Look at that fluffy head of yours, just a few months old
Throwback Thursday!
While prepping my content schedule for the (very long) summer holidays of 12 weeks, I decided to stick to a theme every day of the week and switch from creating content on the fly to having a more organized schedule. This way I can feel more inspired to create content ahead knowing what I want to share each day. I picked the obvious for Thursdays: Throwback Thursday!
Now this gives me the time to look back on all sorts of stuff that I want to share with the world and not limit myself too much to a certain topic on Thursday.
Scared little kitten
While I've been sharing a lot of kitten stories lately, since we started fostering kittens for a rescue organization, I have not written much (or at all) about our bigger furry friend: Mochi. While we have come such a long way from the moment we took him off the streets, him being the last kitten in the colony near our home.
Mochi before we rescued him
Every day, when looking for Mojo, who escaped at the time, we saw him sitting there, next to the garbage bins and cars, the only one with bright blue eyes and fluffy fur. We knew he had to be several months at that time because we picked up Mojo just a few months earlier, who was not as tiny as Mochi anymore. She just happened to be the one that made contact with all three of us, thus we aimed to rescue her. When she got lost, stuck in a hole near our home, and later nowhere to be found, we decided that we'd take in the last kitten. The idea was for Mojo to have a friend as we were still hoping she'd return at that time. Sadly, she never did.
He's too big already!
We had tons of discussions, me and my boyfriend, he said they were too old to rescue, especially Mojo at the time. He may have been right in general, but Mojo was my buddy and we had a very great connection, she was already turned into a lapcat before she escaped. The point was proved wrong, lol.
I could also see how it's easier to have a tiny furry baby instead of 3+ months more or less. Especially when they're not used to human affection and happily playing with their friends outside. But the situation was that Mojo was lost and we had an opportunity to save another one, so we did. There are plenty of cats on the street so we felt this was the way to go. We knew we'd be up for a challenge and needed another round of long breaths and patience as this guy was scared to death. Even more than Mojo at the time, we rescued her.
Monday, November 28, 2022
We took you home with us after my boyfriend captured you in the carrier. It was an easy task because (even now) you are one that loves to eat. You enjoy eating and you're easily satisfied with some real treats like chicken, tuna, or even something else coming we're eating.
For days you stayed under the dining table, on a towel, scared to death without even attempting to come near us. It was sad to see, but we gave you time. Two days later, you adopted one of the chairs as your hideout and you stayed there most of the time. You slept with one eye open mostly and ears ready to hear whatever was happening around you so you could escape if needed. I was in love with your cute head and blue eyes. I thought you looked a bit like an owl.
We went from having a cat that wanted attention constantly, to one that needed a lot of time to adjust to being inside as well as accepting us in his home. At some point, we started petting you, you usually hissed or lashed out with your EXTREMELY big paws and nails. Thankfully, nobody got hurt ever, a scratch at most. I'm still very grateful that you never wanted to do any harm, besides just protecting yourself when feeling scared because you could have done extreme damage to any of us if you wanted to. Your nails are impressively big!
Patience is a virtue!
While both my boyfriend and I were just as impatient as our daughter, we just accepted the fact that this guy was more scared and needed more time. Others told us months ago, it was not going to happen anymore as he would have been chill already. I always believed it would change, baby steps though.
Our daughter got upset as Mochi still hisses at her quite often when he doesn't allow her to pet him, she gets mad sometimes, and yells she wants to pet him too! We told her this is not helping and that we can't change this and needed to respect him as he was the boss. I just enjoyed all the little steps we made, such as him coming to lay on the couch with us when we were chilling there:
I've been persistently petting you
Every moment I could, at some point, it was clear to me which moments I'd have the most chance of being allowed to, I petted you. The first months, we were all hissed at, you were too scared and not used to human affection at all. I started to be smarter trying to approach you and after a few months, it was so cute to see you enjoying my affection while sleeping, rolling all the way to the side to enjoy it there too, and then waking up, scared to death, giving us both a heart attack from you jumping up.
The thing is, at some point, your tail decided it knew this was not scary, the tip of your tail started swishing when I did that. That was so adorable that every day, I started to motivate you to have an extremely swishing tail instead of just a tip of the tail. It worked! I was over the moon when I got you doing that. Even though at first, this still meant you got a heart attack as soon as you saw this was my hand doing that, the horror! You were so frightened, I only wished you relaxation and confidence that we are your hoomans! Those that back you, no matter what!
Something changed
For the past month and a half or so, you have been allowing me to pet you even during awake moments, and after some attempts, you started to freak out less as well when I tried to approach you. You started to accept me more by the day. I was even more motivated to keep trying and win you over. I knew we'd become friends someday, even if it's going to take a year or longer. We all love you too much to not keep trying, we want you to be happy and relaxed and come to us to cuddle.
The tail started swishing extremely at many moments and you started to react very well to my voice when I was talking to you at the same time. I have to admit that my boyfriend and daughter have a much lower success rate but I know this will be fine if we are persistent and patient.
Milestone: Mochi purred for the very first time!
Today I have to share how far we've come as we had a true moment together. He purred for the first time and he was truly enjoying it as well as putting up his bum so I continued. He purred so loudly that my boyfriend heard it from a distance. He was also meowing back to us when we talked to him (which is very rare that he makes a sound, lol) and he didn't get enough of being petted. It was a bit emotional for me as this is the actual turning point, this could mean that he will soon come to us for cuddles and start to charm us for food. He now still winks very cutely (it's adorable) when he wants some food from us, lol.
I'm very excited to find out how this evolves in the future. I'm so glad I convinced my boyfriend to take him in and we're now finally seeing huge progress in his behavior towards us. Long breaths were needed, but our patience seems to be rewarded now. Finally, after 6 months or so (feels like forever though).
I'll be back next week for another Throwback Thursday blog, have a great day!