Week 3 - Potty Training (Warning: It's time to get down and dirty)

Last weekend was week three in the kitten family and this is usual time for diarrhea to set in. Mommy had been dewormed and so the family were ridding their little bodies of toxins. Sounds gross but it's just a fact of kitten fostering and I was reassured by other fosters that this is part of the experience. Being that their current home is a carpeted bedroom, I was a little unprepared, so they were all moved to my tiled bathroom for a few days until potty training was a success.


POTTY TRAINING:

Now it was potty training time. I set out a little box with some sand and picked up the kittens, placed them in it and helped to stimulate the feeling of running their paws through the sand. At first, they were very curious and simply spent most of those first few days climbing in and wrestling around in the sand but at least they were getting used to it.

My proudest moment was watching little Simba climb up, hop in and through the magic that is feline instinct, take his first unassisted bladder release. (Interesting fact - until about 3 weeks, kittens do not know how to relieve themselves so mommy licks them to get their bladder and bowels moving and she completely cleans them).



Now it was time for them to go it alone and my babies were passing with flying colors. One by one they hopped into the box and did their best to stay clean and figure it all out.

KITTEN BATHS:

Of course there were a few accidents but this just signaled the newest fun past time - kitten baths! I went to Target and stocked up on baby shampoo and we got them soaped up and clean. Little Indy was the easiest to bathe.



He stayed very still and fell asleep when the first few blasts of warm air from the hairdryer wafted over his shivering little body. To dry them, I wrapped them in a towel, gently rubbed them to get the majority of the moisture from their fur, then on a gentle warm setting (not too hot), I held them under the hairdryer and fluffed them up.

After this, I wrapped them in a clean, fluffy towel and cuddled them to me. (Okay, this part may not be completely necessary but where's the fun in having a fluffy, sweet smelling kitten if you can't love them some?)

Indy fluffs up nice!

KITTENS GO AWOL:

So living in the bathroom was not mommy's number 1 choice of abode. I had put the kittens on blankets in the bath but Amber was very distressed and vocal about this, so with determination and a level of intelligence I had never before encountered in a cat, she figured out how to break out. For the first few hours, I would come into the bathroom and she would have opened the door and carried the kittens in her mouth into my bedroom and hidden them.

[Amber drops Bodhi from the bathtub, then picks him up again in her mouth]

[As she picks him up in her mouth, he goes limp and submissive]

[Here you see her carrying him into the bedroom - I was so amazed that I forgot to pull focus on this one so the image is a little blurred]

[Finally, she drops him on the carpeted floor before she heads back to get others]

It was a game of hide and seek as feline matched human in a game of cat and mouse (pardon the pun). For that first day, I would find kittens in closets and under the bed as she stashed them in secret places so that they were safe. It was very endearing. I decided to cut her a break and took the kittens out of the bath and allowed them time to run around in the bedroom. After this, she settled down and the kittens were no longer hidden.

What I learned from this was an incredible respect for her mothering instinct to protect her babies and just how amazingly smart cats are. The animal/human bond can be so deep when we really hear what our furry friends are trying to tell us. She was conveying the message that she was uncomfortable with her babies being confined in a bath tub and through dedicated action, she made sure they were safe and where she could get to them. Amazing!

KITTENS GONE WILD:

So the end of week three heralds in that extra boost in kitten energy I like to call 'kitten crazy time'.

All of a sudden theses little furballs go from snuggling and nursing to bouncing around and climbing anything in sight. It was so much fun to watch them suddenly practice being cats. Their tiny bodies would puff up in mock battle and they would prance crablike across the room warding off their potential foes. Lots of squealing and hissing accompanied the sounds of tiny feet pounding on carpet. Adorable! At this time I introduced grace to her first toy (a fluffy ball) and I could see the concentration in her eyes as she tried to focus on it before pouncing. It was the first time I had seen any of the kittens playing with something other than each other and it was such a wonderful feeling to be this instrumental in their development - having no children of my own yet, I guess this is what it feels like :-)

Another fun thing to watch was them seeing themselves in the mirror for the first time. I remember the hours of fun I had with my own rescue cats when they were kittens. Everytime they saw themselves in the mirror, without fail, they would jump in surprise and then try to run behind to see 'who' the cat was staring back at them.....in Simba's case, he tried to climb up his own reflection in an effort to be the bigger lion and you see him yelling at himself. Cute!

At the end of their time in the 'big room' and tired from climbing the curtains, the brothers and sisters curled up and for the first time, slept in the wide yonder under the stars (ie, not their usual nest of blankets inside the carrier).....

They are now ready to move into "Learning to be Cats: Phase II".