No pictures today because I just don't want to take the time to upload them-sorry!
We made great progress today but unfortunately most of it just went out the window, and we are back to where we were last night. However, I felt that this was necessary to ensure the health of the kittens.
This morning I found both cats in the nest I made for them instead of in the sink. They no longer climbed the walls when I came in the room, but they did hide. I broke out the baby food because that's the food that they like the best (it truly is Kitten Crack!) and patiently waited for them to eat. No dice. I finally put some on the end of a long spoon and held it to LJ's lips. After a few minutes, he hesitantly licked the baby food off of the spoon, and then he couldn't get enough! Between the two kittens they went through 2 1/2 jars of baby food and half a can of cat food today. I progressively moved my hand down the spoon and pretty soon LJ was eating off of my fingers with no hesitation. He even let me touch him and hold him in a towel for a little bit. Mac took longer to come around-she let me feed her off of the spoon but barely came to the edge of the tunnel. I won't try finger feeding her because she's a chomper when she eats, regardless of what it is, and I'd like to keep my fingers.
I laced the food with Bach's Rescue Remedy*, and both cats seemed to mellow quite a bit. I also have some Happy Traveler, which I'll probably try tomorrow morning should the cats still be freaked out from tonight.
*does not involve playing Bach Suites for the kittens. May or may not make you better at actually performing Bach.
Now, for our socialization setback. Both kittens had extremely flaky skin and horrible looking coats. Furthermore, they turned every surface they lay on black. I was concerned that they had fleas, which we know can make a cat anemic. Given how skinny these two are it would be the last thing they need. I went in there with a snowsuit and leather gloves just in case. The "snowsuit" consisted of two pairs of jeans, snow pants, a long sleeved shirt and sweatshirt, winter coat, extra long rubber gloves, leather gloves, and safety goggles. Think this is excessive? THEN YOU'VE NEVER TRIED TO BATHE A CAT.
With LJ it wasn't really necessary. He allowed me to scruff him and went limp instantly with a minimal amount of hissing. His entire bath (in warm water and two drops of Lemon Joy, laced with the Bach) took about a minute including rinsing, and he allowed me to cuddle him in a towel for about two minutes afterward. Mac was a different story. It took me forever just to scruff her (which wasn't as effective as I would have liked with her), and she went from defense to all out attack mode (snowsuit!). Poor baby. She's a little traumatized by the whole thing, and although I don't think she'll die from stress or anything I sure hope she snuggles in those warm towels and gets dry in a hurry, because she had all of her limbs fully splayed and wouldn't allow me to put her in a towel at all. LJ, no joke, watched her entire bath from the shelf above the sink. Both kittens urinated shortly after I got them in the bath they were so scared, but like I said LJ took it more in stride. I didn't get any fleas off, but we'll see if any drop off tomorrow morning or if that was a false alarm. Either way, that water was brown when I drained it before rinsing each kitten.
We are back to square one for socialization tomorrow, but given how quickly things moved today I think by the end of two weeks we should be on ok footing.
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