Anna e sóWe found a black kitten in a parking lot near us and we’ve been feeding them every night (this kitten hisses at us if we get too close, so we’re trying to build trust). Today we saw (who we assume are) the mother and the father of the kitten. 🐈⬛
I think mom and dad are too feral, but the kitten may still be in the socialization window.
Void kitten updates:
• He drank from the water we brought for the first time! He was so thirsty tonight!
• I have a feeling he’s more skittish whenever he’s hungry. Once he’s full, he actively asks for pets.
• He purrs so much whenever my spouse and I pet him at the same time. He even let us pet his belly!
• He licked me and bit me very gently to tell me he wanted to play. It was the first time we played together!
I think we’re nearing the time he won’t resist if we bring a pet carrier.
It’s taking void kitten less time to recognize it’s us and not hiss or run away. When we’re about ~30 meters from where he is, we see him poking his little head out to look for us. We gave him plenty of treats for being so brave: not running away whenever someone else passed by (instead choosing to get closer to us for safety); allowing pets less than 5 minutes in. He let my spouse pick him up briefly. In the meantime, we’re looking for pet carriers and a place to have him checked and neutered.
My spouse has never had a cat before, so it’s all new to him. I’ve had a couple throughout my life, but I’ve never rescued one myself. We’re slowly joining a circle of animal rescuers and carers as we started to help a neighbor with feeding about ~40 street cats a few months ago, so we’re confident it’s going to work out.
Void kitten let me pick him up for ~5 min. We're pretty sure he'll do anything for churu—jumping into a pet carrier, letting us clip his claws, etc. We tested some of those waters today, but he's still a little bit scared. We really need to finish our apartment renovations to bring him home safely (we're cat-proofing it too).
Void kitten was waiting for us, recognized us immediately, and showed us his belly for the first time.
We talked to an employee of the place where void kitten usually spends the night—no one has claimed him, and he’s indeed very new to the neighborhood. He was playing with a chicken bone when we arrived, though, lol.
He isn’t the first cat to appear there. She told us both employees and owners took care of another cat for 7+ years; that cat was named Comendador. That only ended because one of the employees moved to another city and asked to take the cat with them. ❤️
We started walking around the neighborhood at night when I had my first anxiety attack last year—there are a couple of pharmacies nearby and we went to look for something that could help me while I waited for an appointment with a psychiatrist. Then we started feeding cats at night, and I started so many medical treatments over the past 6 months I became a frequent visitor of those pharmacies. We found void kitten after coming back from one of those walks to the pharmacy. We had food.
Funny how things like that happen, right? We probably wouldn’t have crossed paths if it weren’t for a whole series of events last year that made me prioritize taking care of myself. And now we care for others—kittens included.
Void kitten now enjoys touching noses with us. And it broke my heart not to bring him home yesterday; I cried so much. We’re going to try to speed things up at our apartment to finally get him off the streets.
Void kitten has been purring louder and louder. He also enjoys resting his chin on my arm as he gets all the pets he needs from us.
Antagônica e Maquiavélica