A difficult day

Day 13

I am tired. Today Mitsy was not in the best of moods. It happens. She had a lot to endure too. I wanted to exchange the foldable table that is under the second crate with the wooden table from our kitchen. It is more stable and I just like it better. I tried to be as silent as possible and Mitsy stayed in the Nest the whole time without making much of a fuzz. She did not like me pushing the table against Basecamp though, which I understand.

Picture from one of the cat cams. Not the best of quality but it depics her mood of this day perfectly. Grumpy sfinx!

After I was done, I left her to her own devices for several hours. At 2 I had to pop out for some errands, so I refilled her food before I left.

She hissed at me and was close to the front door of Basecamp, but I decided to refresh the food anyway. In the end my body is in the opening and up to now she has not tried to come towards me with aggressiveness. It worked fine, despite the fact that the kittens were out of the Nest, with her.

I then left her alone for awhile and was waiting for her to go into the Nest in the evening so that I could change the litter box. When I had taken the dirty one out, I noticed that there was quite a spill in the back. What to do? Leave it there? How would I clean it up? Thinking error: I spread a puppy pad over the full width of the crate, which meant I could not remove the spill without moving the carrier. NOT an option! Mitsy was first just watching me from the inside of the Nest, she was with her head in the back and gave me that creepy “Velociraptor” look through the air holes of the Nest. But she was still OK. Then, instead of putting in the clean litter box I decided to hold part of the puppy pad up so that I could scoop the spill in a dustpan. Mitsy was NOT amused, turned around in the carrier and came out hissing, showing teeth. So I decided to let it go. I got some of the spill out and then carefully put the fresh litter box in the crate. I had the wisdom to wear my bite gloves, although I think they are part of her aggressive reaction. She does not like them, I think. Or am I projecting? Who knows, someone with gloves like that may have tried to catch her in the past. Well, good luck with that! On good days I sometimes think she can be socialised, but in moments like these, I think: no way!

I find it hard to stomach the anger in that little cat. It frightens me. Or is it just fear? I am lucky that there are kittens to distract her. I wonder if she would tolerate all of this if it was just her and me. I think not. I can see a release in a colony in her future… Would love to keep her, but it will probably not work. Adjustment of expectation is required.

At the same time I do realise that it has only been a fortnight since we trapped her and just 13 days since she had the kittens. So it is still early days. Patience, my friend, patience.

Kabiri and Vampy sleeping outside of the Nest, under the watchful eyes of Mitsy. These moments make everything worth it.

At least we are doing something good for the kittens, I tell myself. They look really healthy and lively. It was funny, I was tinkering with the second crate and two of the grey kittens sat there with mom, in the carrier, their heads held high, eyes pointed to me. I am sure that they are starting to see more clearly and reacting to sounds and visual stimuli. Which is adorable. I need to remind myself that this is why we are doing this: to allow Mitsy to be a dedicated and full time mom and to produce a bunch of very healthy kittens that will bring lots of joy to their future adopted families.