It turns out I was worrying over nothing. Katrina had six hours of kitten socialization time last night and it did wonders. Tonight we gave them all panacur AND clipped their claws and Gloria and Adrienne were easier to clip than our adult cats! No one was particularly hard. Well, except Lilith. She disliked the back claw clipping. She grumbled. 

I now have Adrienne just sprawled out on my lap. I had Lilith as well, but Katrina stole her. I was honestly wondering if we would ever get to this point, but there’s photographic evidence:

 This morning I spent an hour playing with the kittens, but no one wanted to be pet and no one wanted to eat for me. I eventually gave up. I came back with the wet food an hour later and still no one would eat for me. And hour and a half after that - when I came into the foster room to start transferring Facebook posts to this blog - the food is still mostly untouched and everyone is sleeping. I’m hoping they just ate too much dry food and are full.

I worry too much. I worry that they're cold. I worry that they're hot. I worry that because they won't eat wet food for me, we've slid backwards. For the past week we've kept them in a playpen in the living room so they can get used to human voices from the TV, but last night we finally decided that Adrienne is socialized enough that we can put the kittens back in the foster room when Katrina's not up. This has the bonus of me actually being able to play with them - and get pictures for their adoring fans - but it is making me realize that they've gotten used to being able to eat their wet food with a barrier between themselves and the humans. And I worry. Judith and Lilith are coming along fine, but Gloria and Adrienne are still scaredy cats. Adrienne hisses when you put your hand near her. Gloria flinches away from the food as soon as I  make a move. Are we doing enough for these kittens?

Who are these kittens, anyway?

These four tinies came to us at 8 weeks old from the animal control officer of Waltham, and the goal is to get them all nice and socialized so they can be adopted through SPIN. I call them my ferals, but the animal control officer had them for two weeks prior to handing them off so they really came to us semi-feral. This is our first time socializing ferals, so hopefully we'll be successful!

I'm starting this blog up again as a place to follow the progress of my latest foster litter  at the request of a friend who doesn't use Facebook, where the entries up until this point were originally posted. From now on: original content. (Probably at least partially cross-posted to Facebook.)

Tonight Judith purred for a really long time in my lap (held there by furry apron pouch)! And I pet Adrienne for a good while with her ears upright. Adrienne still hisses when you go to pick her up, but the ear body language is looking good.

It's really hard to get pictures of cats when they're in your lap and you're trying your hardest just to teach them that humans are good.

 Today’s accomplishments:

Judith purred in my arms!

Katrina got Judith and Lilith to not only eat churu from the tube but also to lick it off her finger!

Adrienne ate churu from Katrina!

Gloria purred for Katrina!

 This morning’s accomplishments:

No one hiding behind the litter robot!

Adrienne ate out in the open!

Kittens playing with me in the room! Playing with kittens, aka rolling the ball back to them when it got stuck against me.

Judith licked my foot! (Did not want pets.)

Everyone has now eaten with me in the room! Though I did have to bring the bowl to Adrienne and go back to my spot. So much for cats not wanting to eat near their litter boxes.

Today, I am reading to them from Hannah Shaw’s Tiny but Mighty so they get used to my voice. They were not a fan of Zoom services this morning. They’re not quite ready for that much human noise yet.