Three K Cats

Keilana - on a rare outing  -  JM

Inevitably, with the number of cats we have, there are name duplications – Bobbys and Sophies and Katies have come and gone.  The current replication (in different forms) is Keke – and it comes in three very different cats.

Kiko in "Don't Disturb Me" mode - MM

The oldest one is Kiko, who lived in the Moore House for some time. She was a pretty grumpy cat, but with much work from the Kitty Comforters, she decided that humans weren’t too bad after all.

Breakthrough! - Kiko asking for petting - MM

It was felt that a bit more socializing might help, and she was transferred to Pen 6 with the Candy Cats, where she initially took up residence on a shelf and declined to come out.

Kiko still prefers her box, but is happier about coming out.   BC

The med staff kept an eye on her and made sure she was eating, and we knew she was warm and comfy there. Eventually she emerged – usually when humans were around – and demanded attention.

Keeping a wary eye on the younger cats  - BC

She doesn’t want a lot of petting, but she likes acknowledgement of her presence. With the warmer weather, she enjoys finding a sunny spot and toasting her old bones.

Kiko says "You may pet me now..."   BC

She doesn’t care much for the other cats, but she’ll ignore them if they leave her alone, and mostly it’s only Cadbury who can be a bit of a brat to her.

Keilana's very wary with visitors - human or feline...    BC

The prettiest of the three lives in the area we call Newcomers – an area that’s not open to visitors on a Sunday, and is home to many of our shyer cats.  Keilana, also known as KeKe, is a long-haired calico, and shy with both cats and humans. Her cage has been open for some time but she’s reluctant to leave its safety, and she doesn’t even like to come down to the floor for food.

That's a yawn, not a snarl...!    BC

She's around 13 years old, and came to us because she was not getting on with the family dog - watching her, it's pretty obvious that she's one of those cats who needs to be a One and Only.

A rare excursion to the front of the cage...   MW

She will interact with humans without any aggression, but it's clear that she'd rather remain at a distance until she feels secure.

KeKe watching anxiously for dinner - BC

KeKe (II) is a more recent arrival in the DoubleWide, coming to us as an 11 year old cat when her owner died. For a while we changed her name to Kiwi, so as not to confuse her with Keilana's pet name, but we reverted to the original sounds she knew. She has the most beautiful golden eyes.

lovely eyes... - BC

She’s a sweet bobtail girl who is also diabetic, and the med staff are still working to stabilize her diet and insulin.  We have several diabetic cats, and because there is a degree of free-feeding, it’s really important that we monitor them carefully. Keke is wary, but friendly with visitors, and might be a possible adoptee to someone with experience in dealing with diabetes

This is MY chair, human - you may stand! - BC

Kiko is too old for more changes to her life, but the two KeKes are both cats who would be more comfortable in a home with someone to adore them as The Only Cat, rather than being surrounded by other felines.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, the late Marianne Moore, Jill Morisset, Michele Wright

Progress in Pen 6

Eighteen months ago we took in a group of cats that had come from another shelter.

I understand that they had been gathered up as part of a hoarding situation; we were pretty surprised to hear this, because all six exhibited feral behaviour, and it’s hard to see how they might ever have been homed. When released into Pen 6, they did as only scared cats can do, and found a small hole under the cabin where they could wiggle through and be thoroughly hidden.  It was hard to find a way to get them all out while it was blocked, but once being in the dark under the cabin was denied them, they took up residence in the cabin itself.

Butterscotch - MW

There was nothing wrong with their appetites – they ate all the canned food they were offered and left polished plates. And they all seemed to be in good condition. There were two long-haired tabbies, two agouti tabbies, a little tabby with white markings and a larger one with strong classic tabby markings - and they were nicknamed the Candy Cats: Skittles and Cadbury, Hershey and Butterscotch, SweetTart (or Sweetheart) and Purdy. We let them be for the first little while, and allowed them time to adjust.

Skittles - KN

The first overtures were made by the biggest boy, Skittles. He and SweetTart were curious, and Skittles was very food-motivated, so the Kitty Comforters were able to establish contact, and regular visits got the two of them in the habit of emerging whenever the gate opened. The other four stayed resolutely out of sight.

SweetTart  - TV

Because we felt there was room for a couple more, two more cats were added – tabby Kiko who had come from the Moore House, and grey Wylee, who had come from another shelter. The Kitty Comforters ramped up their efforts to familiarize the cats with humans.

Hershey - MW

For a good part of last year, most of the group preferred to stay in the hut most of the time, emerging only in early morning and late evening. With the coming of spring this year they have all started coming out more frequently, and interacting with volunteers.
Skittles remains the boss-cat, the one most interested in humans. He was the first to discover that humans were A Good Thing – especially when chicken is on offer. He is happy to be petted while sitting on the shelf around the pen, but he is still wary of contact on the ground, and frequently very hissy while in the hut.  SweetTart, who was his faithful sidekick at the beginning, has regressed to shyness – I think it’s partly that she is less in his company these days.

Fuzzy-buddies Skittles & Cadbury - BC

Her place has been taken by Cadbury, who adores his buddy Skittles; he is now starting to enjoy human company (especially when play with a wand toy is offered) and he accepts two-handed petting once he knows you.  Now his confidence is increased, he’s starting to throw his weight around, and we need to watch that he doesn’t bug old-lady Kiko too much.

Kiko

Kiko, who was very cranky in the Moore House, is emerging more often, and enjoying petting from volunteers. Wylee is also more confident, and once he gets to know you, he is anxious to jump up and lap-sit. He’s still pretty young, and has a spark of Gizmo naughtiness about him, but he's the most obviously affectionate cat in the colony.

Wylee - MW

Hershey and Butterscotch are now happy to wander round the pen even when humans are visiting, but they’re not yet ready for much in the way of contact. A little wand-play is sometimes accepted, and they play solo, but are not food-motivated. The barest finger-to-nose touch is permissible as long as you’re not actually looking at them.  Purdy, the shyest of all of them, does not want to be touched at all, but is ready to sit in the sun and watch, just as long as you don’t come too close.

Purdy - BC

The work of the Kitty Comforters in gaining the confidence of this little colony is consistent and steady. This team of dedicated volunteers is briefed each week on the cats that need attention, on those that have made contact with us, and on which techniques work for which cat. The Pen 6 cats are certainly not ready for Sunday visitors, but Skittles happily follows people around the perimeter of his pen, ready to accept through-the-fence petting.  It's lovely to see such progress being made!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Karen Nicholson, Tanisha Vincent, Michele Wright

Kiko & MiuMiu

Kiko and MiuMiu were transferred from the five Road Shelter to the Cat Sanctuary in March of this year.   They’re both 13-year-old females who were considered unadoptable after some time at Five Road, but that’s about where their similarity ends.

While MiuMiu is a beautiful “chinchilla” coloured Persian girl, Kiko is just a plain brown tabby.  
MiuMiu was surrendered  because someone in her household had developed an allergy to cat fur.   Kiko was a stray, trapped on River Road.   She’d  been spayed and tattooed so must have been part of someone’s life at one time but no one came to claim her.

Apparently, “miumiu” means “obedient” in Japanese and although no one really expects obedience from a cat (do we?), pretty little MiuMiu hasn’t caused any problems either.  Like many of the other cats in the Moore trailer, she can show a bit of ‘cattitude’ if petted too long or too vigorously but, from all reports, she’s usually a polite and nice cat.

 On the other hand, “nice” is not a word one would ever use to describe Kiko’s behaviour.  “Nasty”  more readily springs to mind for her. 

Although she’s definitely not feral or semi-feral, something in her past has made Kiko wary enough of people to strike out at a friendly hand rather than welcome it.  She sometimes seems to have a soft moment or two when she meows in a friendly and almost welcoming manner but that quickly changes to a growl and a hiss when one tries to reach out to pet her.  It’s impossible to know if her negative attitude is the result or the cause of her being homeless before being trapped and brought to RAPS. If only she could tell us what happened and  be made to understand that all she’ll ever get from now on with us is love!  

But  there’s new hope for a change in Kiko’s relationship with people!  Recently, she seems to have taken a shine to Chris, one of the kitty comforters, and will leave her safety zone, rub against his legs and even insist that he pet her!  I confess that I suspected it was a case of mistaken kitty identity when I first heard of this miraculous show of friendliness from Kiko but I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and took the photos to prove it!  Leslie reports a similar positive interaction with Kiko, which just goes to show that there’s a nice kitty just waiting to re-emerge from that gruff exterior. 

Kiko will never be the beauty queen that MiuMiu is but no one’s giving up on her becoming a nice, normal cat again!  We know that beauty is, after all, only fur-deep.  

Blog & pictures by Marianne Moore