Lil' Bro!

***updated as of September 24th, 2011***

Bro has been successfully adopted and placed into a Forever Home! We're so very excited for him - he's been with me for just over six months and I'm positively thrilled that he's found a wonderful, loving family that has taken him in with open arms. I've ever faith that he will continue to thrive with his family and enjoy the companionship of his new parents and fur-siblings!

Lil' Bro is such a sweetie pie, and he needs his own spotlight post!

Flirty, playful, affectionate, soft, kind...the dream cat!

He is about 9-10 months old, neutered, up-to-date on his shots (certificate available), and has been taken to my veterinarian for a check-up. He is house trained, litterbox trained, and gets along exceptionally well with other cats! I've integrated Lil' Bro and his sister, Rue, with my cat, Elle. They're getting along, playing, hanging out together, chasing each other around the house, and adjusted fantastically. I really can't say enough good about Bro.

When he came to me on March 21st, 2011, he was a feral cat. With that in mind, it's impressive how quickly he warmed up to me - a few days after coming into my home, he started coming right up to me to get pet, and now he comes when called, or on his own!

Such a flirty boy!

Hanging out with my cat, Elle

Such a handsome boy!

He's ready for his forever home!

Little baby kitten update!

Video of the kittens playing:







I'm still amazed how far along Sammy has come. She's coming right to me, is very affectionate, and welcomes people I bring for visits!

And her babies are amazing :)

 

Updated pictures of the kittens!

The kittens will be 4 weeks old on Sunday! Here are some pictures to show their progress.

Fatty: 

 

Fatty + Patches

(eeeeep so cute!!!)

 Patches

 

Stripes

 

I started to introduce wet food, and so far, I haven't seen them eating it. They may be sneaking it in, or Sammy's hogging it all!  There's also been significantly more depositing in the litter boxes, so I've put a couple more small ones out for the kittens to grow accustomed to.

Sammy's a professional by now :)  She's also coming to me when I call her, which considering the shape she was in when we first came together, that's an amazing accomplishment for her. I'm so proud of Sammy-cat, and I can't wait to reunite her with her best friend, Rue!

Updated pictures of Lil' Bro and Rue!

Lil Bro's taken to joining me in bed, and as I fell asleep last night, both Bro and Rue were snuggled right by me. Rue's still sniffing and licking my fingers - I do reach out to her from time to time, but more and more I'm encouraging the touching to be her initiative.

They're very cozy in my room and though my Elle is very tolerant of them running around the house, by default they end up back in my bedroom. As long as they seem happy, I'm fine.

Lil Bro and Rue and both ready to be adopted, either together or just Bro on his own. I want Rue to go with Sammy (ideally), but I think she'll do well with Bro.

Anywho, here they are :)

Rue to the left, Bro to the right. Yes, this is how I found them when I woke up, both in bed, YAY!!!

Peek-a-Rue!

 

Sweet boy 

Rue's hanging out *in* the boxspring!

Lil Bro

Ruester :)

Out and about the house!

Yesterday, Rue and Lil' Bro had a supervised excursion from my bedroom to the rest of my home yesterday! I had opened the door, and as he's been doing for the past week, Bro was patiently waiting. He peeked his head out, and very shortly Rue had followed him as they exited the room and started exploring!

As my girlfriend and I tended to Sammy and the babies, Rue and Bro ventured into the kitten room, re-acquainting themselves with their first safe haven in my home. Bro and Sammy touched noses and Sammy's mood was amazing! She was affectionate, started walking around a bit more, and when Bro left, she let my sweetie and I pet her a LOT and then relaxed with her little ones. She's made such tremendous progress and I couldn't be happier for Sammy.

Lil' Bro is continuing to jump into bed with us and now, regardless if he's getting pet or not, he'll stick around and chill for a while. Rue still calls to him and he still "chats" back, and hopefully she'll spend some more time with us in the bed as well.  That is, if she's happy to leave her new hiding place - in the boxspring of my bed!

My cat, Elle, greeted Rue and Bro with a little hissing, but didn't charge at them. That's her way of saying, "hello, this is my home. Respect that."  Just as a dog would sniff another dog's behind.  Considering that Elle and I have been without another fuzzy friend since October 2010, she's accepted SIX new friends amazingly. This is her home, and she's been very tolerant of our visitors.  Plus, she gets showered with affection constantly. Such a wonderful kitty!

We wrangled Rue and Lil' Bro before bedtime, and back to the room we went, door closed. No fuss from them, no scratching/pining at the closed door from Elle. All in all, a good first shot at introducing everyone, and we'll see how it goes! For now, the integration sessions will be supervised.

Litter and food routine

Everyone's eating a mix of Kitten Chow and Purina One (50/50 blend), and canned chicken cat food with a little brown rice and acidophilus - a pinch for each food dish - to help digestion. Sammy gets shredded cooked chicken in hers for extra nutrition.

Rue and Lil' Bro are using the same kind of litter my Elle has, clumping clay litter. It's going well, and I learned from experience that Lil' Bro will not tolerate shredded paper - he'll go potty elsewhere! Sammy's taken the same attitude, so I've switched out the shredded paper for Swheat Scoop Natural Litter. I was quite pleased with the price - only about 5 dollars more than the regular litter I use - and especially with the volume! 27 pounds of Swheat is about two litter boxes more volume and product than 27 pounds of the clumping clay litter, so talk about value! Plus it naturally clumps and has some decent deodorizing power, so this is definitely a product I'm happy to use for Sammy and the babies. I may even consider switching altogether.

I also purchased three extra litterboxes: one to replace Rue and Lil Bro's (their temporary one had definitely served its purpose and needed replacing), and two small boxes for when the little babies are ready for litter boxes, which should be sometime later this week, early next week.

The little ones were plump, fat and vocal during their weighing yesterday. Fatty, by far, has the strongest pipes :)

Playmates

Lil' Bro is still the most affectionate out of the original three fosters, but Sammy's taken a HUGE turnaround. A friend commented yesterday how much of a difference she can see in Sammy - she purrs, allows people to pet her, and though she will give a growl or slight hiss, she calms quickly and loves a good, soft petting.

Last night and all this morning, Lil Bro bopped back and forth in bed with me. He'd lay on me for a while, then move to another comfortable spot. This kept up, as he's new to playing in the bed and there's so much space and stuff for him! He likes playing with the sheets...and my feet, in particular :)

Rue comes into bed with us, but not for too long. She's still slowly coming around, but she did let me pet her as she gave Bro a bath after I pet him for a while. This morning at breakfast time, Rue sat in the middle of the spinner toy (on the cardboard scratching part in the center) as Bro batted the ball around the circle. SO CUTE!!!  Wish I was able to shoot video...will have to start keeping the camera on my bedside!

Lil' Bro and Rue walked out of the room yesterday as I left the door open to clean all the litterboxes. My cat, Elle, greeted them, then gave a little hiss to them both, as to say, "this is my house". But, no chasing, no aggression. The kittens ultimately went back into their room, but if things continue to go well, I would consider integrating everyone.

With Lil' Bro and Sammy becoming very social, Rue's well on her way and will quickly follow. She's already making strides!

Hoping to get a video soon of her and Bro during grooming time. The last video I got was way too dark, so hopefully I can get them playing and grooming during the daytime.