Chronicles of the Xmas Kittens – Journal Entry 11

Major progress during the last few days. Firstly, as I have been reclining on the floor on my side, mimicking a cat's relaxed pose similar to The Grand Odalisque (albeit fully clothed unlike the Ingres oil painting), three of the kittens have been playing king of the castle on the top of my legs, using my trousers as scratching posts, and generally circling around me within six inches of my reach. Black kitten 1 surprised me the other day by nuzzling up to my knees and then rubbing his/her head all over them. I am continuing to bring Samson in as my Big Brother cat. They adore him and rush up to say hello. He is so gentle with them. I always give Samson a good pat in front of them – he is a purrer and his purr is catching. The white and red boy has now started purring too – a nice loud vibrato. They still move away when I touch them but the effort is half-hearted – they no longer hiss. Despite their conditioning, they may very well be gently surrendering to the notion that humans aren't as scary as they have been taught (well at least this particular human isn't!). 

Miss Tortie-and-White is doing well too. I've opened the window permanently now and they've made no move to try to push out the fly screen. I also pruned the bushes outside of the window so they have a solid view of the garden and the traffic in the form of the other cats, the dogs and the human family. The window sill is Miss Tortie's favourite vantage point. Up to now she has refused to eat in front of me and I have had to leave her bowls of food away from the others because I thought they would gobble it all up and she would not get her share. However, this morning I approached her tentatively and left her a handful of dried cat biscuits on the window sill perhaps 18 inches away from where she was sitting. About ten minutes went by and then she got up and started eating them.

While I was playing with Samson and the others this morning, she also leapt down and walked around the perimeter to see what we were up to then stopped smack bam about four feet in front of me to size me up. When I peeked into the room after lunch she was curled up in a little wooden box I had lined with a towel. This is very heartening.