After I picked the kittens up from the vet this week when I returned from Wisconsin, they began their next phase of development: Household Integration. Until now, they’d been contained to two rooms during the day (kitchen and parlor) and crated at night. That’s not how cats live in our household. Since they seem like they will be here long-term, and Rossie was one who got spayed in the last round, interhouse catchability isn’t a problem — if one is hiding, we can usually deal with it. After I dropped them at the vet and before catching the train to Wisconsin, I removed the crate from the parlor. When kittens returned, we released them into the parlor and kitchen to allow them to re-acclimate. After about an hour, I opened the door between the parlor and the rest of the house, and they’ve had free reign to any cat-approved household areas (the living room, dining room, and blue room are off limits to cats).

Rossie was the last to explore, but all kittens have wandered the house and seem very comfortable. Floyd and Delta are both comfortable lying on the fleeces specially cut for kitties by Grandma. Ruby Mae will sometimes get up on the bed. I’ve caught Rossie sitting on the ice cream chair in the hallway. She wants to be near us, but she’s not ready to join us yet.

I picked up a small fish on a pole cat toy yesterday. Mr. L was playing with Lady, Tarzan, and Ajax, and Delta and Ruby were playing as well (Floyd was somewhere else in the house, or he would have dominated the play). Rossie stepped into the parlor and her interest was piqued. Mr. L moved to involve her. She started to play, but you could see her eyes follow the string up to the stick to Mr, L, and she knew it could be a trick. Still she played along. Until Mr. L reached for her. She ran from the room. When she came back in, no amount of trying to engage her would work. She stoically ignored the fish when he brought it close to her. A few minutes later, Mr. L turned the toy over to me, and I played with Tarzan and Lady and Delta. Tarzan caught the fish and chewed through the string in an instant. I tossed the now loose fish toward the carrier I keep open in the parlor for Rossie (or any other kitty who wants to use it) to use as a comfort cave. A little while later, I glanced at the carrier, and Rossie had taken the fish inside with her and was sleeping with it.

A little while later, when Rossie started playing with the fish in the carrier, I witnessed this:

Floyd is making his move to steal the fish from Rossie, but the other two are equally interested.

Rossie now allows us to pet her when she’s on my chair in addition to the rocking chair.  We have both been allowed to pet her at various other places, but not with any great consistency.  Rossie’s like the kid who wants to be like the other kids but isn’t quite sure if it’s okay to let herself.  I think with us demonstrating more trust in her by removing the crate, she may feel more comfortable trusting us for other things.  We’ll see.

All four kittens are integrating well into the household.  Lady is the only big cat resisting them, and she growls at them and punches them when they come near her.  That may be related to a health issue we discovered for Lady during her annual vet visit.  She got antibiotics and a steroid shots to help clear whatever it is up, but that could attribute to her being a little grumpy lately.  Lady goes back for a follow up visit next month, and I hope she’ll be feeling much better by then.

These kitties are wonderful house cats.

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