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I’ve never been good at names, but I’m working on names for the kittens.

The littlest one, the black one, is so feisty! She is the smallest, but she stands up for herself. When they are nursing, she and her largest sibling tend to want to nurse in the same spot. He is quite a bit bigger and stronger and doesn’t hesitate to shove her head until she is pushed out. But she squawks and pushes back in, often diving underneath him to get her own spot. I wanted to name her after a roller derby star – because she’s totally that kind of strong – but their names are not really good cat names. I thought of Pippi Longstocking, and ended up with Pippa. I think it suits her.

The other female, one of the “twins,” will be April. She’s very sweet, and somehow makes me think of my garden in April.

The other twin will be Thomas, because he reminds me of the kitten in The Tale of Tom Kitten, by Beatrix Potter. He loves adventures, but he sometimes gets in over his head because he’s very gentle and sweet.

The biggest kitten doesn’t have a name yet. He’s very lovely, with very strong markings with a lot of contrast. He’s going to be a very handsome adult cat. He’s strong, and has no hesitation in using his strength to get what he wants – usually the best place to nurse, which he gets by shoving his sister aggressively out of his way. He’s not mean; he was just born with the instinct to take what he needs to survive.

After our last foster kitties left, we cleaned the big room thoroughly and then moved Mouse and her kittens into the “Jiro Palace” in the corner. It’s the big cage we built for Jiro, our own feral rescue, and it’s a great place for kittens. If there’s a way to find danger, kittens will find it – but we feel that it’s a pretty safe spot.

Mouse disagreed. We moved everyone on Sunday, and she has been frantic ever since, especially at night. She climbed the walls – literally. She climbed the wire front all the way to the ceiling. I spent six hours in the cage with them the first night, to help her calm down. At 5′ on a side, it wasn’t totally uncomfortable, but I think I dozed off a total of 5 minutes.

The next day I decided the best solution might be to allow her to come out. We opened the door and put a couple of boxes to help her get over the lowest panel, and out she came. That solution worked for a few hours, and she explored the room and jumped back in regularly to feed and look after the babies. Then she decided to move them all out too! I should have seen that coming. Luckily I heard some squeaking, went in to see what was going on, and put back the two kittens she had carried out. I shut her back in, and then spent a couple of hours that night staying with her again, being the voice of calm.

The next day we tried it again. She is a smart kitty. She pretty soon figured out that she could come out only if she left the kittens in the safer confines of the cage. She seems to have accepted that, and the arrangement works pretty well.

The kittens made the transition quite well. Overawed a bit at first, they quickly found their favorite spot and piled up the way they do.

The kittens a growing so fast, and becoming stronger and stronger. The littlest one, the black kitten, looks like a homeless waif, but she’s as strong and determined as her brothers. They’re starting to get their feet under them better, so they look more like kittens and less like baby seals!

We’re calling our new kitty Mouse, and she has the most rewarding purr. Make sure you have the sound on for the video!

Mouse has a lot of black in her ears, so I applied a gooey treatment twice a day for four days – it was supposed to be five. She is very forgiving, but after four days she was just done. It’s very unpleasant because it makes her ears – itchy at the best of times – super itchy. I came in yesterday to find the tube gone. I can’t really say it was intentional, but wherever she has hidden it, I cannot find it. End of treatment. Check.

We have a new foster kitty! She is going to be a mama, probably in about two weeks. She is so big!

She’s a sweetie. She has taken all the moving around very well, and begs to be petted even though she doesn’t know us very well.

Her coloring is dilute torbie, which means she has both tabby and tortoise-shell markings, but her color is softer, with gray rather than black. The photo doesn’t show it well, but in many places her color is light tan rather than grey, with muted tortoise-shell markings.

Chocolate has made a lot of progress in the two months she’s been here, especially in learning about playing. I don’t think she’d really played much before in her life.

We have found that play is a good road to more trust and more human/cat interaction, so we have worked with her to make it as enticing as possible.

Her favorite game is playing with a toy under the square of fleece we have for that. She will pounce on it, or burrow under the fleece to get it.

She is getting to enjoy chasing toys that we pull along the ground, or feather toys that fly through the air. She is slowly learning that they’re not dangerous, and can be fun.

One interesting thing is that she learns from Magic. Magic is the queen of playtime, and has never met a toy she didn’t like. Chocolate watches her and learns new ways to play. She had the instinct for pouncing on something moving under the fleece, but she learned to zoom across the room from Magic.

Chocolate has been pretty stressed by changing homes. She has spent the last month in various hiding places in the big room, watching the humans from a distance. She is cautious about coming out, even to eat, and makes it quick.

The result is that she’s been a challenge to photograph! This is the first I have been able to get. I haven’t even been able to get my phone out fast enough!

She has not had much experience with playing, so we’re going to work on that, but she is very interested in food.

We got a new foster called Chocolate, a black-and-white adult female. She is not newly rescued, but has lived indoors for over a year. She just has not interacted with people very much.

She’s in a big dog cage for now, while we see how she and Magic get along. Below is their first interaction – very uneventful. Magic tiptoes quietly up and sniffs, and walks quietly away. So far, so good!

We’ve made real progress in the last nine days. I’ve gone into Magic’s room as often as possible, and kept the door open between her room and where I work – with a grate up instead of a door. I’ve made sure we have a play session at least once a day, and usually twice.

I’d worked with Magic quite a bit before, in the 2 months she’s been here. I’ve used a clicker – click and treat, I’ve put food down close to her. I was even able to touch her haunches lightly with two fingers. Then we had to capture her and put her in a carrier for a vet visit. All the trust was gone after that.

Once her kittens were all adopted, I started to see how much I could regain. I can’t get close to touching her any longer, but sometimes if she was in the cat tree when I would come in, she’d stay there and not run to her favorite safe spot.

When she’s on the cat tree, I can swing the cat toy within her reach, so that’s what I’m concentrating on.

At first, she would only stay on the top level. She likes being up, and that’s where she felt safest. On that level, she was willing to lower her guard and bat at the toy. She would not come down, and she didn’t want me too close, but she was really happy to be able to play, and I think to have someone to play “with” her.

Gradually, over the last nine days, she has become more relaxed. She has been slowing coming down, first just her front feet on the next level down, then all of her, then the next level. Finally she was willing to follow the toy to the floor. This morning was the biggest breakthrough so far – she ran right to my foot to grab the toy and take it away. Real progress!