July 21, 2021
Day 13
I am tired. Today Mitsy was not in the best of moods. It happens. She had a lot to endure too. I wanted to exchange the foldable table that is under the second crate we prepared, but have not opened yet. I wanted our wooden kitchen table underneath instead. It is more stable and I just like it better. I tried to be as silent as possible and Mitsy stayed in the Nest the whole time without making much of a fuzz. She did not like me pushing the table against Basecamp though, which I understand. and that is the reason I wanted to do this. The foldable table ‘trembles’ when we accidentally touch it and it does not make for a safe space.
After I was done, I left her to her own devices for several hours. At 2pm I had to pop out for some errands, so I refilled her food before I left.
She hissed at me and was close to the front door of Basecamp, but I decided to refresh the food anyway. In the end my body is in the opening and up to now she has not tried to come towards me with aggression. It worked fine, despite the fact that the kittens were out of the Nest, with her.
I then left her alone for awhile and was waiting for her to go into the Nest in the evening so that I could change the litter box. When I had taken the dirty one out, I noticed that there was quite a spill against the back wall of the crate. What to do? Leave it there? How would I even clean it up?
This happened because of a thinking error on my part: I had spread a puppy training pad over the full width of the crate, which meant I could not remove the spill without moving the carrier. NOT an option! At first, Mitsy was watching me from the inside of the Nest, she was with her head in the back and gave me that creepy “Velociraptor” look through the air holes of the Nest. But she was still OK. Then, instead of putting in the clean litter box I decided to hold part of the puppy pad up so that I spill would move into a dustpan. Mitsy was NOT amused, turned around in the carrier and came out hissing, showing teeth. So I decided to let it go. I got some of the spill out and then carefully put the fresh litter box in the crate. I had the wisdom to wear my bite gloves, although I think they are part of her aggressive reaction. She does not like them, I think. Or am I projecting? Who knows, someone with gloves like that may have tried to catch her in the past. Well, good luck with that!
I find it hard to stomach the anger in that little cat. It frightens me. Or is it just fear on her part? I am lucky that there are kittens to distract her. I wonder if she would tolerate all of this if it was just her and me. I think not.
At least we are doing something good for the kittens, I tell myself. They look really healthy and lively. It was funny, I was tinkering with the second crate and two of the grey kittens sat there with mom, in the carrier, their heads held high, eyes pointed to me. I am sure that they are staring to see more clearly and reacting to sounds and visual stimuli. Which is adorable. I need to remind myself that this is why we are doing this: to allow Mitsy to be a dedicated and full-time mom and to produce a bunch of very healthy kittens that will bring lots of joy to their future adopted families.