last saturday - bryan and i decided to swing through petsmart and check out the kitties the local shelter country animal haven brought in for adoption day. it didn't take us long before our eyes fell upon a little black and white long haired kitty that would cock his head to one side when you looked at him. his shelter-given name was thirstan and we immediately asked if we could hold him.
he is 6 months old and a little bigger than a kitten. young enough to be playful but old enough to come with kitty baggage.
right away he just melted into my arms. he was so squishy and soft and lovey. i made bryan hold him. (i knew once he had this little bugger in his arms he wasn't going to be able to say no!) "it's your decision," bryan said when i asked him what he thought. "of course, i was sold.
it was just a few hours later and we were listening to the pitter-patter of little newly-named tristans feet as he scurried around our house looking for a hiding spot.
i guess i should start with a little background info: tristan was an outdoor kitty as a baby. the people who owned the property he and his litter were roaming on coaxed him onto their front porch where the nice folks from CAH had to catch him with a net. he was at the shelter for awhile and given to a foster family whom we were told could "carry him around like a baby." YAY!
he was very bonded to his sister who had been adopted out a week before we adopted him. CAH told us he would do very well with other kitties to snuggle with. double YAY!
little tristan has been quite scared since we brought him home. he's been hiding in the basement for the past 3 days now. he must feel pretty safe underneath the washing machine because that's where he's chosen to hide. i was starting to get worried after finding him tucked up against a concrete wall behind some broken down boxes on sunday. i felt so bad that the poor little guy was so afraid.
last night was a turning point, though. i was able to coax him out from behind the washing machine with a small can of wet food. every little noise made him jump. i sat next to him and explained all the different sounds. "that's just a motorcycle outside, tristan. and that's just the furnace kicking on." i tried to explain to him how nice we were, how this was his forever home and he wasn't going to be moved around anymore, and how much fun he was going to have with kiley and aiko. he sat next to me - just out of reach, with his head cocked to one side and listened as i jabbered on and on.
later that night when bryan and i got home from dinner i went downstairs to clean the litter box. i didn't find him and figured he was hiding again behind the washer. i said 'hello' towards the general area of the laundry appliances and went upstairs to search out aiko and kileys favorite toy, "rolled up cardboard on a wire" aka the cat dancer.
i barely even made it back to the stairs with the toy when i saw tristan sitting halfway up the basements steps! my heart swelled up and i was incredibly proud of the few steps he had climbed. "good boy tristan!!" i almost yelped. i sat down on the top step and held out the wire. kiley and aiko immediately came over to play. it only took a few minutes before tristan drew some courage and made it up a few more steps to join in the fun. he even took a few bats in the face from big bully aiko and kept playing.
after another pretty hard beating - aiko was put in time out and we continued to play with the wire. bryan got out the laser pointer and had tristan and kiley running all around the basement trying feverishly to catch the little red dot. feeling bad, i let aiko out of his time out so he could come play. it was such a great feeling to have all 3 of our little ones running around the basement together.
better yet - tristan allllllmost made it upstairs. the farthest he felt comfortable going was the top step - but that's progress i'll take! i think he's doing much better already. when bryan and i went home to check on him quickly over our lunch hour today he came out from behind the washing machine to say hello. i bet by the end of the week we'll have him upstairs.
baby steps! baby kitten steps.
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