Category: Flora and Fauna

I do love hearing back from all the adopters of my past kitties, but this one is extra-special. Flora and Fauna were found abandoned in an empty house without food or water, and are now living their best life with Amanda and Reed, who adopted them January 2 this year. They have moved to a life of love and attention and toys, and are responding beautifully.

You can read their story here, but the condensed version is that it took months for them to feel comfortable after the treatment they received at the hands of humans. Fauna was more confident, and eventually was comfortable playing and asking for pets. Flora kept growing in confidence, and was on the verge of letting me pet her when she was adopted.

I knew it would be a big setback for them to go to a new home, but was confident that Amanda and Reed would be great for them. Here’s Amanda’s report:

“I wanted to give you a quick update on how Flora and Fauna are doing. They’ve been out of their acclimation room for a bit now and their personalities are really shining through. 

“Fauna already sees herself as owning the entire house and loves to explore every nook and cranny she can find. She particularly loved the discovery of the stairs and will chase mouse toys up/down the stairs all day if you’re willing to keep throwing them. I think a racetrack will be worn in our carpet soon! Lol. 

 “Flora only leaves their acclimation room at night but she is willing to be out in the room with us during the day. She is super playful!!  We’ve been having some great play sessions. I haven’t been able to pet her yet (Fauna is still an absolute cuddle bug) but I have gotten many slow blinks and she has shown me her belly many times, so I think we’re on the right track!”

Thank you Amanda and Reed for adopting these two shy sisters who deserved a soft landing! It’s a little more of a challenge when you adopt shy ones, but the rewards are unbelievable when you watch “their personalities shining through”!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the shy kitties can be the most rewarding! It can be nice to have a cat who loves everybody, but it can be so wonderful who loves you best because you’ve earned their trust.

We are thrilled that the sisters Flora and Fauna have found the perfect, loving home! From a rough start they got more and more trusting and comfortable with us. Amanda and Reed are ideal to carry on the very rewarding process of gaining trust in people. I just know they will be happy in their new forever home!

Flora on her favorite chair here, and in her new cat cave in her new home. Fauna relaxing here. I’ll miss you guys!

Thank you to Amanda and Reed for being willing to come a few times to spend time with these two before taking them home. I’m sure it will make their transition to a new home easier. It takes special people to care about kitties who have been abused, and help them trust again. May they bring you much joy!

Flora and Fauna are now available for adoption! While still shy, they are ready to start bonding with their forever person. Fauna is a beautiful torbie, and Fauna is the very photogenic pale orange tabby. For more descriptions and info, see this post.

The sweet girls Flora and Fauna are now officially listed on the 9 Lives Rescue site for adoption. They are still both shy, Flora more than Fauna, and slow to warm up to strangers, but they’re ready to start learning to trust a loving person in a new home. It’s so exciting, because they have come so far!

Flora and Fauna, as reported in earlier posts, were found in an empty house, “left behind” with no food or water. They are likely sisters. Flora had three kittens, who sadly did not survive. After being found, they were spayed and ear-tipped, and moved around from place to place, before landing with 9 Lives Rescue. Not surprisingly, they had developed a distrust of humans. I’ve had them in foster care since June, and it has been delightful to watch them come out of their shells.

Fauna is much more brave. She loves pets, and greets me at the door with trilling requests for playtime. She is passionate about playtime. Flora is also very playful, but hasn’t warmed up to pets yet. Fauna is confident, and Flora would rather play it safe. Both have come a long way in the time they’ve been here.

They have been through a lot together, and deserve a soft landing with someone patient and kind, in a quiet home. Please click here if you are interested, and submit an application form to 9 Lives Rescue. You can also contact me if you are interested in meeting these two girls.

Today was a red-letter day for Flora and Fauna! We opened the door to their popup pen and let them out into the big room. Flora wasn’t too sure she wanted to leave the security of her limited home, but Fauna was out like a shot to explore. She also found it scary, and had to retreat a few times, but she has been wanting this for a long time.

The room used to be filled with kittens – only Nalia and her three, but three kittens can easily fill a room! Not only that, but they were not totally healthy kittens. Nalia and family seem to now be healthy, and they have been moved to a different room. This room has been thoroughly vacuumed and disinfected, so we hope it’s now a safe playground for the adventurous Fauna and her sister – but they do miss the kittens to interact with!

Fauna is having so much fun! She explores, and she gets to have real zoomies! She has scope to really chase a toy on a string, and she is quickly feeling comfortable enough to do it. Flora has come out briefly, explored a bit, and then dashed back. She will sit a the doorway of the popup and watch the toy, or watch Fauna – and soon I’m sure she will be out too.

We’ll be letting them out every evening for playtime, and my hope is that eventually they can be out all the time.

Flora and Fauna are adult cats, but probably not more than 2 years old. They are so playful! We play with them with string toys through the top of their popup or I will sit in the doorway. It’s their favorite time of day! Better than feeding time. 🙂 They even have a miniature cat tree to climb.

Fauna is the darker torbie on the top level. Flora is the butterscotch tabby below.

These two females are so pretty. They had a rough life recently, but are gradually regaining confidence. They are not listed for adoption yet, because they still have trust issues, but if you would like to get to know them, contact me. They have lovely personalities and will gradually blossom in to very affectionate kitties – once they trust people again.

I posted when we got Flora and Fauna, in mid-July. They are two females who had had some bad experiences, so I knew gaining their trust would be a challenge. Fauna got progressively more comfortable with us, but in three weeks I only saw glimpses of Flora three times. They live in a huge popup with a blanket draped over a box, and Flora didn’t come out from under the blanket during daylight hours even if we weren’t in the room.

There is a lot going on in that room. Nalia and her kittens have the run of the room, and in another popup are Foxfire and her kittens. People come and go – feed, water, clean litter boxes, weigh kittens, play with Nalia and family – and with Fauna – and make general people noises. From under her blanket, Flora monitored it all.

Flora, after several weeks, decided it was safe to be somewhat visible, and would sit in the box and watch things. Although she had never seen most of it, nothing she saw seemed to surprise her; she knew all about it from sounds and smells.

In the meantime Fauna was becoming very bold and playful. She loves the kittens and would very much like to come out and play with them. She loves toys of any kind, and begs for us to play with her. She loves Churu and other treats as well. She is beautiful and has tons of personality. She is leery of being touched, but she will come close for treats, and is getting more confident all the time.

Flora now comes all the way out. She will sometimes come for canned food, but the real way to her heart is with playtime. Like Fauna, she is super playful. The best way to lure her out is with a peacock feather, but she loves other toys as well. After playing she will usually flop down at the back of the popup and just chill. Such a joy to have our “ghost” kitty out and about!

One of the fun things about the popup, from the point of view of Nalia’s kittens, is that you can climb it. It’s one of Spike’s favorite pastimes. Nalia once jumped up to see what Spike was doing, and half the popup collapsed; she didn’t do that again! It takes all three kittens to collapse it – although they’re growing – and luckily it’s usually just Spike cruising around up there.

Sometimes one of Nalia’s kittens will manage to get past me and into the popup. Fauna and Flora are very used to them and don’t seem to have a problem with it. The only reason they can’t be together is that the kittens have had Giardia. Once they are over that, and they’ve been vetted (tomorrow), they will be allowed supervised visits. I think everyone will enjoy that.

For more pics, I’ll be posting a Gallery shortly.