Now after our little Ms.Millie, we had learned about animals with Attitude - but nothing prepared us for our first little kitten - Ms Seychelles - just 4 months old, full of spunk, brain and a mind of Her own.
Her Majesty lost in the folds n softness of a scarf I'd just made!
Seychelles came to us from another foster home,so she 'trained us' well. She had been 'saved' from the streets and was barely six weeks.
We have a small garden in our home,with a small rubber plant (well, that's what I'm told they call it, despite it being a good oh, 8' high!).. When we brought Seychelles home, we took her on a recce of our home.. and Madame jumped right out of my arms, and onto the tree.. Shruti panicked and tried to catch her.. I, (Ms. Know-It-All!) said that cats loved climbing trees and it was 'ok'....
Yes, for 'regular cats' I guess I'm right.. but not this Madam..
She probably did have fun climbing the tree (instinct taking her higher and higher...) but this was probably her first tree climbing 'expedition' - and she reached quite high before she (we too) realised that she could (probably?) not come back down ! My words hopefully, paint the picture (as the camera wasn't handy - anyway we needed all hands for the rescue..) - she mewed , her big eyes scared , we (me included) finally panicked - Shruti tried to scamper up the tree, Madam S tried to come down, Shruti got 'stuck', I was shouting instructions (which are no help when you are stuck or panicking ..or both!) - Shruti tried to catch Mme. S, who scratched back .. we had a bit more (loud) instructions and shhhh-ings before kitten and daughter caught up with one another,both came back down off the tree, my poor Shruti scratched and worse for wear, Mme S who was 'carried' into the house, and then turned her head and walked away (like this was all our fault!)
Pretty interesting introduction to us and our home, won't you agree?
Like Ms. Millie (our foster puppy) before her, she took on the job of 'teaching us' how she wanted things to be done. Two days down though, she "obliged" by allowing us (mostly me - I'm the 'cuddle demander') to pick her up, throw her nonchalantly over our shoulder and go about our life as we pleased.
Convinced that we had her 'properly house trained' (no such thing with kittens, we did learn!), we left the door open and unattended one day. Seychelles trotted straight out and started gambolling in the grass.. She was such a pretty sight - hiding from us and then suddenly leaping out .. such fun. I thought that it was 'safe' leaving her there for a bit .. but ..oops.. she 'disappeared' ! PANIC!
We finally saw this little white n brown wisp of a kitten high up on the wall dividing our home from the next - and she was on the other side of the fencing ! We couldn't fathom how she GOT that side - leave alone try and cajole her back ! We finally got her to walk back to the (same old) rubber plant - assuming that she went over that way, she could come back the same way (ah, so much easier said than done). She reached the part of the plant that overhung between the two houses (being carefully watched by one of the people in the 2nd floor of that apartment block - no help there!), tried to climb it - but it was one of the 'frailer' branches and did not really support her weight - so yet again Shruti climbed (a little faster and better, having had the 'practice' just a week before!), but we still returned with one very uppity kitten and scratched (this time thanks to the tree!) young lady!
The next three weeks went off really quietly (in comparison). She was the purrfect pet - curl up at our feet (or my face), eat, sleep again.. purr.. and then those big beautiful eyes winking up at us at every chance she got.
About a week before she left, she was introduced to our second kitten foster Michelle - oh,did Seychelles hate sharing.. she made poor Michelle's life hell - and poor baby Michelle was half her age and size.. and scared anyway, as she'd just been rescued from a pretty difficult life on the streets.. she must've wondered what 'enclosed hell' she'd come to! Shruti and I had our hands full, umpiring the 'cat-fights' and 'keeping it safe'.
Thankfully, they did settle down over the next few days. Seychelles willingly (??) modelled for many of my crochet projects and thanks to her, I received a lot of comments !
I think Michelle too was quite sad when we packed Seychelles away in her 'kitty carry case' and transported her off to her adoptive home. I don't know who missed her most though - us or Michelle..
but I do know that Seychelles was bullied for her first few days at her new home - where the tuxedo cat was a wee bit older than her and had to 'teach Seychelles' how to live in his home.
I hear that they had their few days to figure each other out and now are really good friends.
Yet another 'good save' :-)
