The Rest of the Weekend - a New Family Member

(Originally posted on August 20th, 2008)

Finally got around to picking out the right photos for this post.

After I left Prescott on Sunday afternoon, I headed down to Gilbert where I had arranged to stop off at the home of Cheri, of Arizona Persian and Himalayan Rescue. I'd seen the cutest kitten on Petfinder.com a couple of weeks before, and let her know I was interested. After getting derailed by a freeway closure, I arrived at her door and she showed me into the "viewing room".

A few minutes later, she reappeared with Gizmo, who was visibly scared. I took and and settled him on my lap, and she began to tell me his story. A local breeder had died, leaving 40 cats in the custody of his groomer. At first, she wanted to keep them all and didn't want APHR involved, but eventually she relented and let them take 14. None of them had had much human contact at all, and in fact the breeder's records were so muddled that she wasn't able to say for certain when Gizmo was born. We think he's between 4 and 6 months old.

Because he was going to take a lot of work to become socialized, she decided not to charge me the normal adoption fee for kittens, but only the amount that she'd already invested in him. She also gave me a brand-new cat carrier, even though she had asked me to bring one with me. He was settling well in my lap, and after we'd dealt with all the paperwork it was time to take him home.

At the start of the journey, he cried and kept putting his arm through the mesh of the carrier. I was encouraged, however, that he would let me hold his paw, and didn't shrink back to the far side when I petted him. Soon he settled down and was calm for the rest of the trip back to Tucson. Once we were in the house, I put him in the bathroom with his carrier, a litter box, food and water and let him get accustomed to the room before allowing Eowyn and Sedona to sniff at him under the door.

The next morning, he seemed much calmer and let me hold him lying on his back, and give him a thorough combing. I had the day off to work with him, and apart from a quick grocery shop, I spent the entire time at home. We even had a visitor in the afternoon and he was more than happy to sit quietly in her lap as she petted him! By this time, he was ready to meet the other two cats face-to-face and explore the house outside of the bathroom area.

Now - two days on - he is still very skittish and will dash off at full speed if directly approached. But he does sometimes decide to lie on the floor, out in the open, rather than always behind or under something. I think he's going to be just fine. :)