerous monster.

I made new hiding box for her too, simple cardboard box with door at one end + another on side, some peeking holes and roof door that is covered with metal mesh so she can look above while still being hidden, also other ones don't have chance to be nasty.

Her sons tend to chase her sometimes and she is not too fond of that, now she has place to hide in such cases. Side door has actually clear plastic flap so no clawing from the side either.

She has started to be more part of the gang however, she likes at least from Tiger as she rubs her head against Tiger's head at times, also they play together too.

Mauku is really interested from playing, also young ones, but Miuku and Mouku have not been such much interested from playing, only at some times they like to play, but very little compared to rest.

 

[jtbo]

I have attempted to get Mauku to know petting.

She likes to play with straw, so I have used straw to pet her, currently as long as she is no seeing that she likes it, when she notices that I'm using straw to pet her she wildly claws the straw and bites it few times and we continue playing from there.

It has taken many days for her to accept petting with straw without her seeing the straw, used to be that slightest touch made her run, so that is progress, also few times I have managed to pet her by hand just running finger on her back and also few times she has sit stationary when I have used straw to pet her.

So she is very slowly learning, even it is not easy for her, I can see how she is fighting with herself, but that is required for her to learn how there was really nothing to be afraid for and to learn to be more like others.

 

[jtbo]

Eeeek, mouse!

Well, not much better reaction from Panther when I brought him downstairs. You see there was a mouse that did run right next to my feet when I was at downstairs, so I did go upstairs, picked up Panther and carried him to downstairs, then I did try to get him to sniff floor and do some hunting, but he was just so happy being downstairs that he was just purring loud, watching up to me and rubbing his side against my leg while being extremely friendly state so that he barely could stand without tipping over to his back.

Maybe I should of took Tiger instead as at least he does not become drunk from enjoyment immediately when brought downstairs, LOL.

 

[jtbo]

I did manage to pet Mauku a bit again, this time I played with her by using straw and as she hold straw I did pet her front leg, she did just look at that with, at some point she put her paw to my finger and hold for a moment there. As she was so tolerable for touching I then did gently stroke her head with one finger, she did not protest even that for some reason, but I did not push my luck, better bit too little than bit too much.

She certainly is progressing, even it is taking really long time for her to take that big step, not sure how long that is going to take, but she does come close to me sometimes and then goes away, Tiger is one that she usually bumps her head with, but sometimes it is like if she would like to bump her head to my leg, but she is just moving back and forth, when tiger comes and bumps against my leg, then Mauku bumps her head with Tiger, so I guess it is not so far anymore, exciting times.

 

[jtbo]

Today I managed to lure Mauku to window, playing bird singing from small speakers was something she found enough interesting to climb up and examine closer. There she found cat nest that is at bottom of cat tree, she has been sleeping there since that, bit suspicious of me being so close (just computer table between us) but it is comfy and warm place as I have put pieces of camping mattress (thing you put under the sleeping bag) to all walls and two layers to bottom.

She might soon explore more of cat tree, there is three levels and then large area hanging from roof where is cat bed, their usual sleeping place. She indeed takes tiny steps in conquering the room, but she has almost everything covered now, only places that are above floor level that is

At times she is not tolerating touching at all, but few minutes later she might tolerate just fine, every time she needs to be softened a bit, no chance to pet straight away, but with bit of playing and teasing she then tolerates a bit. She is warmer and softer than rest of them.