Well, have you ever heard of witching hour? Did you know that cats go bonkers at that time as well? I know, from now on. It is the hour between midnight and one, when all the crazy ghosts wake up, witches do their invocations, and cats go completely off the deep end.

Yesterday, I was stretching with most of my kittens on the floor, on our carpet, when suddenly a Faith appears. Now, that on its own is common by now, but this time she wandered around the room. You see, the food bowl is right next to the kitchen, so she can just stay in the kitchen almost without having to go into the living, which was what she has done so far. The waterbowl is pretty much the same deal.

She decided to check out all the kitties in the sleeping spots, and check out all the hide-outs under tables and stuff. Meanwhile, I grabbed the opportunity to start a game. Not long after, I had six very intrigued kittens trying to follow the fishing toy I was making go balistic, including a Fey-Fey. Exactly 7 minutes before the clock said it was 1 am, Fey disappeared again and the game was finished. Cats are such bizarre kittens.

Of course, the worst part is that cats go bonkers twice a day, once on Witching Hour and once around 6 am. And tonight...they did it again. Falkie joined us in the bed, as did Fey. They again stole my pillow and part of the matras, walked all over us and pretty much purred us awake. My boyfriend went nuts. It was like two hours before we were going to get up, and we were completely awake, with purring kittens using us as a trampoline and as pillows.

It is seriously time to teach Fey that there are rules in this house. Yes, you may join us in the bed ,but at least be subtle about it. Yes, you may drink water, but no, you may not drink it out of my glass standing next to the bed. Yes, you may sit on the tables in the bedroom, but no, you cannot do that on the tables in the living as food gets served there.

Today we introduced our Fey-Fey to a new game. So far she has been introduced to the blue mouse, the little string, the combo of the two and the method with the box.

This time, I decided to toss a sponge ball her way. Didn't take her long before she went all ga-ga over it. Apparently, our Faith has a knack for whacking balls around. She went so ga-ga that her shelter proved to be too small, and she finally stepped out and went crazy there. Add another type of ball and voila..completely bonkers Fey-Fey. It was quite adorable really. I can tell it is working though, because she is clearly more relaxed as she now gets to channel that stress and release it in a healthy way. Plus, she is having a ball...literally. Her ass and sometimes even the tail went up today, meaning she was no longer afraid 'of the sky falling on top of her' as I've been calling it (Asterix and Obelix, anyone??). She is finally feeling at home in that little room.

She also had another encounter or two with Arwen today. The first one, Arwen sat curiously right in front of the dooropening, watching us (I had opened the door a bit). Fey checked it out for a bit and weirdly enough did something I've been dying for her to do...for all the wrong reasons!
She cuddled me, on her own initiative. She rubbed herself against my legs as she checked out Arwen, and greeted us both with an upright tail (meaning 'hi' in kitty language). Figures that she does that, the moment another cat shows up. I guess I was the familiar thing at that moment, and she wanted to gain some courage from marking me. I'm still waiting for her to do that when I walk in..guess I'll have to be patient ;)

Our baby is progressing, fast! Two days ago, she didn't even know what 'play' was, and now she is playing peekaboo with Arwen en today she proved to me that she is a natural at hunting, and more specifically, at hunting anything that flies!

I have roped myself a toy mouse and have been dangling this thing in front of her, and by now, she has learned that she needs to hold on to her prey with two paws, though she still hasn't figured out how to use her nails best. But the killer bite is definitely present, as is the eagerness and enthousiasm to hunt. She still only hunts from her shelter, and waits for the prey to come near her, but I'm sure that's only a matter of time. I can tell her confidence is already up a notch and that is especially noticable after playtime, when she is still all amped up :)

It is touching to see a kitty, who barely a week ago was an unhappy stressed wild cat, develop into the beautiful kitty she is today. Clearly enjoying playtime, and feeling more at home by the minute, she is turning out to be quite a little beauty who is finally learning the joys of being a kitten. The typical innocence of a kitten which she didn't have upon arrival is at last returning to her eyes. It is amazing to see her worryfree and enjoying the little things in life :) And although she still has a long way to go, she has clearly proven to be up for the task. Hopefully we can get her to bury her fears soon.

This morning we also took a little test to see if she was up to meeting the rest of the colony and the rest of the appartment and most importantly..my boyfriend. Turns out she has no prob with the other cats, and was even thoroughly washed by our Prinny, a sign that she has been accepted (though others might still hiss a bit and keep their distance). She has the blessing of our Prinny, so I expect no real trouble there.

Our baby has an official nick: Fey-Fey. It was bound to happen, as is the case with our other cats as well.

She amazed me today..she's been amazing me for a week now, but today she leaped ahead. This morning nothing had changed just yet. I still have to ask for attention and she will cuddle me, initially terrified, then more relaxed, but other than that, things were pretty much the same.

This evening though...wow. I again saw no difference when I entered, and when I got her to play, which she is finally giving into, but then...I was crazy enough to figure it was time to see what reaction a meeting with other cats would give. I was curious to see how well she got along with other cats, and since she was no longer in a panicky state, I figured it would be ok.

I closed the bedroom door, with in the room Falkie, Trini and Arwen. And then I held Faith when Falkie came sniffing. To my astonishment, she didn't run and hide from him, but was actually tugging to go meet him. Confused, I let her do what she felt like. She ran towards him, sniffed him, left him behind, confused and ran the bedroom in.

There, she happily sniffed the Arwen, who reciprocated by hissing in confusion. She then shared the space underneath the bed with Falkie who didn't seem too bothered by her. When I finally introduced her to Trini, she was not at all impressed by her growling and hissing.

Seems to me, that our Faith has an unhealthy balance of no fear at al whatsoever with other cats and a hysteric fear of people. I put her back in her own room and closed the door. I put her down on the floor, only to find her 'surrendering' by lying down and purring. She proceeded to cuddle and ask for attention, which I looked at in disbelief. She still does not take the initiative though when I walk through the door. I have to have picked her up and cuddled her before she does stick around for attention.

I decided to explain why it is so important for our Faith and cats in general to have some confidence. Basically, it is the same for all species, including humans: confidence is the key for survival, coz otherwise you will never succeed to get what you want, be it food, water, or other goals.

How do you teach your cat confidence? Through play. 'Huh?' is the reaction I get from a lot of people to that answer. Well, it is rather logical if you think about it. Cats are predators. They hunt. That is the key to THEIR survival. A cat who does not know how to hunt, dies in the wild. And how do you learn how to hunt? Through practice aka play. But, much like ourselves, if they do not learn how to play and therefore hunt, they will fail. And much like humans, if they continuously fail...they become insecure, which inhibits their ability to take care of themselves, since they are unable to get food. The moment you cannot take care of yourself, you become scared, confused, hungry and stressed which leads to weakness and illness. And voila...there you have it.

So why should domesticated cats care about hunting? They shouldn't. But they do. It is who they are and how they are wired. Which is why 99 percent of all behavioural problems can be improved by play. Especially if you play with your cat as if they are the most incredible hunter ever. Translation: let them catch the prey often, let them bite it death, and let them enjoy their triomph, and even feed them a treat which can pass for 'killed prey'. This will boost their confidence, and allow them to overcome whatever behavioural problem they have, be it fear, anger, insecurity in strange environments etc etc. And if they do not overcome it, at least they will be better equipped to deal with it and less stressed and generally more happy.