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- Jan 19, 2024
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I may have gone to the SPCA on Friday and I may have brought a crate just incase and I may have come home with a handsome little kitty the same day that I had seen online and wanted to meet because I thought he was such a cutie.
He doesn’t have an official name yet (suggestions are welcome) but I’ve been calling him Munchkin, though I’m not sure if I want that to be his proper name yet.
He came from a pretty bad situation that has been in the news internationally recently, so some of you may actually be familiar with his backstory already. He’s part of a group of about 300 cats that were/are currently being rescued from a single property in Houston, BC, Canada, which is a super rural town without many people/resources. People started dumping their cats on this one man’s property a few years ago and he tried to care for them all but they just kept breeding and multiplying until the situation got really out of hand. The cats from there are receiving care and, when ready, are being transferred to the different SPCA branches across the province for adoption. So he’s one of them.
He was kept in the back of the shelter separate from the cats that are available for regular visiting and the SPCA workers told me he was the most shy and scared of the group they got in from there. He was hiding in a cat cave and seemed very shut down at first so I just sat there with him for awhile and spoke to him, and eventually felt it would be safe to try petting him. He responded to head pets and rubs right away and started leaning into my hand and rolling around immediately. It took me all of a minute after that to decide that he was a sweet little baby who just needed love and patience and that I wanted to take him home. The shelter workers were shocked when I told them, apparently they had tried (and failed) to get him to open up over the past few weeks that he’d been there and were concerned he’d have trouble getting adopted.
He’s been here for a few days now (only in my bedroom for now) and is adjusting surprisingly well given all that he’s been through and his history. He spends a good amount of time hanging out in the two places that he’s deemed completely safe, his crate and a space between the bed and the wall, but he is not scared, just shy and a bit unsure of everything. He will come out and up on to the bed and stuff with some encouragement and coaxing, and when he does he loves to cuddle! He is so sweet and gentle. It is so surprising how affectionate he is given the fact that, up until a few weeks ago, he had only ever known one human and probably spent little to no time with them at all. Tiny things do make him nervous and cause him to retreat to a safe space though, like turning on the space heater or the ceiling fan, or opening the blinds completely, so we have lots of work to do on building his confidence.
I haven’t started any form of introductions yet to my resident cats (Bitsy and Moose), I want him to feel super confident in his space before any of that, and we have a vet appointment on Monday to get him cleared health wise before any of that begins just to be safe.
Anyways, he is such a sweet baby, some of his little mannerisms in the way he cuddles and shows affection and looks at me reminds me so much of my boy Bentley who passed in January that it’s legitimately healing my soul. And he’s so sweet and gentle (and apparently loves other cats) that I can’t see him not getting along with my resident kitties after proper introductions. My biggest concern personality wise is just that he may be too sweet and therefore may not be super interested in playing with Moose (who would love a friend to play with, and was my motivation behind getting another kitty). Hopefully as he becomes more confident he will become more active and enjoy playing more though, when I first showed him what a wand toy was he seemed to have no clue what to do with it (I don’t think he’d ever seen one before), but he’s becoming more and more interested in it over the past couple days and seems to enjoy a few of the toys I’ve given him, though he doesn’t really play with them and only cuddles/holds them. He really is so sweet and I love him so much already.
He doesn’t have an official name yet (suggestions are welcome) but I’ve been calling him Munchkin, though I’m not sure if I want that to be his proper name yet.
He came from a pretty bad situation that has been in the news internationally recently, so some of you may actually be familiar with his backstory already. He’s part of a group of about 300 cats that were/are currently being rescued from a single property in Houston, BC, Canada, which is a super rural town without many people/resources. People started dumping their cats on this one man’s property a few years ago and he tried to care for them all but they just kept breeding and multiplying until the situation got really out of hand. The cats from there are receiving care and, when ready, are being transferred to the different SPCA branches across the province for adoption. So he’s one of them.
He was kept in the back of the shelter separate from the cats that are available for regular visiting and the SPCA workers told me he was the most shy and scared of the group they got in from there. He was hiding in a cat cave and seemed very shut down at first so I just sat there with him for awhile and spoke to him, and eventually felt it would be safe to try petting him. He responded to head pets and rubs right away and started leaning into my hand and rolling around immediately. It took me all of a minute after that to decide that he was a sweet little baby who just needed love and patience and that I wanted to take him home. The shelter workers were shocked when I told them, apparently they had tried (and failed) to get him to open up over the past few weeks that he’d been there and were concerned he’d have trouble getting adopted.
He’s been here for a few days now (only in my bedroom for now) and is adjusting surprisingly well given all that he’s been through and his history. He spends a good amount of time hanging out in the two places that he’s deemed completely safe, his crate and a space between the bed and the wall, but he is not scared, just shy and a bit unsure of everything. He will come out and up on to the bed and stuff with some encouragement and coaxing, and when he does he loves to cuddle! He is so sweet and gentle. It is so surprising how affectionate he is given the fact that, up until a few weeks ago, he had only ever known one human and probably spent little to no time with them at all. Tiny things do make him nervous and cause him to retreat to a safe space though, like turning on the space heater or the ceiling fan, or opening the blinds completely, so we have lots of work to do on building his confidence.
I haven’t started any form of introductions yet to my resident cats (Bitsy and Moose), I want him to feel super confident in his space before any of that, and we have a vet appointment on Monday to get him cleared health wise before any of that begins just to be safe.
Anyways, he is such a sweet baby, some of his little mannerisms in the way he cuddles and shows affection and looks at me reminds me so much of my boy Bentley who passed in January that it’s legitimately healing my soul. And he’s so sweet and gentle (and apparently loves other cats) that I can’t see him not getting along with my resident kitties after proper introductions. My biggest concern personality wise is just that he may be too sweet and therefore may not be super interested in playing with Moose (who would love a friend to play with, and was my motivation behind getting another kitty). Hopefully as he becomes more confident he will become more active and enjoy playing more though, when I first showed him what a wand toy was he seemed to have no clue what to do with it (I don’t think he’d ever seen one before), but he’s becoming more and more interested in it over the past couple days and seems to enjoy a few of the toys I’ve given him, though he doesn’t really play with them and only cuddles/holds them. He really is so sweet and I love him so much already.
I love the markings on his face especially under his chin which looks like he has a goatee.
It technically has a covered “hidey” area too but it’s in the centre of the room (so more confidence required) and he has been choosing to go there a lot lately.
