Category: Posts: Hazel and kittens

I took some video of Hazel a couple of weeks ago, and today I played it when she happened to be near my computer. She was fascinated! She came over to check it out, so I filmed it. So funny! Especially when the Hazel on the monitor seems to react to the real Hazel!

Hazel had a trip to the vet last week, and is recovering very well from her spay procedure. She was confined to a dog crate for 48 hours, to restrict her movement so she didn’t injure herself, but now her favorite spot is on my bed. Of course! It has a heating pad for cats!

Hazel is still not 100% tame. She’s very comfortable lying on my bed, with me right next to her, but she still doesn’t like hands reaching out for her. To get her to the vet, I opted to use a trap (thanks for the loan, Joelle!). I could probably have grabbed her, one way or another, and gotten her into a carrier. But I’m pretty sure that would have set our progress back a lot. So I spent a week getting her used to the trap, and when the door shut on her, it didn’t feel like a human had caught her. It was anonymous, with no one doing it to her. She made the short trip to the vet with a blanket over the trap, and it was as little trauma as I could make it. Then I got to be the good guy who brought her home.

I used portrait mode on my camera phone to take this shot, and I like the effect. It determines the foreground, and then blurs the background so the foreground stands out more. Hazel is so photogenic!

For the last month, Hazel has come out to join our own cats and explore the house. She loves the heating pad under their blanket on my bed! I work right next to this, so she hangs out very close to me. It’s been good for her to get used to things going on around her.

Because Hazel is semi-feral and I couldn’t touch her, she never got to the vet for spaying. I believe she’s now coming into heat, and I’m surprised it has taken this long. She is quite smitten with my cat Jiro, and wants to be near him. So far, she is just very friendly.

I’m thinking Hazel may be coming in heat. At this point she just wants to hang out with my cat Jiro. He’s neutered, and puzzled, but tolerating it pretty well. She just loves him and wants to snuggle by him, and it’s really adorable. Maybe she’s just lonely for a friend, but I think it’s going to turn into something more. I have a feeling that spaying is going to become a high priority in the next week or so.

I do get such a kick out of Hazel’s enjoyment of bird and squirrel videos on YouTube. There are quite a few that are created for cats to watch, and she seems to enjoy the ones by Paul Dinning, which are filmed in Cornwall, England, like this one. They show a “cat’s eye view,” and there are the sounds of chirping and the flutter of wings. She’s quite fascinated by them. Blue Wind Creations also has quite a few, including the one she’s watching below, that she enjoys. The English ones are interesting to me, too, because they show birds I’m not familiar with – like British robins, and chickadees that have different markings from ours.

I’ve been showing them to Hazel mostly on my phone, but then I can’t video her. Today I brought my laptop so I could video with my phone. I ended up lying on the floor, and she came and sat right next to me – bonding over YouTube!

She keeps getting more confident in trusting me, and it’s so rewarding. She sat a foot or less from me as I filmed her, and walked right past my hand holding the phone when she walked away. I really enjoy being with her.